KOCHI: Love is a beautiful state of being. Love means to dissolve the ‘I’, the ego. As love blooms, the ‘I’ loses its importance and eventually ceases to exist. With annihilation of the ‘I’, the one who loves and the beloved become one. The fulfilment of love lies in the union of the two. In pure love, there is neither the ‘I’ nor the pain caused by it. Love is a natural expression of life. It is therefore necessary to understand the nature of love. Love is of three kinds - love for things, love for people and love for Guru.
Love for thingsOne who is filled with desires craves for things; all he can see is things.
The world for him is a marketplace, not a festival. He cannot see people, he can see only things. He buys things, collects them and dies doing this, but does not ‘live’. He only plans to live but does not actually live.
Love for people
The second type of love, love for people is higher than the love for things. Here, love is directed towards someone who is living. For him, loving people is more important than loving things and so he is willing to sacrifice things for the love of people. He is not greatly attached to things and there is a possibility of him turning towards the Guru.
Love for Guru
The third type of love is love for Guru. This begins as you reflect on your love for people. You realise that the cause of unrest in relationships is not love but your ego. The suffering you experienced in love or from your beloved was really on account of your ego. Pure love can gift only the experience of happiness.
You now wish to get rid of this cause, but while loving a worldly person, it is not easy to let go of your ego because that person appears so much like your own limited self. Here, the need for a Guru is felt.
Surrendering becomes easy in the presence of the Guru because He is void of ego. By making Him your beloved, you too attain the same state as Him. Thus love attains completeness. When this happens, the supreme illumination of love manifests as absolute liberation. Love for Guru liberates you from your own limited self.
Dharma is the epitome of pure love. The world believes that love is possible only between the like-minded. In the case of a Guru-disciple relationship, there is a categorical difference between the two. Although, there is such a vast difference between their states of being, love for the Sadguru has the capacity to dissolve all distances.
Dharma manifests when the love of the disciple for his Sadguru blossoms, becoming the cause for attainment of the Supreme Self. Thus, the disciple’s introduction to dharma, the Supreme Self takes place through love for the Sadguru.
Misconceptions
about Love
In spite of the glory of love, to some, love is a sinful emotion while for some it is the cause of pain. They are unable to believe that the Divine can be attained through love.
Equating love with sin has two negative connotations– one, you will subtract the love from prayers because an offering to the Lord cannot be tainted with ‘sin’. However, prayers without love will make them dry, weak and lifeless.
Secondly, if love is seen as an impurity, it will be looked upon as a crime and will give rise to feelings of guilt and self-contempt. But love is a virtue, inherent in all beings and considering it a sin will make life difficult. Every relation in the society will be seen through the eyes of contempt.
Lust Vs Devotion
Love when directed towards the higher is known as devotion while the love that the world is familiar with; the love that is directed towards the lower is called lust.
One who is a lover of the lower begs for love and happiness from those who are beggars themselves. Neither has anything to give to the other. How can such beggars be happy?
The Label of Love
Love is giving and not begging. You can love others only if you are filled with love yourself. When your heart reeks of hatred, fear, jealousy, differences, ego and expectations, love does not arise within because your attention is directed towards these negativities. And when you do not feel the love rising within, you apply the label of love on whatever you have; your lust, possessiveness, attachments, likes etc.
Love for Sadguru will help you see the negativities and remove them. Love for Him is love for His teachings and commands and eagerness to live in alignment with them. Gold may be impure, but is still gold and not iron. It just needs to be purified. Once it passes through fire, whatever is worthless will get separated and whatever is useful and pure will remain.
Invest your love in the higher. You will never suffer or regret this investment. You already have love, all you need to do is direct it towards the Divine. Dare to embark on this journey. Though you may begin with love that is full of impurities, as you walk the path of love for the Sadguru, follow His commands and remain prayerful, you will certainly reach the destination of pure love, a state free from lust, a life of true dharma, an uninterrupted experience of the blissful Supreme self.Pujya Gurudev Rakeshbhai’s Satsangs will be held in Kuruwa GroundKochi on February 26 and 27.