True Love Has No Expectations

Sri Saradamma

To follow the path of love and surrender successfully you must love your Guru without any expectation of a reward. If you are loving me or Swamy because you want realization, that is not true love, it is exploitation; you are trying to use us to gain an end. One has to love God, the Self or the Guru just for the sake of love. If there is a hidden desire it cannot be called love. The desire for moksha should be got rid of.

I never wanted realization during my sadhana. I only wanted Swamy. I only wanted to be with him and to think of him all the time. In fact, when Swamy tried to describe the experience of the Self to me I found it most unattractive. I had no desire to be without a mind, to be in a state where I could no longer think about Swamy all the time.

If your motive for surrendering to me is a desire for realization then you are no better than a monkey who pretends to make friends with a man so he can steal a mango which the man is holding. If a monkey has real love for a man, the man may sense it and give him the mango, but if the monkey's eyes are always on the mango, the man will be aware of it and he will never let the monkey close enough to grab it.

Good devotees are hard to find. Many people come here and say that they are surrendering to me or Swamy, but their devotion is only superficial. When they leave the ashram they soon forget us and many of them never return.

I was prepared to die for Swamy if he asked me to. I surrendered to him body and mind, and I couldn't live without seeing him and thinking of him. I have not come across a devotee who has even a small fraction of the love I had for Swamy. I am prepared to give my full love to anyone who surrenders to me, but even when I give all the love I have I only get partial love and a partial surrender in return. Even if you tell me, "I surrender completely to you", I will not believe it. The Guru can see a devotee's state, his readiness for the spiritual path, his thoughts and the state of his mind. Nothing can be hidden from the Guru.