Love Is The Basic Principle Of Human Life

25 April 1996, Sai Shruti, Kodaikanal, TN

Published English.

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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 .

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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 say, (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 (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.

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Love First And Faith Next A few minutes earlier, 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.

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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 and recognise that the body is sure to die one day or the other.

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From Bhaja Govindam, verse 21

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The entire 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 , meditation, and . 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.

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

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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. (life principle) in the body is (God). is 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.

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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 . We get a garment stitched with the thread of . The eye of the needle is (wisdom) through which the thread of 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. (that which sustains is ). We should wear the garment of . unites everything and everyone together; it removes all differences. Then we look at the world with the vision of love.

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Excessive Desires Drown Man In The Sea Of Worldliness 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 and (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.

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There is a relationship between worldly love and Divine Love. King asked his , Sage , “ were neither nor . They were illiterate cowherdesses who developed love for . Then, how could they attain (liberation)”? 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 . But their love for 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.

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Experience Of Swami’s Divine Love Removes Fear Nothing in the world is more valuable than love. Though 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.

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asked , “Can we ever know You? You are the smallest of the small and the biggest of the big. You pervade all the 84 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.

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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 (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.

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( brought His Discourse to a close with the “ Ram”.)