.

Fifty years passed; the envelope remained with Macmillan as it was –

sealed.

Someone asked him the reason for this and he replied:

For one thing I want to keep faith with the unknown sender,

and for another, I have never given up hope.

What priceless words! – I have never given up hope!

82. Love.

I am delighted you have taken sannyas.

A life without the flower of sannyas is like a barren tree.

Sannyas is the supreme music of life.

It is not renunciation, on the contrary, it is life’s highest enjoyment.

Someone who finds diamonds and pearls is not going to bother

about pebbles and stones.

But note – he does not renounce them, interest simply drops away.

83. Love.

Thought is man’s strength

but blind belief has robbed him of it,

that is why he has become weak and impotent.

Think fully,

think tirelessly,

for amazingly enough the state of no-thought

is achieved only at the peak of thought,

it is the culmination of thought,

and at this point all thought becomes useless.

In this emptiness, truth lies.

84. Love.

All crutches bar the way.

Shun all support and then you will receive his.

He is the only help for the helpless.

There is no other guide but him –

all other guides are obstacles on the path.

If you want to reach the master avoid all teachers.

Don’t be afraid to make yourself empty

for that alone is the door,

that alone is the path –

and that alone is the destination.

The courage to be empty

is all that is needed to become one with the all.

Those who are full stay empty,

and those who are empty become filled –

such are his mathematics.

Do not consider doing anything –

through doing you can never reach him,

nor through chanting,

nor through austerity,

for he is already here!

Stop and see!

To do is to run,

not to do is to halt.

Yes! If he were far away we could run to meet him,

but he is the nearest of the near!

If we had lost him we could search for and find him,

but to us he has never been lost!

85. Love.

I am glad to have received your letter.

The I is not to be given up because how can you drop that which is not?

The I has to be looked into, understood.

It is like taking a lamp to search for darkness –

the darkness vanishes!

Darkness cannot be stamped out because it doesn’t exist.

You just have to bring a light and darkness is unmasked.

It is the same with your thoughts – do not fight with them.

The effort to be free of thought

comes itself from a thought.

Know your thoughts, watch them, be aware of them,

then they quieten down without difficulty.

Witnessing finally leads to emptiness, and where there is emptiness –

there is the all.

86. Love.

Why does man suffer so much?

Because in his life there is pandemonium

but no soundless music.

Because in his life there is a babble of thoughts

but no emptiness.

Because in his life there is a turmoil of feeling

but no equanimity.

Because in his life there is a mad rushing around

but no stillness which knows no directions.

And finally, because in his life there is much of himself

but of God, nothing at all.

87. Love.

The time is ripe.

The hour draws nearer every day.

Innumerable souls are restless.

A path has to be created for them.

So hurry!

Work hard!

Surrender totally!

Forget yourself!

Plunge into God’s work like a madman.

Here, only madness will do –

and there is no greater wisdom

than such madness for God.

88. Love.

Non-attachment is not concerned with things

but with thoughts.

Non-attachment is not related to the outside

but to the within.

Non-attachment is not to do with the world

but with oneself.

One day a beggar went to see a Sufi fakir