Emotion Needs Culturing

Emotion Needs Culturing

by Swami Sivananda

Devotion is ingrained in every being. Even an atheist is devoted to his atheism. Love dwells in the heart of every creature. Without love, life itself cannot exist. Even the most cruel‑hearted men love something or other.

As everything else, this love also needs culturing. What is the difference between gardens and forests? In forests, too, there are flowerbeds, there are fruit‑bearing trees. Yet, man is afraid to enter the forest. The earth is strewn with thorns; there are ominous‑looking bushes here and there that hide wild animals. The trees also grow haphazardly and a violent storm produces a forest‑fire which destroys the entire forest. Not so is the case of a garden. The plants are beautifully and artistically laid out. There are order, harmony and pruning. The ground is swept clean and you take delight in walking over the lawns. All foul‑smelling things are removed from the garden and the sweet fragrance of the flowers wafts around.

Similar is the case with love. Love grows wildly in the ignorant man’s heart. There is the luscious fruit of love in a corner of the heart; but the entire heart is strewn with thorns of hatred, jealousy and so many other vicious qualities that the charm of love is marred. There are bushes of lust, anger and greed which hide within them the wildest animals. Love lies hidden far beneath and far beyond reach. It is as good as non‑existent. But, in the case of a true devotee of the Lord, this love has been cultured, and the garden of his heart is cleared of the thorns of vicious qualities, of the bushes of lust, anger and greed. Love of God which is the sweetest of fragrances wafts from such a heart.

Turn your gaze within. Look into your own heart. Find out your love. Take firm hold of this love. Cultivate it consciously and deliberately. Find out the thorns and the bushes. By intelligent methods, throw them out. They have no place in the beautiful garden of your heart where the Lord dwells. See what great preparations you make for the reception of a king, a Governor or a big leader! How nicely you sweep the roads, how beautifully you decorate your houses! How much more preparation is necessary for receiving in the temple of your heart the Lord of the Universe, the Governor of the Universe?

When you eradicate the vices that lurk within and cultivate virtues, you will more fully manifest the hidden love. The great Masters of Bhakti have classified Bhakti into five Bhavas. You can adopt any one of these Bhavas or attitudes towards God. These Bhavas are the natural sublimated human attitudes of love. You love your child; correspondingly there is the Vatsalya Bhava towards God where you treat Him as your child. You love your friend; there is the Sakhya Bhava or attitude of friendship towards God. You love your master; there is the Dasya Bhava where you serve the Lord as your Master. You love your husband or wife; there is the Madhurya Bhava where you take the Lord as your Supreme lover. Some people are loving by nature and their love is distributed on all; they have no particular love‑attitude; corresponding to this there is the Santa Bhava where the devotee loves the Lord in his heart, in peaceful contemplation.

Find out where your love lies, whom you love most in the world. Adopt the same love‑attitude towards God, your Indweller, your Lord, your real Friend, who resides within your heart. Love for your friends and relations is Moha or deluded attachment. It binds you faster to the wheel of Samsara. It is fleeting and it is fraught with all sorts of unpleasant consequences. Love of God is liberating. It will lead you to perennial bliss and immortality. It is Bhakti which will bring about an Eternal Union between you and the Supreme Lord of the Universe. It will enable you to realise your identity with Him.

Emotion Needs Culturing – Purifying Feelings, Strengthening Character, and Spiritual Growth

Emotion Needs Culturing because emotion is one of the most powerful forces in human life. It can lift a person toward love, devotion, courage, compassion, and sacrifice, or it can drag the mind toward anger, jealousy, fear, attachment, hatred, and sorrow. Emotion is not bad by itself. It becomes harmful when it is uncontrolled, impure, selfish, or blindly reactive.

Many people think spiritual life means killing emotion, but this is not true. Emotion should not be crushed; it should be purified and guided. A dry heart cannot easily love God, serve others, forgive mistakes, or feel compassion for suffering beings. The aim is not to become hard and lifeless, but to make the emotional nature noble, balanced, and sacred.

