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32 SPIRIT AND THE MIND
alone and trembling on the brink of oblivion—which is at the same time the brink of infinity. To give him the new support that he needs, the “courage to renounce dread without any dread . . . only faith is capable of,” says Kierkegaard . . . . “not that faith annihilates dread, but remaining ever young, it is continually developing itself out of
the death throes of dread.” (Kierkegaard)6
TRANSCENDENT LOVE
From my experience with Sathya Sai Baba I have found love—an extraordinary selfless love, little-understood by the behavioral sciences —as being the primal cure which transforms consciousness and removes mortal fear. Sai Baba teaches that love is far more than a poetic idea or a psychological experience. It is in fact the very nature of creative energy, creating and sustaining everything in the universe in balance. Love underlies the cosmic force of attraction between electrons and protons, as well as the gravitational force governing oceanic tides and the celestial paths of stars. It is the force, the power, the process, the means by which we reach beyond our furthest boundaries to merge and become one with others. In its purest unconditional form it created all of “this.” Suffering is the existential challenge—love is the answer.
Love is a much-misused word. Any positive response or attraction is called love; any feeling of attachment, however trivial or transitory is characterized as love. We must certainly coin new words or set aside specific words to indicate different forms of love.
The attachment of parents to their children or of children to parents is called affection. The response to sexual attraction is best described as fancy, fascination or delusion. The feeling of kinship or comradeship evokes dearness. The pleasure one gets through a sense of possession, especially of material objects can be known as satisfaction. The yearning to reach for the sublimity that lies inherent in truth—this alone is entitled to be called by the holy word, love. For, that is the sweetest, the most charming, the most satisfying possession of man. Love is strong and steady enough to overcome all obstacles, confront with equanimity all changes of fortune and defeat all attempts to delay or deviate.7