You are programmed to respond tit for tat when it comes to love. If someone loves me, then I love them. If they don’t, then I won’t.
Your pattern is that if someone gives a flower then you give them back a flower. If someone gives you a thorn, you are not programmed to give them a rose.
You have to come out of this programming. Then you will see the whole world is full of positivity, love.
In India, there is a term, Preet Purani, ancient love. God loves us unconditionally, eternally. Why should we expect love from friends and family?
Don’t think your family members or friends don’t love you. They do. If something happens to you, they will all cry. They have love for you but their expression may be different.
Don’t try to judge someone else’s feelings for you. And if you think they don’t have feelings, you are mistaken. Their feelings get covered, sometimes by their own tension, their own mind, and their own problems.
You know when problems come or ignorance comes, it only covers. It veils the feelings. Feelings don’t die out. They remain somewhere deep inside. So, if their expression of love towards you is not very obvious, just know that they are in their own little difficulty. Their feelings are covered by some shield, or some stress. That understanding will bring maturity in you.
God loves us unconditionally, eternally. Why should we expect love from friends and family?
– Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
We are made up of love
Love is not an emotion. Love is the basis of all existence. All the cells in your body love each other. That is why they are together. The day they stop loving, it all disintegrates. If there is one substance by which everything is held together and you want to give it a name, you can call it love.
Love is indescribable. You can’t describe it. And there is not a creature on this planet that doesn’t know it.
From the sea to the birds, from the chicken to an enlightened person, everybody has experienced love.
Love for life is what we think it is but life itself is love. The whole universe is love.
The earth loves the sun. That is why it keeps going around the sun. The moon loves the earth. That’s why the moon goes around the earth. Repulsion is also love but in the opposite direction.
You are drawn to somebody or something because of love. You see ice cream and you are drawn to it. You see a beautiful girl or a girl sees a beautiful boy and they’re pulled. The attraction is a force. That force is what manages the whole universe.
In some places this is obvious, in others, it’s not. The earth loves you so much, so the gravitational force is keeping you glued to the earth.
All the negative emotions are only a distorted form of love. You love perfection and that’s why you get angry. Greed is love. Greed is when you love something more than life. When you love objects more than life, that’s called greed.
Hatred is love upside down. Fear is love upside down. It’s not easy for a human being to be totally negative. It’s almost inhuman to be that negative. When someone goes too far, he or she cannot go any further and they have to come back. It’s a cycle.
The action can be bad but the spirit is never bad. Spirit is always free and blissful. Actions have limited sphere and time. If you do a bad act, you are not condemned forever. Even if you are jailed for a certain period of time you are generally treated well at that time.
The Puranas say that even if someone who has committed a grave crime comes in contact with someone who is pure and brilliant and is full of positive energy, then that positive energy can bring light to the darkness. Even in the darkest place, just a candle is good enough to bring light.
As a child, when you first opened your eyes and looked at your mother, your very first interaction with this world was that of love. From then on you fell in love with everything. You looked at the light and were amazed. You fell in love with the light. You looked at your fingers and the expression that came out of you was love.
Our life is synonymous to love and all the expressions in life are part of love.
Excessive love of:
- Perfection. You become angry at imperfection.
- Person. You become attached and entangled
- Past. You get stuck to the past and are unable to see the present. You become delusional
- Body. That’s lust
- Things. That’s greed
What everyone wants
The quest of human life is for such a love that is free from these painful imperfections. The deformations are distortions of love. Knowing that brings divine love. Spiritual knowledge is something which does not allow love to get fermented and become hatred.
Self-knowledge, spiritual knowledge keeps loves in its purity, clarity and tranquillity so love becomes crystal clear. That is the power of knowledge. Spiritual knowledge keeps you away from hatred, anger, jealousy and violence that are self-destructive and not needed for a person.
Babies don’t need spirituality because they don’t have hatred. They are angry for a minute and then forget about it. Their anger is just for a few seconds. It disappears.
Unlike adults, grown-ups harbour anger in their minds and suffer their whole life. Spiritual knowledge, liberates you from this suffering.
There is no such thing as false love but there is love that changes colours. There is another love that doesn’t change. It is underneath everything, the undercurrent.
Don’t confuse love with relationship. In a relationship, love needs to be there, but love is not just a relationship
– Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Love is not an emotion. Love is not saying, oh, I can’t live without you. The whole creation is made up of love.
Love is not a relationship. Don’t confuse it to be a relationship. In a relationship, love needs to be there, but love is not just a relationship.
Love is the nature of our consciousness. Like a body is made up of amino acids, carbohydrates and proteins, our spirit is made up of love. When you go deep in meditation, be quiet in the state you are in then you can call that state pure love. First you experience that within yourself, then in your behaviour, actions, relationships and everything else.
All the rehab, recovery homes for addicts should adopt yoga, meditation and breathing exercises. Hundreds, thousands of people will come out of their addictions. Meditation is a greater addictive. It brings more intoxication. Love is intoxicating. But it’s safe, healthy and keeps you bright and alert.
If it all you have to ask God for anything, ask for self-knowledge, to be able to love unconditionally, and freedom and liberation. Everything else will come along with these. Freedom means unconditional love. Freedom also means self-knowledge.
