To My Beloved Baba I have witnessed the divine sport in my own life. I have embraced the Beloved One. I have wept in his lap, and he has wept upon my shoulder. He has called me his most intimate one. He has call me his friend. He has been both father and mother to me, yet has rested in my lap like a child. I have washed his feet and placed flowers there. I have seen in him shining the most ancient glorious One. When the emptiness of this vain world had sickened me unto death, behold! I found him waiting for me. He gave a new name to the new child born by his grace. He gave me his cloth to wear. He begged my simple song and my tears, the only gifts I had, and on receiving them his wide heart ascended to where the angels sing, nay, to the very One of whom they sing. Truly shall my heart ever flow with love for him. Truly shall I transcend all sorrow, for the guru lives in my heart. What song can sing that unlimited love ? He has given to my thirsty soul the word of life. He has written it upon my very tongue, and it has become like the sea to which life's river is ever flowing. I have beheld him in his chamber weeping with love for that One God. I have beheld him there, weeping with love for me, his child. Ah! How my Lord does weep! Do not the very stars shake with the tenderness of his tears? My heart breaks and melts to feel the depth of his sweet passion! What else could claim me but the tears of him for whom my own heart wept? I have seen him roar like a mighty lion! I have felt the power of his single-minded passion, which casts aside the vain and trifling veil of man's illusions, announcing in a steady tone the unity of God! Where the forces of confusion and doubt did gather to shatter asunder the quest of my heroic aim, I have heard his fearless voice like thunder shout, "Arise! Arise! My son, you shall attain!" And soft and tender like a gentle mother has he fed me sweets and milk with his own hand. My soul has nestled close to where that fountain flows. Truly there is nothing he has withheld. Just as I gave myself to him completely, so he has given his all embracing heart to me. And now the river of my heart just flows! Listen! How the birds sing the song of life's love! Through the gentle hills and valleys, down the mountain and across the plains, uniting earth and wide blue sky together, Ah! how this lovely river flows! Singing with a rushing roar, murmuring with delight, quiet as the depth of night it flows! It ever flows! Its waters are eternal, its path is ever new, and its song, its joyous song, is of the sea it flows to, the Beloved, the perfect life divine! Guru! God! Oh, God! Oh Guru! Receive the waters of my love into the ocean that you are. It is the guru's love I sing of! I sing the song of his unceasing grace! Premananda - 24 March 1974, New Delhi