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The Value of Mortal Fear 33
Love is fostered and cultivated through giving, says Sai Baba. Real education, spiritual practice and good experiences make the heart tender so that the natural impulse to serve others arises. This precious impulse to give is a divine trait, God’s primal impulse, given to man as a spark, which must be cultivated into the blazing fire of selfless service rendered to all mankind without desire for reward. Sai Baba teaches that in this way love expands, “unto the farthest regions of the universe,”8 to become one with cosmic love, culminating in the transcendence of separateness and the realization of Universal Consciousness.
The mind first creates, and is then humbled by, profound suffering and the stark vision of our aloneness. Searching to transcend mind, we are driven to plead from our hearts for mercy, as we sense no way out of the existential dilemma but by God’s special grace—the gift of love that engenders love. Love soothes, love cures, love transcends all boundaries and separations, enveloping all in oneness.
I said earlier that if God hadn’t created maya, there would be no drama. But then what is the purpose of the drama? Sai Baba has said that all of creation is by and for one purpose: the expression of love. One way of understanding this is the traditional allegory that before duality, God was lonely, needing an object in order to express His love. There had to be both giver and receiver, so He created the delusion of the other. All of creation is built on the strength of this delusion, and transcending it takes an act of grace—an infusion of divine love so great as to awaken our own deepest love and gratitude. Love merges into love; separateness vanishes: God—pure, infinite, unconditional love—is realized.
See in Me yourself . . .
for I see Myself in all of you . . .
You are My life, My breath, My soul . . .
You are all My forms.
When I love you, I love Myself . . .
When you love yourself, you love Me . . .
I separated Myself from Myself so that I may be Myself . . .
I separated Myself from Myself and became all of this
so that I may be Myself.