The Only One by Meher Baba

God is Love.  And Love must love.  And to love there must be a Beloved. But since God is Existence infinite and eternal there is no one for Him to love but Himself.  And in order to love Himself He must imagine Himself as the Beloved whom He as the Lover imagines He loves.

Beloved and Lover implies separation.  And separation creates longing:  and longing causes search.  And the wider and the more intense the search the greater the separation and the more terrible the longing.

When longing is most intense separation is complete, and the purpose of separation, which was that Love might experience itself as Lover and Beloved, is fulfilled; and union follows.  And when union is attained, the Lover knows that he himself was all along the Beloved whom he loved and desired union with; and that all the impossible situations that he overcame were obstacles which he himself had placed in the path to himself.

To attain union is so impossibly difficult because it is impossible to become what you already are!  Union is nothing other than knowledge of oneself as the Only One.

Aches with Love

"I am he that aches with amorous love; 

Does the earth gravitate? 

Does not all matter, aching, attract all matter? 

So the body of me to all I meet or know. "

Walt Whitman

The Story of Love by Kabir

      The story of Love can never be told.

      It is the sherbet of the dumb man

      Who eats it and smiles silently.

      Without any earth and without any seed,

      The tree of Divine Love just grows and grows,

      Heavy with a million radiant fruits

      My Lover picks for me to taste.

      The story of Love can never be told.

      When I calmed my mind

      And entered my heart,

      The Love of the Lord

      Leapt like a flame within me.

      All my old ideas and beliefs

      Just blew away like chaff in the wind.

It wasn’t because of anything I am;

      It wasn’t because of anything I did;

      But only because of His miraculous grace

      That I learned at long last the lesson of Love.

      My coming and going have ended;

      My mind has melted in the Mind.

      Don’t ask me to speak any more—

      The story of Love can never be told.

                                          ---Kabir

On the Nature of Love

From Chaitali (1896)

The night is black and the forest has no end;

a million people thread it in a million ways.

We have trysts to keep in the darkness, but where

or with whom- of that we are unaware.

But we have this faith- that a lifetime's bliss

will appear any minute, with a smile upon its lips.

Scents, touches, sounds, snatches of songs

brush us, pass us, give us delightful shocks.

Then peradventure there's a flash of lightning:

whomever I see that instant I fall in love with.

I call that person and cry: `This life is blest!

For your sake such miles have I traversed!'

All those others who come close and moved off

in the darkness- I dont know if they exist or not.

Translated from Bengali by Ketaki Kushari Dyson.

Love Song by Rilke

How should I hold my soul

so it does not touch on yours. 

How shall I lift it

over you to other things?

Ah, willingly I’d store it away

with some lost thing in the dark,

in some strange still place, that

does not tremble when your depths tremble.

But all that touches us, you and me,

takes us, together, like the stroke of a bow,

that draws one chord out of the two strings.

On what instrument are we strung?

And what artist has us in their hand?

O sweet song.

Like a Seal over Your Heart

Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.

Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.

The Guardians of Beauty

By Hafiz

"We are the guardians of His Beauty 
We are the protectors
Of the Sun.

There is only one reason
We have followed God into this world:
To encourage laughter, freedom, dance
And love.

Let a noble cry inside of you speak to me
Saying, "Hafiz,
Don't just sit there on the moon tonight
Doing nothing -

Help unfurl my heart into the Friend's Mind,
Help, Old Man, to heal my wounded wings!"
We are the companions of His Beauty
We are the guardians
Of Truth.

Every man, plant and creature in Existence,
Every woman, child, vein and note
Is a servant of our Beloved -

A harbinger of joy,
The harbinger of
Light."  

Be Free My Love

Be free my love, 

for you are the essence 

of the song

that has been

played in the heart of every 

man and woman seeking God.

The Lovers

By Rumi

The Lovers
will drink wine night and day.
They will drink until they can
tear away the veils of intellect and
melt away the layers of shame and modesty.
When in Love,
body, mind, heart and soul don't even exist.
Become this,
fall in Love, and you will not be separated again.

Like a Hesitant Bird

Like a hesitant bird who was born in a cage
I stand still contemplating this freedom
What lies beyond this encampment
what lies beyond these barren walls of my heart
Perhaps the possibility of flight
Or finding the current of the wind
or gliding with outstretched wings ?
The gate has long been opened
What are you waiting for ?
Take a plunge into this Limitless Love
There is nothing more to lose
This freedom is your birthright.