The journalist asked, “Could you speak of love, sir? What do you mean, when you speak of love?”
Baba, in turn, asked:
Love? What is love? First of all, here is my beloved, and naturally I love him. I love the beloved. Now, what is that love, love for the beloved? It means I give everything for the beloved – give up everything, wanting nothing in return. I just want to give, I just want to give my beloved everything, make him happy, make him pleased. I want to give everything even at the cost of my own pleasure. That is called love.
But this giving and this seeking the pleasure of the beloved takes one to such an extreme extent that the lover is prepared even to give up his whole life – sacrifice his whole life for the beloved. That is the sublimity of love: wanting nothing in return! Baba does not want anything in return.
Now the worldly love, the love that a man has for a woman, that is also love. The lover wants to give happiness to the woman, or the woman wants to give happiness to the man, but there is some selfish motive of possession in it. That is possessive love. The love of the world – a man loving a woman or a woman loving a man – has some aspect of love, but it is possessive. It wants something, craves for something.
Here, the love for the Beloved, divine love – there are degrees of course in this divine love also – wants Union. The aim of the lover is to have union with the Beloved, and when that love reaches its zenith then the lover does not want anything, not even Union with the Beloved. There is no question of possessing anything or wanting anything, only giving.
-Lordmeher.org, p5096
Photo source: http://www.avatarsabode.com.au/significance_and_history_of_avatars_abode.html