As we made our way to the stone balcony of a house overlooking the
Ganges, he said affectionately:

"I will give you my hermitages and all I possess."

"Sir, I come for wisdom and God-contact. Those are your treasure-troves
I am after!"

The swift Indian twilight had dropped its half-curtain before my
master spoke again. His eyes held unfathomable tenderness.

"I give you my unconditional love."

Precious words! A quarter-century elapsed before I had another
auricular proof of his love. His lips were strange to ardor; silence
became his oceanic heart.

"Will you give me the same unconditional love?" He gazed at me with
childlike trust.

"I will love you eternally, Gurudeva!"

"Ordinary love is selfish, darkly rooted in desires and satisfactions.
Divine love is without condition, without boundary, without change.
The flux of the human heart is gone forever at the transfixing touch
of pure love." He added humbly, "If ever you find me falling from
a state of God-realization, please promise to put my head on your
lap and help to bring me back to the Cosmic Beloved we both worship."