Swami Paramahansa Yogananda

 

My Master said to me: “I will be your friend from now through eternity, no matter whether you are on the lowest mental plane or on the highest plane of wisdom. I will be your friend even if you should err, for then you will need my friendship more than at any other time.”

 

When I accepted my Master’s unconditional friendship, he said: “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.”

 

It was only after we had made this spiritual pact that I began to understand fully the significance of a guru to a disciple. I never found complete satisfaction, comfort, and God contact until I attuned myself with unconditional loyalty and devotion to the divine consciousness of my Guru.

 

Sri Paramahansa Yogananda