The Divine Lifestyle (8b)

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I AM LOVE(Chapter 8)- continuation -'The

central part of Swami's teachings in regards to living in the world is

to see in other people that essential quality which is God, and to love

that quality and not be bothered by all other actions, qualities,

misbehavior, characteristics of the person. The love of God in the

person with whom one is dealing is spiritual love and not physical

love... Hislop...'(Conversations with Sathya Sai Baba - pg 45)Here

again is a practical philosophy on how to interact with people. In our

day to day transactions, treat everyone as if you would treat God.

Simple as it sounds but how can this be so.A grumpy person

having fallen in love with a girl of his dreams will run around with

great enthusiasm, meet all his obligations with cheer, greet anyone and

everyone including his enemies with a smiling grin of satisfaction. The

personal differences he has had with others, the exchange of heated

words with friends on previous occasions, etc., merely get burned into

non-issues by the rays of love for his girl. If falling in love with a

mere mortal can have such drastic transformational effect, imagine if

the heart is filled with divine love.The exhilaration and the

exuberance that gushes from such a heart will totally propel the person

to higher planes than normal and from such a helicopter vision, the

faults and negativity of people will be so trivial.'Embrace all with this equal love. Even people who come to Me with hatred in their hearts are dear to Me.'(75th birthday message - 23 November 2000)The

Teacher is a practical example of this divine love. In the presence of

such a majestic love, anyone, however negative in thought or filled

with hatred, will be swept away by its torrential flow. If there is

someone you cannot forgive, this only indicate that you have not

experienced divine love in your heart. Once the electricity flows, any

bulb will light up. If the bulb emits a weak glow, it can be due to the

gathered dust of negativity and ego. Wipe away the bulb, the light

glows in all effulgence.

How can we develop this kind of love? We therefore need a methodology to cultivate this Divine Love.'How

is Divine Love to be cultivated? a) consider the faults of others, no

matter how large, to be insignificant; consider your own faults, no

matter how insignificant, to be large and then repent and correct your

faults.'(Teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba - pg 48)It

is a known fact that people love to find faults committed by others. We

sometimes condemn others even in public. These acts will appear to

confer us strength and give us a false illusion that people think that

we are intelligent and powerful. We are always quick to justify our

actions as right if pointed out as faults by others.Dynasties

have collapsed, kings dethroned, empires wiped out, companies closed

and management torn into fragments by this malady. Finding fault in

others has become a past time, a topic of conversation during coffee

break, house visits or even in a normal everyday conversation.

Politicians bear the biggest brunt as they come easily under public

scrutiny.These days no one is spared even the god loving saints

who have renounced the world, preaching and practicing Peace and Love

have been in the past, assassinated, crucified, poisoned and tortured.

The sweep of this social catastrophe must be curbed. Here Bhagavan

gives us a simple antidote to this problem of ours. However great is a

fault in others ignore, and consider however small is your fault as big.The

words are simple in words, but extremely powerful in revolutionizing

the current social trend. This attitude if cultivated and practiced

will land us at the entrance of the glorious Divine status. What is the

use of human birth when we can only love our peers and close ones?

Evolution must bless us with a vision of the divine in everyone.'A

man living without love is as good as dead. You are having love towards

your father, mother, wife, children and others. There is nothing wrong

in this. But you must see God in every one of them... we should see God

in every being.'(Sanathana Sarathi May 1994 - pg 119)THIS IS THE KEY TO DEVELOP LOVE FOR ONE AND ALL!This

is the key to develop Divine Love. We have to take our love from

selfish wants to the physical level to the graduation fields of

service. It is here that love slowly expands to include all and then it

slowly matured to that of Divine Love. How do we know whether we are

experiencing divine love? Many run to God to fulfill a need. Many more

with lots of problems can resolve these satisfactorily, if the love and

bond for GOD develop in them. But if the cry of the frustrated and the

desperate devotees receives no attention from the gods worshiped, they

leave, in search for another faith or Master where surer and quicker

answers are promised.'Just

as sugarcane has to go through crushing and other processes before you

can get candy from it, the body has to go through certain ordeals to

manifest its sweet nature.'(Sanathana Sarathi August 1994 - pg 218)Therefore,

God is pointing out that pain conferred by nature is reminding us that

we are not in touch with our bliss sheath. The purpose of prayer halls

is to help devotees grow spiritually and to get in touch with the inner

self. However, Gods in prayer halls are being reduced by some, to

waiters in restaurants, dishing out their needs in the menu card

instead of being sources of inspiration to achieve higher ideals.

