Be Like Jesus - 34

[Guest guest]

Excerpts from the book

“Be Like Jesus”: The Good News of Jesus in the words of Sri Sathya Sai Baba

A compilation by Debra and William Miller

Cultivate universal, Divine love - 34

“Universal love transcends all other virtues,” declared Jesus. Today man is totally unaware of what is meant by love. Man equates desire with love. He imagines that whatever he yearns for was prompted by love. This is not true love (Prema). Love is totally free from desire. It is utterly selfish. It seeks no return. It is all encompassing. It makes no distinction between friend and foe.

Forgetting this concept of universal selfless love, filling himself with selfish desires, man fancies that he is filed with love. This is mundane attachment. It is quite apart from the love that flows from the Spirit inside. Spiritual love is boundless. It is free from the feeling of hatred. It is capable of expressing itself in universal terms.

True love is priceless. It has no trace of selfishness in it. It does not change. It is pure and unsullied. It always grows and never diminishes. It is spontaneous, free from selfishness, unwavering, and always full. True love has neither a beginning nor an end. It exists in all the three categories or time - past, present and future. That alone is true love which can fill man with enduring bliss.

True love is related solely to the heart. Wealth will come an go; strength will grow or decay; all things in the world will pass away. But there is one thing that is imperishable and unchanging and that is permanent Divine love. All other forms of love are not real love at all. They are temporary, worldly attachments, based on physical, communal or other desires.

The various contexts in which the world love is used today have no relation to the true meaning of love. Ordinary human love is motivated by selfish considerations. It is liable to change owing to changes in time and circumstance. All physical relationships are like passing clouds and are subject to change. The affection between a mother and child or between a husband and wife is incidental to a certain temporary relationship and is not real love at all. For persons immersed in such worldly love, it is difficult to comprehend or realize the greatness of Divine love.

There are two forms of love. One binds you to God. The other binds you to the world. The mind is responsible for either of these states. It is like a lock. If you turn the key to the right, the lock opens. If you turn the key to the left, it gets locked. The heart is the key to the lock of the mind. If you turn the key towards the world, you have attachment (bondage); when it is turned towards God, you attain liberation. It is this kind of universal love that should be cultivated by everyone. Divine love should not be considered as something transcendental or alien; divine love is within the competence of all. It is natural to man. He is entitled to possess it.

Love exists for love and nothing else. It is spontaneous and imparts delight. Everything in this universe is permeated by love. Love sees with the heart and not with the eyes. It listens no through the ears but by the tranquility of the heart. It speaks not with the tongue but out of compassion. Compassion, kindness and love are separate words that mean the same thing; love has many synonyms.