God is Love, Live in Love

In one of the His Divine discourses, Bhagavan declared that He is the richest person in the world, nay, in the universe itself, richer than Kubera, the Lord of wealth. Swami further clarified that His richness does not consist of money or materials; the most valuable asset of Baba is Love. He is the embodiment of Love itself.

The whole world is an expanse of love enveloping all the living beings, one-way or the other. Even the most dry hearted human being or for that sake even any wild animal exhibit sparks of love in their own way. Such love may be of selfish nature with attachment or bondage to their kith and kin or to outside people who are admired or revered. It is only the consistent spiritual sadhana which slowly and steadily leads us up to a level in which we are able to transcend the narrow frontiers of selfish love into the vast expanse of divine love enveloping the whole of humanity. ‘Premaswarupullara’ addresses Swami very often, while delivering Divine discourses to the gathering. Because, this is the real nature of mankind.

Swarm’s advent of this present Avatar hood is to regenerate the mankind, with the human values informing both our view and way of life. As all of us know, what these values are viz.,, Sathya, Dharma, Shanthi, Prema and Ahimsa. If only the prime value of universal Prema is fostered and developed in our life, it will be very easy and almost automatic to develop the other values. How do we go about it ? According to Bhagavan it is very simple; it only requires a degree of earnestness in our efforts. Man is by very nature love personified. But the self and the desires of the self have come to grip our thoughts and actions in our lives, past and present. Our efforts, therefore, should be, to purify our chitha by removing the accumulated dirt slowly so that the ever present quality of love surfac es in all our thoughts and deeds. Swami is, in fact, making us aware of the inherent LOVE in us by subtle methods of spiritual sadhanas inculcating in us.

To develop universal love, we have to first realize that the universe is only a manifestation of Divinity, and that Divinity is inherent in all living beings, what Swami call as Resident Divinity We should extend our love to every living beings as a manifestation of the same divinity, and in the same way, as we love God Swami also invariably emphasizes the need to have expansion of love and not contraction of love which means that love should be selfless and with not selfish motive.

We love our family members, because they happen to be our wife/husband, son, daughter, father or mother. The love extended to all these relatives is only selfish in nature. Our love is conditional based on our relationships. We even find variations in the intensity of love towards different relatives, depending upon the degree of attachment with each one of them. But the divine love is not conditional It is selfless.

Our love to God should also be selfless. “Love is selflessness and self is lovelessness. Love is a mutual feeling. Love generates Love. When you love somebody it is always reciprocated. Even a person of very hard nature responds to love. I remember a story narrated by a senior devotee in Madras, during one of his discourses,. in a study circle meeting.

It was said that during period of His boyhood, Sri Krishna was undergoing Gurukula Vaasam (living in the hermitage of the Guru) with Guru Sandeepini Maharshi along with Balarama and Sudhama. In the performance of the chores all the three used to go to the forest to fetch firewood for the Ashram. One day it was too late in the night, they were still in the forest and they had to camp there. They decided to take turns so that one could be awake, while the other two could sleep under the tree. First it was the turn of Sudhama to keep vigil. While doing so, he noticed that a gang of tribal men were passing by, closely where they were resting. Sudhama thought that they might cause harm to them and tried to scare them away, by angry gestures. The tribal folk did not mean any harm to Krishna and company. And yet when Sudhama tried to threaten them by gestures, they also reacted likewise. Luckily, without much ado they moved away.

Next, it was the turn of Balarama, to take over from Sudhama. He also noticed the tribal folks moving about in the area. Balarama too tired to scare them away by angry gestures to which they responded angrily. Balarama did not leave them at that. He gestured that he would attack them if they did not move away from that place. The tribal folk responded in the same manner and measure. They got nearer to Balarama and beat him brutally and then moved away. Balarama took it quietly and retired for the night after his time was over.

Last it was for Sri Krishna to take over. The other two could not forget their respective encounters and were not able to sleep. To their horror, they found that the tribal people were once again passing through the place. They were very eager to watch how Krishna was going to tackle them. On seeing the tribal folk, Krishna waved His hands towards them smilingly conveying His good wishes. They also responded smilingly. Krishna then, by His gestures, invited them to come nearer. They came nearer and were all in smiles. They hugged each other reflecting warmth and friendship. After a while, they went their way.

The devotee, in his talk, was further trying to explain to us, how our own feelings get reflected in others. When you show hatred to any one, the other party also responds with hatred. When you show love, they also extend their love to you. Love is reciprocated by love Swami often points out the simple analogy of a person looking at the mirror. If the person puts on an angry face, the reflection is also the same. If, one smiles, the reflection also smiles !

Thirty thousand feet above the earth, when an aircraft was being high jacked, the devotee heard the command of Swami, to “love the highjacker”. How could you love a ‘high jacker’, when he was threatening to blow up the plane killing every body on board. And yet this was the command. The lady devotee, on hearing the message, mentally extended her love towards them. It was reported that they, the ‘highjackers’ subsequently, lost their nerves to live through the tension drama and ultimately surrendered to the authorities.