In plain words
Not only that. This human life is nothing but reaching the village called ‘So’ham’ from the word ‘saṃ’. His aim is the very feeling that all the karma he does is done to please God. But where is the man of today travelling? From the place called ‘I’ he comes back again to the place called ‘I’. This very selfishness makes humanness so weak. So we must root out this selfishness. On the day we root out selfishness, on that very day our journey goes as it should.
We see this Prema along three kinds of paths. The three kinds are svārtha Prema, anyonya Prema and parārtha Prema. I must enjoy happiness all the time. I must get every comfort; I do not care about the rest. Whatever becomes of them, I must be well: to hope like this is the nature of selfishness. Anyonya Prema means: oneself, and the relatives and friends connected with oneself, all of them must be well. But parārtha Prema is not like that. Everyone must be safe and well. For this there are three kinds of comparison. Svārtha Prema is like a bulb switched on in one room. The light that comes from the bulb is confined to that room alone. So it is selfish. Only what belongs to one's own heart brings light and influence. This does not earn the name of Prema. Next, anyonya Prema. It is like the light of the moon. It gives light on every side, but it is not so clear. It is dim. It raises some doubt. Seeing a rope in that moonlight and mistaking it for a snake, seeing a tree stump and mistaking it for a man. This Prema is bound up with mistakes of this kind. That is, taking good people for bad people, thinking good is bad, thinking the pure impure: all this happens. There is light in the moonlight, but not so much brightness. Parārtha Prema is like the light of the sun. Everywhere it lets well-being be felt, and it makes things plainly visible. So today, for us, to gain parārtha Prema rather than anyonya Prema is the very way to gain a sacred, divine life. This anyonya Prema raises doubts about divinity, which is pure, unmoving and selfless. It is only moonlight. Only humanness in a state of indecision gives room to such doubts. It sees outward gestures and is deceived. The words of bad people are very sweet. People believe them. Good words are a little harsh. But they offer only sweetness. When rain pours down, hailstones fall too. But these lumps of ice give blows. Raindrops do us no harm at all. The lump of ice, too, holds only the nature of water. God's Prema, now and then, gives a little pain like a lump of ice. That too is only water, the sweet essence of Prema. Every man must believe fully in the principle of God and try to live by it. Prema is God; God is Prema. In Prema alone we must try to live.
The difference between worldly love and spiritual Prema
Ordinary people regard even small faults in others as big faults. One believes even a great wrong in oneself to be a small one. That itself is a great betrayal. You must regard even a small wrong in yourself as a big one. You must believe even a big wrong in others to be a small one. Only then is it possible for us to keep from doing wrong. When you regard even a small wrong in yourself as big, you will not go on to commit a big wrong. In just such small matters we must try to recognise divinity. But we must regard the small faults in us as big ones and make a fitting effort to crush them down. Man's love is worldly love. What belongs to the spiritual is divine Prema. Between these two there is a great difference. The Prema of the Paramātma is selfless. No selfishness of any kind is seen in the Paramātma. That is why the Prema of the Paramātma is utterly pure. With this very thing in view, the great sages said:
nirguṇaṃ nirañjanaṃ sanātanaṃ niketanaṃ nityaśuddha buddhamukta nirmala svarūpiṇaṃ.
We must experience a principle of Prema like this. To these narrow hearts it does not look right. What is the reason? Their love is bound up with selfishness. The Prema of God is bound up with selflessness. The Prema of God is joined with selflessness. A small example. The young men of today, at the very first, think their love a great thing and show it on a grand scale. When they have been fully taught, they leave the gurukula and go home.