Meher Baba says, you begin by loving Me. People ask me questions about how to love Baba. They never ask a question about how a young man started loving a young girl, or how a man has love for his parents or his friends or relatives and others. He never asked himself where this love comes from. It comes automatically. But when the question of Meher Baba's love comes up, he says, "I do not know how to love." Or he says that Baba is not present. These are really excuses. A man may be sincere in putting forth these excuses but they really amount to excuses, nothing else. If he has the will he can do it straight away. All the Christians in the world, millions of them who love Christ, Saint Francis who loved Christ, they were not contemporaries. How is it that Francis had that deep love for Christ? Baba says that "if you have for Me the love that Saint Francis had for Christ, you will not only realize Me, you will please Me." So was Christ present in the body when Saint Francis started loving Him? When Mira started loving Krishna, was He alive? How is it that she fell in love with Krishna so much? So it depends upon us to create that love. We have to live in the atmosphere. We have to attune ourselves to it. And Meher Baba shows a very simple way - just to remember Him all the time. Not to sacrifice your work, not to be impractical in your life; you may occupy yourself in any profession, vocation, or service you are in. Be a perfectly practical man of the world but don't waste spare moments - remember Him. In anything that we do there are spare moments of our life that we waste. We have to remember Him, create an atmosphere, and then read of Him, think of Him, contemplate upon Him, meditate upon Him, talk with the persons who have had long contact with Meher Baba, and just keep His company all the time. And that will give you an opportunity which Meher Baba calls sahavas - a contact.

Meher Baba gave sahavas and He gave great importance to sahavas. He called for so many congregations of thousands to be held at Meherabad which He called sahavas. And out of that sahavas many things would be created. So out of this sahavas, out of our constant company with Him, love could be wakened. Someone comes and says. "No sir, this is not possible by me; I do not know what you are talking about; I cannot create that atmosphere at all; I've got many mental occupations and I'm a worried man; I'm a man who has to look after many things and it is not possible for me to remember Meher Baba all the time." And yet the man is very sincere. He wants to have love of Meher Baba; he wants to know about Meher Baba; he wants to be blessed by Meher Baba; yet he says he's very foreign to Meher Baba's love. What should he do?

Then I suggest on my own an alternative and it is very practical indeed. As I say, you have your will, you have the force of your will. So what do you do? Keep aside the fact of love altogether, don't bother about your love for Meher Baba or His love for you at all. Just do one thing. Obey Him. Take a decision now, right now - that from now onwards, you're to obey Him. What should you do? As I said, the things are very simple. He has asked you to give up a few things - like promiscuity, illegal gain of money, demonstration and display of your own ego wherever you go. Try to be unselfish, try to cast aside your selfishness, slowly and gradually. This is nothing but obeying Meher Baba.

This is the essence of all religions. There are many, many good things in religions, but there are certain ideas and thoughts which are such a monopoly for one religion that it hates another religion and tries to fight the ideas of other religions - as if all religions did not stem from the same truth and from the same God! It is absolutely a fallacy. It's very wrong on our part to say that one religion is greater than another religion. Meher Baba says all religions are the same; they come from the same truth; they are preached by the same Avatar. As a matter of fact it is the same Avatar who was Rama, who was Krishna, who was Buddha, who was Christ, Mohammed, and Meher Baba. There are not two Avatars at all. We are very fortunate to have come within the vicinity of Him. So take a decision that "I will obey Him" if you are serious.

Baba says, that love is a gift from the Master to man, but obedience is a gift from the disciple to the Master. What a great thing that is and Baba loves it very much. If you really obey then I can not think why it should not move the heart of the Avatar to give you that love, when the time comes.

So I have no excuse left for me to say that I am not able to do it. I have the will, but I have to exercise the will. If I say no, I'm not able to do this, my will is too poor, I'm so much occupied in my life; that means I do not want to do it. Then better not talk about Baba, not listen about Baba, don't attend Baba's meeting, go your own way altogether and never dream of calling