Maturity will confer us the appreciation that all that happen to us is

for our betterment. Every pain will bring its rewards later but never

expect anything. Just Love, Love, Love.'In

this worldly life, love is manifesting in several forms such as the

love between mother and son, husband and wife, and between relatives.

This love based on physical relationships arises out of selfish motives

and self-interest. But the love of the Divine is devoid of any trace of

self-interest. It is love for the sake of love alone. This is called

devotion.'(Sanathana Sarathi Feburary 1994 - pg 49)

Love

for the sake of love alone. The painter, who draws on the canvas a

glorious scenery of nature, is not bothered whether his painting will

sell or how the critics will view his effort. His total involvement and

his overflowing passion drown every other thought. He is lost in his

splash of colors and the curving contours of the drawing. He loves the

art for art's sake. When the subjective painter merges in the objective

paint work, what results is a work of inspiration.Such

expressions of love result in inspiring moments in eternity where the

lives of such painters are printed in the pages of history. Leonardo Da

Vinci is a great example of this. Love for the same of love alone is

indeed the art of living. How can we know that such a love has been

developed? There are three traits that we will recognize when our love

has such a quality.'They are :1. Love is to give and not to receive.2. Love knows no fear.3. Love not for selfish reason.All

these three angles of love jointly connote Prapatti or surrender. When

one revels in this attitude of surrender (Prapatti), one experiences

the bliss of the Divine. For this the prime requisite is Kshama

(Forgiveness).'(Sanathana Sarathi February 1994 - pg 49)This

is the declaration of what Love is; that which the sages talk about,

wise man experiences and the scriptures thunder out. All prophets and

masters must have experienced this divine state. This is the invitation

extended by Bhagavan, to one and all to come and experience this state.

The resultant nature for sure confers power and probably accounts for

the strength conferred to such great ones, for overcoming their trials

and tribulations.'There

is no power greater than love (Prema) in this world because it is

selfless and pure... sages spent their time in the forests amidst wild

animals. They lived amicably side by side with them. The animals did

not harm these sages. What is this reason? The sages had no weapon at

all. They had the sole weapon of love. With this weapon, they were able

to tame the wild animals.'(Sanathana Sarathi June 1995 - pg 163)In

a world with choking war cries and screaming pains of hardships, if

each of us carry this weapon of love and spread it in great intensity,

surely the world will get irrigated with Love. We need not fear, for

love instills the confidence. The confident aura of love must have

shielded the saints and sages meditating in the jungles. This is the

confidence that we must develop. From an initial small pool of people

to virtually an ocean of humanity, now surround Bhagavan.People

of all races, religion and from the farthest corner of the globe come

to Puttaparthi, India, to catch a glimpse of Bhagavan. Never in human

history, a phenomenon of this nature has been witnessed, one that is

beyond any one's imagination. This again is the testimony of the power

of LOVE... His LOVE.

Mountains

are admired and loved. Nature is appreciated. Dancing flowers simply

invite us with love to come close. The snow-capped mountains are often

sights that offer people great joy, just gazing at them. What has the

mountain done to us? How have the flowers contributed directly to our

lives? Nothing! We love them for that divine nature which they express.

And yet, plainly and unconditionally, we just love them. This is the

Divine quality of love. People must just love us for the sake of love

itself. We can move and order people using our authority and position.

We can wield power and dominate many but one day, either age or

circumstances, will force us to be stripped of all positions and then

it remains to be seen if we can command the same respect. Throw away

all the hats that we wear and simply ask how many still love us because

it is just US... as Love commands and never demands... This is the

measure of the DIVINE LOVE!(From : THE DIVINE LIFESTYLE by DR SURESH GOVIND,With the consent of Sathya Sai Central Council of Malaysia)

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