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Mind is what we want it to be,

peace and restlessness are both our own creations.

Man binds himself with his own chains

and so he is always at liberty to become free of the mind.

1967

44. Love.

What gift is greater than love?

And still you ask – What have I given?

Oh, mad one!

When love is given

there is nothing left to give,

not even the giver,

for to give love is to give oneself.

You have given yourself,

now where are you?

Having lost yourself,

now you are bound to find

the one you have been longing to meet.

Now she has been born,

and I am a witness to it,

I have watched it happen.

I can hear the music that you are going to be.

The other day, when your heart was close to me,

I heard it.

Intellect knows of the present

but for the heart the future is also the present.

1968

45. Love.

I received your letter.

The time of my birth will have to be looked up.

I think the day was the eleventh of December,

but even this is not certain.

But tell your astrologer friend not to worry;

the future will simply come,

there’s no point in worrying about it.

Whatever happens – ultimately it is all the same.

Dust returns unto dust

and life disappears like a line drawn on water.

My regards to everyone.

46. Love.

It is a long time since I received your letter,

you must be tired of waiting for a reply.

Still, patient waiting has its own joy.

On the path to God,

timeless waiting is the true sadhana.

Waiting and waiting and waiting.

And then,

just as a bud blooms,

everything happens by itself.

You are coming to Nargol, aren’t you?

My regards to all.

47. Love.

I was glad to receive your letter.

Truth is unknown,

and to know it one has to die to the known.

Once the banks of the known are left behind

one enters the ocean of the unknown.

Be brave and take the jump!

Into emptiness, the great emptiness!

Because that’s where God lives.

Love to all,

or to the only one!

For only the one is.

He alone is.

He is in all.

He is in all and in the emptiness also.

48. Love.

I have your letter and your question.

Wherever I is there is a barrier;

In fact, the I-attitude is the one and only barrier,

so sleeping, waking, sitting, walking –

always be aware of it;

see it,

recognize it

and remember it

wherever and whenever it comes,

for recognition spells its death.

It is not the truth

but just a dream,

and as soon as one becomes aware of dreaming

the dream vanishes.

Dreams cannot be renounced –

how can you give up that which is not?

To be aware of it is enough.

Ego is man’s dream, his sleep,

so those who try to renounce it

fall into yet another illusion.

Their humility, their egolessness

are simply more dreams –

like dreaming you are waking whilst still dreaming.

Don’t fall into this trap.

Just keep in mind one thing:

Wake up and see!

Regards to everyone there.

49. Love.

I am so happy to have got your letter.

Can even a ray of love ever come

without the fragrance of joy?

And what is joy but the fragrance of love?

Yet the world is full of mad people

seeking happiness their whole lives –

but with their backs turned towards love!

The doors to God only open

when love turns into the prayer of our total being.

But perhaps his doors are already open,

yet eyes closed to love

will, even so, never be able to see them.

And what is this you write? momentary contact?

No! No! How can love’s contact be so?

Love turns even a moment into eternity.

Where there is love

there is nothing momentary,

where there is love

there is eternity.

Is a drop just a drop?

No! No! It is the ocean!

The drop seen through eyes of love becomes the ocean!

50. Love.

I have got your letter.

I know well how your soul thirsts;

soon it can be quenched –

you are right at the brink of the lake.

You only have to open your eyes,

and I can see that the lids are about to lift.

I shall be with you then,

always with you,

so don’t worry.

Be patient and wait;

the seed takes its own time to break and bloom.

Give my regards to all.

More when we meet.

51. Love.

I have received your letter and your questions.

About death I have remained quiet on purpose,

because I want to awaken inquiry about life.

Those who ponder over death reach nowhere.

Because, in fact, how can death be known without dying?

Hence, the total outcome of such thinking

is either a belief that the soul is immortal or

that the end of one’s life is a total end, nothing remains after that.

They are both mere beliefs.

One belief is based on the fear of death,

the other on the end of the body.

I want man not to get entangled in beliefs and opinions,

because that is not the direction to experiencing, to knowing.

And what else can be found by thinking about death

but belief systems and dogmas?

Thought never takes one beyond the known.

And death is unknown.

Hence, it cannot be known through thinking.

I want to turn your attention towards life.

Life is – here and now.

One can enter it.

Death is never here and now –

either it is in the future or in the past.

Death is never in the present.

Has this fact ever come to your attention,

that death is never in the present?

But life is always in the present – neither in the past

nor in the future.

If it is, it is now; otherwise it never is.

Hence it can be known, because it can be lived,