Love Is The Basic Principle Of Human Life

Only Love For God Gives Eternal Bliss

Love is the form of God. So, God is full of love. Similarly, man should have a love-to-love connection with his fellow beings. When his love is true and deep, he will experience oneness with them. This is the principle of Advaita.

Divine Love Is Supreme And Eternal

Love is the basic principle of human life. Love forms the basis of not only human beings but all living beings, including birds and animals, and even worms and insects. It is due to their love that dogs and monkeys feed and take care of their young ones. Man is superior to all living beings in the world. The Vedas say, Jantunam Narajanma Durlabham (of all living beings, human birth is the rarest). Even though man has the rarest and the noblest human birth, he degenerates his love into attachment because he directs his love towards worldly relations and objects. He multiplies his love in several ways and develops attachment. But worldly love is impermanent; it is temporary, like passing clouds. The basis of worldly love is outward connections and relationships. The inner love, on the other hand, does not depend on outward worldly connections. This is the love that fills us with Ananda (eternal bliss). But man does not recognize this true love and therefore remains devoid of bliss. He continuously indulges in worldly love and thinks that it is permanent and true. He does not know that permanent divine love is within, which is supreme and eternal.

Love First And Faith Next

A few minutes earlier, Anil Kumar spoke and said that there should be firm faith first and love next. This is not correct. First love, then firm faith. Firm faith cannot exist where there is no love. Love is born with us and is always there within us. Life and love are not separate. But we are subjected to delusions and disappointments because we consider worldly attachments as love. We think that love develops through worldly attachments and develop firm faith in it. This is totally wrong. Firm faith grows step by step when you have love. It is love that unites the whole world, and when once you have experienced divine love, you will grow in faith. The bond of love binds all together. We suffer disappointments in life because we start believing worldly and physical attachments as love.

Happiness Associated With Divinity Is Eternal

Parents today make great efforts to educate their children because they think that by acquiring education, their children will be able to earn money and lead a happy life. But mere bookish knowledge is not enough. One should have practical knowledge which endows one with education for life. What is required in practical life is not mere education but elevation, which provides education for life. Here is a small example.

Once there lived a poor family in a small village. The parents faced great difficulties for the education of their son. After he became a graduate, they decided to perform his marriage. The parents were of the opinion that their son should marry a village girl who was capable of doing household work and was gentle and humble so that she would uphold the honor of the family. But their son said that he was a university graduate and would not marry an uneducated village girl. His mother argued with him and said, “Both your father and I have taken this decision after thinking deeply. You should obey your parents as our sacred texts state that mother is God, father is God. If the village girl comes in our house, she will do household work and I will take rest as I am growing old.” But the son was adamant that he would marry only an educated girl. As the parents did not want to hurt the feelings of their son, they performed his marriage with an educated girl from a town. As the wishes of the son were fulfilled, he exclaimed, “My life is now full of happiness.”

After about 15 days of the marriage, the boy one morning asked his wife to prepare coffee for him. The girl replied, “You are a graduate and I am also a graduate. Why not you prepare coffee for me”? Upon hearing this, the boy thought, “My life is full of darkness.” One day, he felt that his life was full of happiness and another day, he felt that his life was full of darkness. How did this happen? Worldly happiness is like this only. It will be there at one moment and will disappear at the next moment. Everything connected with worldly happiness is full of darkness. Happiness associated with divinity is eternal.

Love And Bliss Are Within, Not Without

There is no spirituality in the life of man today as his heart is full of all sorts of worldly matters. Instead, man should fill his heart with love; he should conduct himself with love and fill his life with love. He should begin and end his life with love. Only then can he realize his true identity with the Atma and recognise that the body is sure to die one day or the other.

Punarapi Jananam Punarapi Maranam, 
Punarapi Janani Jathare Shayanam, 
Iha Samsare Bahu Dustare, 
Krupayapare Pahi Murare.

(Bhaja Govindam)

(Oh Lord! I am caught up in this cycle of birth and death; time and again, I am experiencing the agony of staying in the mother’s womb. It is very difficult to cross this ocean of worldly life. Please take me across this ocean and grant me liberation.)

This world is full of sorrow and misery. Man is caught in the endless cycle of birth and death. Man should therefore consecrate his life by filling it with love, which is very much within him. But man in his foolishness searches for it outside in worldly objects and relationships. Here is a small story to illustrate this foolishness of man.

Once there was a man who had an only son whom he brought up with great care. One day when the son was playing with a ball, the ball rolled into a corner of the room. When the boy tried to retrieve the ball, he was bitten by a scorpion. The boy shouted, “Father, a scorpion has stung me.” However much the father tried, the pain of his son went on increasing. The father could not bear the sight of the suffering of his son and ran to a doctor. The doctor gave him an ointment and told him to rub it on the spot where the scorpion had bitten. When he asked his son to show him the spot where the scorpion had bitten him, the son showed him the corner of the room. As the father lacked intelligence, he rubbed the ointment at the spot shown by his son in the corner of the room instead of applying it on the part of the body of the son affected by the scorpion bite. All the efforts of man to get rid of suffering and attain happiness are like that only.

