Children, the human birth is for being born into love, to live in love and to merge into love. It is love that sustains the universe and connects living beings to one another. It is the power of love that connects the child to the mother and the mother to the child. The purest form of love that the ordinary man knows is the love between a mother and child. But the highest form of love is love for God. This is the same as selfless love for all living beings. If we are able to attain that love, then our life can be considered fulfilled. That is the utmost peak of love. It is to reach there that all my children should strive.
All your dharma and karma should be infused with the sweetness of love. Else, your karma will be reduced to mere toil. When pure love fills the heart with innocence and faith, karma will be worship. This is real devotion. This love is also our true nature. But today we live in complete forgetfulness of our true nature. The reason for this is that our understanding about ourselves is wrong. Our feeling that we are the body is an illusion. It is the essence of consciousness within us that gives life to this body.
When the individual named Nandan walks by, people who know him will say, “There goes Nandan.” But will anyone say that when Nandan dies and is being carried to the cemetery? No. All they will say is, “There goes Nandan’s body.” This is because the consciousness which gave life to the body has left it.
First we believe that we are the body. Then we build up our life and lifestyle based on that belief. In this way, we forget our true nature—love. If we go wrong in the beginning, then everything else will also follow wrong and we will not be able to attain what we really need to attain.
A man approached a well-known designer to get a coat tailored. After taking his measurements, the designer asked the man to come for his coat the following week. When the man got his coat the next week and tried it on, he found that the right sleeve was shorter than the left by a few inches. When he complained to the designer, he replied, “This coat is a piece of creative art. So what if one of the sleeves is a little shorter? Why don’t you try to hold up your right shoulder a little? Then both sleeves will look equal.” That is when the man noticed a ball of crumpled cloth behind the collar. When he complained to the designer about that, the designer said, “Hey, remember that I am an artiste! I will decide how my creations should be. This is my masterpiece. I am not willing to change anything. If there is a little crumpled cloth at the back, just bend down a little when you walk. That should solve your problem!”
The man thought to himself, “I am lucky to get a coat made by such a famous designer. The cloth is also very rich. What he says must be true. These defects must be quite trivial.” Thinking this, he set out of the shop with a lurched shoulder and hunched back. He kept looking around to see if anyone noticed his expensive tailored coat designed by the famous artist designer. Finally, a passerby stopped him and said, “Beautiful! I know who designed this coat. He is a very clever designer, isn’t he?” Surprised and happy, the man asked the passerby, “How did you know it was him?” The passerby replied, “There is only one designer in this country who designs clothes for handicapped people!”
Due to his blind attachment to a coat designed by a famous designer, the man forgot his own body. He gave more importance to his coat than to his body. And with that, everything became disfigured. Similarly, when we become bound to the lower impulses of the mind, we forget our inner self. Our life becomes disfigured.
Pure love for God can transcend even death. The pure love that the Gopis of Vrindavan had for Lord Krishna is alive to this day. When pure love fills the heart, we will no longer remain as this limited body. We will go beyond that into being embodiments of love. Love is the essence of immortality which imbues everything with divine sweetness. We should destroy the egoistic tendency of the mind and replace it with unlimited love. This will certainly lead us from death to immortality.
The writer is a world-renowned spiritual leader