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Written by Sri Swami Chandrashekarendra
Saraswati |
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What is called love may be divided into three categories. We love great
men for their high qualities, I mean distinguished men, men of truth,
philanthropists, jnanins, men of grace. We mix with our friends and
relatives intimately and affection develops between them and us. Then
we love people- love them ostensibly for a specific purpose, for the
reason that we stand to gain from them. For instance, we may seem to
love a rich man hoping that he would help us in our business or some
other enterprise. We may love our employer because he pays us our
wages.
These three types of love are neither true nor everlasting. If our
employer
sacks us we will cease to have either respect or affection for him. If
people with whom we have had close contacts leave for a distant place or
die or if we lose touch with them, we are likely in due course to forget
them. All the sorrow we felt in the beginning because of being separated
from them will eventually be forgotten. Were it true love the grief also
should be enduring. Even our love for a great man is not lasting. If
there
happens to be a diminution in his qualities- or if he seems to us not as
great as we thought he was- we will love him in correspondingly lesser
measure.
All three categories of love have some reason [or motive] behind them.
That is why they are not everlasting. We love great men because they
possess certain qualities: there is an element of selfish interest in
our
feelings for them: because we think they will be helpful in our
advancement.
True love knows neither reason nor motive. When do we love a man
truly? When our affection for him is unchanging and unwavering- we love
him even if he does not apparently move closely with us or does not
seem to possess inward qualities or the capacity to bless us; we love
him
even when we do not have any selfish interest to be served by him. Does
anyone possess such love? Yes, only One. It is Isvara - he alone has
such
love.
God loves us for no reason. If he needed a reason he would not give us
even a morsel of food. It is Paramesvara who forgives all our misdeeds
and protects us- and he is all love. It is his love that is manifested
in the
three categories mentioned earlier.
We must learn to have such love as is revealed through Paramesvara;
that is love that is universal, love that is not based on any reason or
interest. Why should we dislike a man because we think he is guilty of
certain wrongs? Are we not similarly guilty ourselves? Do we then
discard
ourselves? We must have the same attitude towards others as we have
towards ourselves. There is nothing remarkable about our love for a
great
man; the remarkable thing is to love a sinner also. If you ask me, you
must have greater concern and affection for him. "He commits wrongs
like us," we must tell ourselves. "His mind goads him into doing them.
We
must have sympathy for him and try to correct him". There may be a few
whom Isvara, out of his compassion, has given the gift of blessing
others.
Such men must take it upon themselves the task of freeing others from
sinful actions.
We must, to start with, learn to have disinterested love for an
individual,
that is love that is not tainted by self-interest. Eventually, this love
will
permeate us, inspire our inner being, and we will then be able to
enlarge
it to embrace all. It is the teaching of the wise that we must have such
love for our guru, love without any consideration of the fruits thereof.
We
must not look for any reason to love our preceptor. If we constantly
"practise" to have such love for our guru we will be the recipients of
his
blessings. Our love for him will eventually grow into love that will
encompass all. If our love is manifested in this manner there will be
fullness, tranquility and bliss. |
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