The Bowl of Saki Commentary
Commentary for:
Love lies in service; only that which is done not for fame or name, not for the appreciation or thanks of those for whom it is done, is love's service.
Commentary from Hazrat Murshid SAM (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti, Samuel L. Lewis):
The Bowl of Saki Commentary, copyright © 1981, 2012 Sufi Ruhaniat International. All rights reserved.
The great pity is that so many acts that are done out of real kindness have been interpreted to mean the existence of goodness of personality. Personality, name, and fame are all of mind-nature; they are not of heart-nature. They are of mind-nature, and to ascribe goodness or kindness to mind is contrary to truth and also out of harmony with the teachings of the Holy Ones. Jesus Christ has said that God alone is good, and Mohammed called God the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Love is far more abiding, far more real than name or fame or even personality from a certain view. All things that are discrete things change form, pass away, and are not forever abiding. That which is attached to name and fame can only be self-love. Even if tinged with goodness, kindness, or piety, it lacks vision and contains the seeds of its own destruction. For where there is mind, where there is self and not-self, there is dualism, and where there is dualism there is evil. The self that is kind to another self can be unkind to the other self, but where love has broken the bonds of self, there can never be unkindness, never be cruelty.