Every moment has love in it. Every hour has happiness in it. If you lose it, it becomes memory; And if you live it, it becomes life.
Love
If your path is love, then you must be prepared to be mad. Then who the love is for is not the question; the image of Krishna or the image of Jesus will do, or even an unsculptured piece of stone will do.
A man went to a fakir and said to him, “I want to find God.”
The fakir replied, “The search is very difficult. To find God you will have to make a great leap; so first you begin by practicing small jumps.”
The seeker asked, “How do I take a small jump?”
“Love someone,” said the fakir. “Practice this small jump, and eventually you will be able to take the ultimate leap into God, where you will be utterly dissolved into the infinite void, with no trace of you remaining. Those who come to look for you will not find even your ashes. That is the final jump, but you will have to wait a while before you are ready for that one. It requires great courage, so start with shorter jumps.”
The seeker said, “But I love nobody! All I have been thinking so far is how to get rid of my wife and children so that I can seek God in earnest. And I have always avoided giving anybody even so much as a loving glance, because I was afraid that love will lead me into bondage.”
Certainly, love becomes bondage – if there is ego within you then love becomes bondage. But if there is no ego within, then who is there to be bound? Love becomes our bondage because the one who can be bound is present within. So when love begins to encircle us from all sides, then we begin to get uneasy within. In fact, as long as the “I” is there, love cannot be. All that we call love is only desire, longing, passion and attachment; as long as ego is there, all these bind one.
We have called passion pashvik – animalistic. You are probably not aware of the meaning of this word. It comes from pashu, which means tied; pash means anyone who is tied. And the only one who can be tied is the one who is internally tied. Lovers cannot bind or be bound; hence those who have known love have called it ultimate freedom. They say that love is liberation, because in love you dissolve, so who is there to be bound? Even if bonds are there they will merely hang in the void. Who is there to be bond? And if you try to put the void in bondage, you will end up putting knots in the rope itself, as there is no one to be found within.
So this seeker said to the fakir, “I have lived always in great fear of love, always avoiding it, because love is bondage. And what is this you are teaching me? To love? I have never loved anybody.”
The fakir replied, “Think this over carefully, because to find a man anywhere who has never loved anybody is impossible – no matter how much he may have tried to avoid it. Love is our nature. So close your eyes and try to remember.”
The seeker thought long, and finally he said, “Well, if you are really asking me, I have to confess that I have a cow for whom I feel a little affection!”
“That will do,” said the fakir. “This cow of yours will become your first lesson in jumping. Go and love your cow wholeheartedly. Let her occupy all your attention; let your every pore be possessed by her. Be the cow when you walk, be the cow when you talk – let your whole being be filled with cow!”
“What madness are you teaching?” said the seeker. “What will people say? This is just insanity!”
“Yes,” said the fakir, “love is always insanity. And God in the form of love showers only on those who are ready to be insane and ecstatic. So go now, and try this.”
And it is said that through this cow alone this seeker found God. He never needed to return to the fakir to ask what jump to take next. Looking deep into the eyes of his cow, drowning in them again and again, he recognized the eye of God.
Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.
– Paulo Coelho
