Love--many people say that they know love. We also repeat now and then that God is love, our soul is of the same essence as that of God, love is innate in our soul, and the way back to God is also through love. Love is innate in our soul and it requires somebody to love and to be loved by somebody. This is a natural desire of everybody. Our soul is a conscious entity and it should have love for all Consciousness or God. Instead, it has been attached to worldly or material things. The result is, wherever you have love, there will you go. The soul should love God, who is the very Controlling Power in this temple of the man-body. It has been attached to the body and its environments, the outgoing faculties and enjoyments of all lusts outside. This is the reason why we have become enslaved. We are coming again and again to where we are attached. If our soul is attached to God, who is the Controlling Power within this man-body, who is eternal and even beyond eternity, it will become free and will not be subject to bondage. So the difference between true love and lust is that true love cannot be broken even after leaving the body. This love is developed in the body but absorbed in the soul, not in the body and its environments. So this is called true love or charity. The other is called lust or attachment and there is a vast difference between the two. Love of God makes us free, makes us all joy, all happiness, all bliss. Lust or attachment enslaves us, it makes us very narrow minded. In the worldly way, if you love somebody, you will be envious if another person shares that love, but those who love God will also be loved by you, because they love God. So the love of God gives you love for all the world over. Love of the outside things will only make you narrow minded, close fisted, and the result is, one lives for God, the other lives for the world.

    Ever since we left the Home of our Father, we have been attached to outside things, because our love has been misfitted to the worldly things, the physical body and outside environments. So what is the criterion of true love, or charity? It starts from the body, but absorbs the attention into our soul and higher self. The other just keeps you attached to the physical body and outward environments. To meet with your own wishes is no love, in the true sense of the word. That love gives you bondage and slavery.
Ever since we left the Home of our Father, we have been going around and around, and have not yet found our way back. There is a story of one Majnu, who was a lover of Laila. Laila was a princess and she was everything to him. Among the Mohammedans, there is a title that is given to one who is most devoted to God. Once Majnu was asked to whom should this title be given. He said that the best suited person was Laila, whom he loved. He was so much devoted to her that once he was seen licking the feet of a dog that had been roaming in the street where his Laila lived. One lesson we can derive from this is that if we are devoted to God or to the God-in-man, then we must love each other. This is but natural. But any love which is coloured with your personal interest or selfish motives makes you narrow minded. You would like that the person whom you love should be loved by you and nobody else. But if you have true love for God, then naturally all who love God will be loved by you. This is the vast difference between the two. So when Majnu was told that Laila had died, he said, "No, she cannot die--how can she die?" When he was told that she was truly dead, he said, "Is it true then? That happens to every man who lives and why should I love a thing that is not lasting!" So he turned, you see, to the right way.

    So love is love, which is with God, all Consciousness. Even when you leave the body, that love won't leave you. Love for the world, outer attachments, to meet with your own wishes or purposes, is lust or attachment, not love. One prophet said that love is like a bridge to cross over the river underneath. It is only for the purpose of crossing, not to remain on the bridge. So your love for the God-in-man is for crossing the bridge, to be attuned by His company, where naturally the love of God is radiated. If you are receptive to it, then your love is true. If you are attached to the physical body and outward attachments, that is no love. Love is blessed if directed to the God overhead, all Consciousness. If it is directed to the physical body and its attachments, it is bondage, it is slavery, it is attachment. You come again and again to the world where you are attached. This is the difference between the two. Guru Amar Das said, "Let us love the God-in-man, because He is overflowing with the love and intoxication of God. In His company, you will have the radiation of the love of God". That will give a boost to your soul and direct it towards God. It is the true criterion to find out whether you love the God-man's body only for the God in Him. If you love the God in Him (His body is blessed of course), then that is the bridge to cross over the ocean of the world to our Beloved.

    So love is innate in our soul and we are conscious beings. If it is directed to all Consciousness, it is true love. That will give you freedom, all bliss and all joy. If it is attached to the worldly things, the physical body, its environments, the enjoyments of outward faculties, then that is bondage and a sure way of coming again and again to the world where you are attached. So love is good. Even poison is very good if you take it in small doses to help you. But if you misuse it, then you will die. True love, which will help you, should be directed to God or to the God-in-man, for the sake of the God in Him, not the physical body. Then you are saved, otherwise you are doomed, I would say. It is a very delicate subject. We should see where we stand, where we are going. These things are referred to in the books, though they are not very clearly put. So now, what is love should be clear to you.

    Love is innate in our own self but with all that, we are attached to the world because it has been misfitted. Instead of being attached to God, who is all Consciousness, it has been attached to the physical body and the world. Love is a bridge to cross over the ocean of life, from this physical world to all Consciousness. If this love is directed to the worldly things, you will be attached to the world. It should be directed to God or to the God-in-man, the human pole at which God is manifested. He is overflowing with the love of God and the intoxication of that love. By sitting near Him, you will have the radiation of that love and naturally you will begin to love God. If you go to a man who sells perfume, and if he does not give you anything, you will still have the aroma of perfume, free of any cost. If he gives you a phial full of perfume, then ...... ? So the society of a God-in-man gives you perfume, love of God, by radiation. He gives you a contact within your own self by directing your attention from outside to the God in you. He gives you a contact and what more is wanted? Love of the God-in-man for the sake of the God in Him is love of God. If you love the God-man for the sake of His physical body, that is still attachment. The love of the God-man is a bridge to cross over into the Beyond, mind that! It is a very delicate subject, as I told you before. We have to judge how we are proceeding. If every day our love for God grows more and more, and becomes, more dear as compared to anything else in the world, that is love for God. Even if you are loving God, and your worldly things are more dear to you than compared with God, then that is not, so far, love of God. One is attachment, bondage, slavery, and the other is freedom, all joy, all bliss.

    It is better to have the company of someone who is imbued with the love of God, rather than have the company of those who are imbued with the love of the worldly things. If you can't get such a society, you can have the society of those who are after the love of God, not the love of the worldly things. If you can't have that, then live in your Master speaking through books, that's all. Live to your own self, just in the company of the Masters who came in the past and who are speaking through books. This will help you to go back to your true Home. But still, as God is unsaid, love is also unsaid, I would say. The more you go into it, the more it widens like God, who has no end. One poet has said, "Love is an Ocean, a limitless Ocean, without any shore". You can dedicate your life to Him, to His mercy. Initiation, the Word of God, the Shabda or Naam Power, is within you and that is the true society of the Saint. A Saint is the Word made flesh. For the sake of the Word, you love Him. If you have developed that way in the man-body, you are fortunate, you have derived the full benefit of having the man-body. If otherwise, you have made your arrangement to come back again and again.