Man searches for happiness where it does not exist. Love is within man, but he searches for it outside. You may be very intelligent and learned. But you cannot find something outside when it is within you. There was once an old woman who lost her needle when she was mending clothes in her hut. As there was no lamp in her hut and she had cataracts in her eyes, she could not find the needle. She went out and started searching for the needle under a streetlight. A student who was passing in the street asked the old woman, “Grandmother, what are you searching”? The woman replied that she was searching for a needle. The student said, “Tell me where you lost it; I will help you in searching for it”. She replied, “I lost it when I was doing stitching work with it in my hut”. The boy asked, “Why are you searching for the needle in the street which you have lost in your hut”? The old woman said, “There is no lamp in my hut. There is light in the street. Therefore, I am searching here.” See! Lost in the house and searching in the street! This is what man is doing today.

The entire Ananda and love is within him, but he foolishly searches for it outside. External love and happiness are temporary and transient. Relationship with God is eternal and everlasting. The human body is impermanent. How can one derive permanent happiness from the temporary body? We do spiritual practices like Yoga, meditation, and Japa. They also give only temporary satisfaction. Only love for God gives eternal bliss. God is eternal. Divine love is eternal; divine bliss is eternal. We can get eternal bliss by developing a permanent relationship with God, who is eternal and changeless, not with worldly relations like husband-wife, mother-father, brother-sister, etc. Worldly relations are not permanent; they last for a short while. Everybody has to go one day or the other. Nobody is permanent in this world. Only the relationship with God is permanent and everlasting. Man strives hard to earn money; he accumulates wealth. But money and wealth are not permanent. What is the permanent wealth? The wealth of love and bliss is permanent. Man should therefore earn this permanent wealth. When man has the wealth of love, all other types of worldly wealth will also come to him automatically. Whatever man does without love is just a waste. But man attaches high value to his body, which is ephemeral and impermanent. Rather, man should consider noble and elevated thoughts of high value.

So long as there is breath in the body, it is Shivam (auspicious); when the breath goes out, it becomes Shavam (corpse). It is the presence of the Divine in the body which makes it Shivam.

Life Principle In The Body Denotes Divinity

A hunter goes to the forest and kills some rabbits and other animals. When he brings the dead animals to the market, non-vegetarian people buy them for their meat. Some buy them for their skin. But nobody buys the dead body of a human being. A human body has high value when there is life in it. This life is God. Prana (life principle) in the body is Paramatma (God). Prana is Prema Jyoti (supreme light). Life is light. We are mobile so long as the light of life is in us. We live in this world by the value of this divine light. So long as there is light, there is life. So, whatever we do should be pleasing to God. But we do not do so because we perceive everything in a wrong way. Truly speaking, a person who has tasted sweets will not cherish bitter food. Divine love is truly sweet, like nectar. But worldly love only appears to be sweet; in reality, it is sweet poison because it breaks your heart. All worldly matters sever the heart of man. But all hearts are bound together by Divine Love.

Look At The World With The Vision Of Love

Two meters of cloth are required to make a shirt. When you give the cloth to the tailor, he will first cut it with a scissor to make collar, sleeves, pockets, etc. When all these are attached and stitched, it becomes the shirt. The cutting of the cloth into pieces with a pair of scissors signifies worldly life, whereas stitching all the pieces together with a needle is spiritual life. Worldly life is like the scissor which separates while the spiritual life is like the needle which unites. However, just the needle is not sufficient. We need the thread of Prema. We get a garment stitched with the thread of Prema. The eye of the needle is Jnana (wisdom) through which the thread of Prema has to pass to stitch the garment of spiritual life. Human life is beset with many sorrows, problems, and challenges, which is like cutting the cloth into several pieces. When we have God with us, we will be free from all problems, which is like uniting all the pieces of the cloth together and having a garment to protect ourselves. Dharayati iti Dharma (that which sustains is Dharma). We should wear the garment of Dharma. Dharma unites everything and everyone together; it removes all differences. Then we look at the world with the vision of love.

If we do not look at the world with the vision of love, everything will appear to us fragmented and disunited. It is love that unites all the members of the family. Without the bond of love between them, the members of the family are separate from each other. Only love can link them together. Without love, husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters will be separate from each other. Where there is separation, there can be no happiness. That is why families today lack happiness. In olden days, there prevailed a joint family system. But these days, we have nuclear families. Therefore, the happiness that prevailed in joint families is absent in modern families. When ten heads join together, every problem can be solved. We feel confident to face any problem in life when we know that there are many people to help us. It is love and unity between the members of the family which gives them self-confidence. So, love is the basis of self-confidence. Hence, love is very very important. You have faith only when you have love. Love is superior to all other qualities. Jewels are many, but gold is one. Worldly comforts and happiness are like ornaments. We can have these ornaments only when we have the gold of love. Our primary need is love. It is love that fosters firm faith.

