I received your letter when I got back.
I could feel the ardor of your heart through your words.
I well know the fervor that stirs your soul
and the thirst that turns into tears within you.
I was once there too, I too have suffered it.
I can well understand your heart because I have traveled
those same paths you now have to take in the quest for God.
I too have experienced the longing
that one day turns into a raging fire
in which one has to consume oneself.
But this burning brings the birth of a new life.
The drop can only become the ocean
when it ceases to exist.
Continue your efforts in meditation;
you have to go deeper and deeper into it –
it is the only way.
Through it and it alone can one reach life’s truth.
Remember:
If you become absorbed in sadhana,
fully committed and surrendered,
you are bound to reach the truth.
This is an eternal law.
No step taken towards God is ever wasted.
My regards to all.
19. My respects to you.
Your letters were received.
I have just got back from a camp at Ranakpur.
It was just for friends from Rajasthan,
that’s why you weren’t informed.
It lasted five days and about sixty people participated.
It was a wonderful success
and it was obvious that much happened.
Encouraged by the results
the organizers are planning a camp on an all-India basis.
You must come to that.
I am glad to hear your meditation is progressing.
You have only to be silent.
To be silent is everything.
Silence does not mean absence of speech,
it means absence of thoughts.
When the mind quietens down
it becomes linked to the infinite.
Don’t do anything,
just sit and watch the flow of thoughts, just watch.
This just watching dissolves thought by itself.
The awakening of witnessing
brings freedom from the modifications of the mind.
With thoughts finished, consciousness is.
This is samadhi.
Love to all friends.
1965
20. Love.
Last night when lamps and lamps
were lit up all over town
I thought: My Sohan, too, must have lit lamps
and a few among them must surely be for me!
And then I began to see the lamps you had lit,
and also those your love has kept lit always.
I shall stay here another day.
I have talked of you to everybody
and they are eager to meet you.
21. Beloved!
Your letter came, and your photo too.
You look really simple and innocent in it!
Such love and devotion!
The heart when purified by love turns into a temple
and I can see this clearly in your photo.
May God help this simple innocence grow!
Two thousand years ago someone asked Christ:
Who can enter the kingdom of heaven?
Jesus pointed to a little child and said:
Those whose hearts are as innocent as a child’s.
Looking at your picture today, I remembered this story.
22. Love.
I have only just arrived here, the train was five hours late.
You wanted me to write as soon as I got here
so I am doing so.
Throughout the journey I thought of you
and of the tears falling from your eyes.
Nothing in the world is more sacred
than tears of love and joy.
Such tears, so pure, are not of this world.
Though part of the body,
they express something which is not.
Whatever can I give you in return?
23. Love.
I looked for your letter as soon as I got here yesterday.
Though it was Sunday, I kept waiting for it.
It came this evening –
how much you write in so few words!
When the heart is full it pours into the words
and so few are needed.
An ocean of love can be contained in just a jug!
As for scriptures on love –
it is enough to know the four letters of the word!
Do you know how many times I read
through your letters?
24. Love.
Your letter arrived this morning.
The garland you have weaved
from flowers of love
has a fragrance that I can catch!
And the love-vine you have sown
spreads through my heart!
The tears of your love and joy
bring light and strength to my eyes!
How blissful it all is!
25. Love.
I am in bliss.
It was good that you met me in Bombay,
my heart was overjoyed to see what is happening in you.
This is how a person prepares
and moves along the stairway towards truth.
Life is a dual journey:
one journey is in time and space
the other is within oneself and truth.
The first ends in death
the second in deathlessness.
The second is the real journey
because it takes you somewhere.
Those who take the first journey as it, waste their lives.
The real life begins the day you start
the other journey.
A really good beginning
has taken place in your consciousness
and