The great love only knows giving

Anand means bliss, salama means peace. Bliss can have two expressions: either it can be an ecstasy, overflowing, or it can be silence, peace, stillness. If bliss flows outward it is ecstatic. If it simply remains in then it is peace, and peace is a higher state than ecstasy. Even if one has attained to ecstatic joy, one has to go one step more, because one cannot remain in ecstasy forever; it tires. All kinds of excitement are tiring; although this is spiritual excitement, still it tires. It can’t become a permanent state; you cannot live in it forever – you will have to rest. But one can be in peace forever, so that seems to be more natural. Sufis are ecstatic – they dance, they sing. Buddha sits silently. There is no visible dance, there is no visible song, but there is utter peace. Even dance has been transcended. Even song has disappeared into silence. So the dance that dances not is the highest, and the song that remains silent is the greatest – that is the song of the songs. But one has to begin with ecstasy. The right procedure is to begin with great ecstasy – dance, song, expression – and then slowly slowly to let all disappear into bliss. Prem means love, azima means great – great love. The small love is a bargain; the great love is a sheer gift. The small love is always trying to get more than it gives; the great love simply gives with no idea of getting anything back. When love is small it is always conflict, because two parties are continuously haggling, bargaining, trying to give less and get more; hence the constant conflict between lovers. It is not because of love, it is because of the small love. The small love is only love for the name’s sake. The great love only knows giving. Not that nothing comes back – a thousandfold it comes back, a million-fold it comes back, but that is not the motivation. If it comes it is a surprise to the great lover; if it doesn’t come there is no grudge. If it comes it always comes as a surprise, because one was not waiting for it. If it doesn’t come there is no question, because one was not waiting for it; nothing has gone wrong. There is never frustration with great love. With great love there is always fulfillment, always and always. The small love continuously leads one into frustration. It is because of the small love that millions of people down the ages have decided to renounce the world, relationship, wife, husband, children, and to escape to the caves, to the monasteries, to hide somewhere. They are really renouncing the small world of small love. They are tired of it, they are finished with it, and they don’t know that there is another kind of love and that escaping to the caves is not going to help; they will remain small. They can be in the Himalayas but their minds will remain the same minds as they were when they were in the marketplace. Renouncing the world brings no transformation, but renouncing the small love certainly brings transformation. So slowly slowly one has to grow into giving. A moment comes when the gestalt changes, when you simply give and you are joyous because your gift has been accepted. In that moment love starts taking on the colour of prayer. And unless love becomes prayer, we have not lived it truly. Unless love becomes prayer, we will not know the mystery of life, because love is the key that unlocks the door.