Love
First of all, let us try to know what love is. If love means to possess someone or something, then that is not real love, not pure love. If love means to give oneself, to become one with everything and with humanity, then that is real love. Real love is total oneness with the object loved and with the Possessor of love. Who is the Possessor of love? God. Without love, we cannot become one with God. Love is the inner bond, the inner connection, the inner link between man and God, between the finite and the Infinite. We must always approach God through love. The first step is love; the second step is devotion; the third step is surrender. First let us love God; then we have to devote ourselves to Him alone; third we have to be at His feet and fulfil ourselves. So if we go throughout our journey with absolute love, we can never fail to reach God or fulfil Him in our own lives or in humanity. Where there is pure love, divine love, there is fulfilment. Where there is no divine love, it is all misery, frustration and finally it is spiritual death. Love is the secret key to open the Door of God.
Sri Chinmoy, AUM — Vol. 4, No.10, 27 May 1969, AUM Centre Press, 1969