Excessive Desires Drown Man In The Sea Of Worldliness

Anil Kumar said, “One cannot learn to swim on road or sand; one must jump into water”. Yes, it is true, you have to jump into water. But you will vanish in water without support. You must support yourself with a tyre or a belt when you jump into water so that you can float on water and do not get drowned. This support is Divine Love. There is a vegetable called bottle gourd. When it is green, it sinks in water, but it floats on water when it is dried. What is the significance of this? When man’s mind is full of worldly desires, he will be drowned in the sea of worldliness. But he can float on water like dried bottle gourd, when he turns his mind towards God and empties his mind of worldly desires. In Vedantic parlance, these two states of mind are called Apeksha and Upeksha (attachment and detachment). The weight of attachments submerges you in water, while the lightness of detachment enables you to float. Even a small nail of iron sinks in water. But when you pound it and make it into a plate, it floats. Even though the plate is large in size, it floats, but a small nail sinks. What is the meaning of this? You float when you transform yourself into a container of pure spirit, but you are drowned when you are heavy with gross worldliness. Man should therefore shape himself into the receptacle of spirituality.

Suppose there is a boat. You can keep the boat in water for any length of time. There is no harm. But the boat will sink if water enters it. There is no harm if you live in the world and engage yourself in worldly life. But do not fill your heart with worldly feelings. Live in the world and carry out your duties. Take care of the family, engage yourself in business or your profession, etc. There is no harm in it. But observe certain limits in all your worldly activities. Live in the world without developing attachment to worldly things. Develop attachment only to God and install Him in your heart. Your heart is not a double-seated sofa; it is not a musical chair. There is only one seat in it; enshrine God in it.

Give First Place To Love In Your Life

Where there is love, there is faith. You cannot have faith without love. When a marriage takes place, the husband declares that she is my wife and develops love for her. Love between the husband and wife is the basis of their faith in each other. But when the husband or wife lacks love for each other, they lose faith, which results sometimes in divorce. Worldly love is temporary. Only divine love is eternal and unconditional. God is Love. Live in Love. Conduct your life with love as the only goal, and then faith will follow automatically. Give first place to love in your life and develop it more and more. Then you will be victorious in all your endeavours. The basis of your victory in life is love.

Worldly love is based on faith. But when faith is broken, love is lost. Love is eternal, but faith is temporary like passing clouds that come and go. So, you should develop love. This may be worldly love, but this should also be free from attachment. The sorrow in the mind is more if there is no love. Love is necessary for freedom from sorrow. All can live in peace if they develop love. Hatred grows where there is no love. Without love, there grow quarrels between man and man. When quarrels increase, the prosperity of the country declines. So, love is necessary for the welfare of the country.

There is nothing superior to love for God. When you have the divine experience of love, you will naturally love all. When your head and heart are free from attachment and desires, you can fill them with divine feelings. As long as your heart is full of worldly feelings, you cannot experience Divinity.

There is a relationship between worldly love and Divine Love. King Parikshit asked his Guru, Sage Shuka, “Gopikas were neither Jnanis nor Yogis. They were illiterate cowherdesses who developed love for Krishna. Then, how could they attain Mukti (liberation)”? Shuka was a pure celibate, but he knew the quality of love very well. He said, “Oh king! There might have been some deficiencies or defects in the Gopikas. But their love for Krishna was like an ocean, and their defects were like a drain. When the drain merges with the ocean, it becomes ocean only. If you mix one cap of water with ten cups of milk, the water will also become milk. If you mix something of low value with another of high value, the value of the thing of low value will also increase. Man has limited value while God has limitless value and love. When you link your limited value and love with the limitless value and love of God, you also become limitless like God. Make efforts to manifest your innate divinity.

Experience Of Swami’s Divine Love Removes Fear

Nothing in the world is more valuable than love. Though Kohinoor is the most valuable diamond in the world, yet love is much more valuable than this. In fact, nobody can ascribe any value to love; it is invaluable. God is Love, Love is God. So, develop love, give up enmity. Then only will you realize the value of love. Do not waste your sacred life in imaginary perceptions. All your perceptions and ability to create are limited. But there is no limit to Divine perceptions and divine creations.

Gopikas asked Krishna, “Can we ever know You? You are the smallest of the small and the biggest of the big. You pervade all the 84 lakh species of the world. You are not separate from them at all.” There are a large number of people in this hall. But all of you are listening with attention to the Message of Swami. Even though you have different bodies, minds, and intellects, Swami’s Message is one in all your hearts. You are listening to Swami’s Discourse in unison.

Swami’s Love is the Divine magnet that has drawn you all here, to this place. When you experience this love, all your life will be steeped in love. When the world becomes love-laden, then there will be no place for worry or fear. Man today is stricken with fear, which pervades everywhere. There is fear at home, there is fear in the car, there is fear in the plane, there is fear in the train. Man’s life today is full of fear. He is caught in the Padmavyuham (lotus-shaped military formation) of fear and does not know how to come out of it. Are difficulties and tears his only reward in life? Fear alone is the lot of the man who has no refuge or help. Love for God is the correct way to get rid of fear.

(Bhagawan brought His Discourse to a close with the Bhajan “Prema Mudita Manase Kaho Rama Rama Ram”.)

– Bhagawan’s Discourse in Sai Sruthi, Kodaikanal on 25th April 1996.