Emotion Needs Culturing through awareness. The seeker must watch how feelings arise and how they influence thought, speech, and action. A small word may create anger. A memory may create sadness. Praise may create pride. Criticism may create hurt. Attachment may create fear of loss. By observing these movements calmly, the seeker begins to understand the inner life.

Uncultured emotion is often impulsive. It acts first and thinks later. It speaks harshly in anger, clings in attachment, breaks down in fear, and reacts strongly to small situations. Such emotion creates disturbance for oneself and others. Cultured emotion, on the other hand, is guided by discrimination. It feels deeply, but it does not lose wisdom.

Emotion Needs Culturing because feelings leave deep impressions in the mind. Repeated anger makes anger easier. Repeated fear makes fear stronger. Repeated jealousy makes comparison natural. But repeated compassion, prayer, gratitude, forgiveness, and devotion create pure impressions. The heart becomes what it repeatedly feels and nourishes.

One important method is substitution. When anger rises, bring patience. When jealousy appears, cultivate goodwill. When fear comes, strengthen faith. When pride grows, remember humility. When sadness becomes heavy, turn toward prayer and hope. The lower emotion should not merely be suppressed; it should be transformed into a higher quality.

Devotion is the sweetest way to culture emotion. Human love is often mixed with expectation, possessiveness, and insecurity. Divine love purifies this emotional energy and gives it a higher direction. Prayer, mantra repetition, worship, singing, and remembrance of God soften the heart and make feeling sacred. Love then becomes less selfish and more expansive.

Emotion Needs Culturing through control of speech. Feelings often flow out through words. Harsh speech, complaint, gossip, criticism, and emotional argument strengthen inner disturbance. A seeker should pause before speaking, especially when emotion is strong. Truthful, kind, and measured speech protects the mind and prevents regret.

Good company is very helpful. The heart absorbs the emotional atmosphere around it. Negative company increases fear, anger, restlessness, complaint, and lower desire. Noble company, satsang, sacred reading, devotional music, and association with calm people create higher emotional impressions. The seeker should choose influences that uplift the heart.

Selfless service is another powerful discipline. When emotion remains centered only on personal pain, personal desire, and personal importance, it becomes narrow. Service expands emotion into compassion. Helping the needy, comforting the sorrowful, caring for family, forgiving others, and working for the welfare of all purify the heart and reduce selfishness.

Emotion Needs Culturing with meditation and introspection. In silence, the seeker can see feelings more clearly. Instead of being carried away by anger, fear, desire, or grief, one learns to observe them as movements in the mind. This witness-attitude gives strength. The emotion may arise, but it does not completely rule the person.

A spiritual diary can also help. Before sleep, review the day and ask: Which emotion controlled me today? Did I speak in anger? Did I feel jealousy? Did I forgive? Did I pray when disturbed? Did I act with compassion? Such reflection is not for guilt. It is for correction, purification, and steady growth.

The seeker must also learn balance. Over-sensitivity creates suffering because the mind becomes hurt by every small word or action. Emotional dullness is also not good because it makes the heart hard. The middle path is sensitive but strong, loving but wise, compassionate but not weak, detached but not cold.

Emotion Needs Culturing so that the heart may become fit for higher spiritual experience. A disturbed emotional nature makes meditation difficult and relationships painful. A purified emotional nature supports devotion, concentration, service, and inner peace. When feelings are refined, the seeker becomes gentle, courageous, forgiving, humble, and steady.

The highest transformation comes when emotion is offered to the Divine. Joy becomes gratitude, sorrow becomes prayer, love becomes worship, fear becomes surrender, and longing becomes aspiration. Nothing in the heart is wasted when it is turned toward God. Even pain can become a doorway to spiritual awakening.

In the end, Emotion Needs Culturing because the heart must be purified before peace, devotion, and wisdom can shine fully. Through awareness, substitution of higher feelings, devotion, speech-control, good company, service, meditation, introspection, and surrender, emotion becomes a sacred power. A cultured heart becomes loving, balanced, peaceful, and ready for liberation.

Pleasure And Pain