(As Gurudev walks in, the Satsang begins with many in the audience cheering and telling him that they love him.)
I know you all love me so much! You know, all troubles begin with love. If there was no love in the world, people would have lived much more comfortably and peacefully. Love brings restlessness, and it gives rise to jealousy and anger. If there is pain and misery in life, it is because of love. All the fights and wars that happen have happened because of love.
If you look deeper into this, then you will understand that love for an object is called greed. Love for a person turns into Moha (attachment). When a person is in love with a particular situation only, then in its absence he feels sad and depressed. Love is the single reason for all the problems in the world.
When you are in knowledge, then you are able to keep love as love only and not let it turn into attachment, greed, or jealousy, etc.
The other perspective to this is that – there is no joy in life without love. What is life without love? It is nothing. Even a small insect does not wish to live a life without love. Everyone wants love – the birds, trees and animals. The Brahman or God too wants love. So there can be no life without love, yet we see that all difficulties arise because of love. So how do we resolve this contradiction? It is knowledge that can help solve this riddle, this contradiction. When you are in knowledge, then you are able to keep love as love only and not let it turn into attachment, greed, or jealousy, etc. Knowledge helps to preserve love from getting distorted. Knowledge keeps the mind calm and composed.
Suppose you feel a sense of jealousy, how can knowledge bring you out of it? When you remember that life is so temporary, and the person you are jealous of will die one day and so will you – then knowing this, your mind becomes calm and composed. Just remembering that everything is temporary and short lived will bring you out of it.
You can also come out of it by surrendering the feeling of jealousy and attachment to the Divine. So, if you are very attached to your son, just offer this attachment to the Divine, thinking that even your son belongs to God. Pray to God saying, “Oh Lord, I surrender this attachment to you”.
When we surrender, then we are freed of that which causes us pain and misery, and we once again experience that joy and peace in life. And when we are joyful, then everyone wants to be with us. Otherwise, if a wife sits with a long face all day, then the moment the husband returns home and sees her face, he feels like running away! (Laughter) Then he comes home, quickly changes his clothes and runs off to some other place. If the lady of the house is happy, and does not go on complaining, then no matter how the day may have been, the husband feels like coming home thinking of the joy and peace he will feel at home.
One often wants a life partner in order to fill each other’s life with love. But what do people end up doing instead? They fill each other’s life with misery. They make each other’s life difficult. This should not happen. All of you should take this sankalpa today – that whether it be your friends, family members, relatives, husband or wife, whoever comes to you should leave with more joy and peace. You will not give them a chance to complain. You will endure and go through whatever karma you have to bear, but you will make their life happier.
When life is so short, what is the use of cribbing and complaining about this and that; or getting angry about trivial issues and disturbing the peace of others around you? This is how an ignorant person lives his life.
Why should we trouble and burden others with our karma? Sharing one’s sorrow never reduces it. And Joy never lessens by sharing, it only increases. So share joy, and surrender your sorrow and misery to the Divine, or just bear it and go through it, thinking of it as your penance. When you follow this, then your personality blossoms and all your talents and skills get enhanced. If you just sit and cry about something or the other, and make others also cry, then what’s the use? What is the use of crying and complaining about anything? Life is so temporary, you never know when it will come to an end. When life is so short, what is the use of cribbing and complaining about this and that; or getting angry about trivial issues and disturbing the peace of others around you? This is how an ignorant person lives his life. How does a wise person live? A wise person has this firm faith that “Whatever I deserve I will surely get it. So I just have to continue putting in my efforts. What is important is that whoever comes to me should go back happier and more content”.
We should aim to spread joy and laughter wherever we go. What is the harm in some humur, or making some light jokes? I tell you, you should just laugh and have fun, and make others do the same as well. When you do this then you are truly a Satsangi (one who dwells in the company of the truth). When you do not do this, and instead go on complaining or wanting people to behave as per your wish, then you are not a Satsangi, because people will only feel the company of misery in your presence. What good is that?
Everything in life works according to the law of karma. If you reflect back on your life, just see how many such people have you met, towards whom you have not done anything wrong yet they have become your enemy? You wake up one day and see such a sudden change in someone’s behavior, and think, “Oh, what has happened to this person? How come such a good natured person has suddenly turned against me?”
Also, you would have met some people in life for whom you did nothing special, yet they have helped you a lot in your times of need. Isn’t it so? Have you not gotten help from complete strangers in times of need? In fact, many times your own enemies have helped you. How many of you here have had this experience? (Many in the audience raise their hands in agreement). Just see!
So one cannot understand for sure who is a friend and who is an enemy. All this takes place according to some unfathomable karma. When our karma is good and time is in our favor, then even our enemies come to help us. But when time is not in our favor, then even our friends will behave like enemies. This is why we should leave all this to Karma. From our side we should only do good towards others.
