Then, Baba looked directly at Irwin and asked if he had a question. Irwin Luck recalled: “There was what I thought was a long pause on my part as my mind was working at high speed. If I had only one question to ask it should be the one that answers all others. But what is that question?”
Baba was patiently waiting for his reply. Irwin then recalled that he had read that Baba once stated: “The one who asks for his love will be the chosen one.” He looked at Baba and said, “Baba, can I have all your love?”
Baba asked the mandali, “Do you experience all my love?”
“Not as the Ocean of Love,” Eruch said.
“A fraction of your love,” said Prem Khilnani.
“Not even a fraction!” answered Ramjoo.
“And do you believe that I am the Ocean of Love?”
“Something more than belief, Baba,” Ramjoo replied.
“Rarely is one given that love,” Baba stated.
Baba looked back at Irwin and asked, “Why shouldn’t I give it to him or her? Why should it be you?”
Irwin said, “Baba, I would like you to give it to whoever you want to, but I would like to experience it, too.”
Baba said, “Why should I give the Ocean to anyone? It is there. Everyone is destined to experience it one day. When I see it is worth giving, I give — the Experience, not the Ocean.”
Baba had just finished distributing chocolates and the empty plastic jar was lying in his lap. He picked up the jar and, as he waved his hand around it, he used the following metaphor to explain:
I am the Infinite, Almighty Ocean of Love, and you are within the confines of this jar — in ignorance — which is in my Ocean. But the jar has a lid on it. So even though you are in the Ocean of Love itself, you cannot experience it because of the lid that separates you and keeps the Ocean from you. All you have to do is remove the lid, and then the Ocean that I am will pour in, and you will immediately experience my Infinite Love and know me as I really am.
In my inalienable Oneness of Love, you cannot expect me to do two things — open and pour. Likewise it is left to you to open your heart and receive love from me.
Irwin was thinking: “If I could have removed the lid, I would have done so. But how can one remove the lid from inside? It takes someone who is free on the outside to remove the lid.” He then realized that was precisely why he had come to Baba. Baba was free and could free all.
Baba continued: “And again, why should I give you or a particular individual the Ocean of Love, which certainly I am, and not to others or to the whole of creation? It is a gift, and it ever remains the gift of grace!”
-www.lordmeher.org, p4706
June, 1960; Guruprasad