God is love personified. The entire universe is the very personification of Brahman. ‘Sarvam Vishnumayam Jagat’, the entire world is the manifestation of Lord Vishnu. This all pervasive, ever expansive and infinite nature of love is being comprehended by man with narrow mindedness. Man differentiates love into three types as pertaining to body, mind and soul and hence is trying to experience it distinctly. Thus love is being manifested as composed of three attributes – Sattvic, Rajasic and Tamasic. The communion and parting, creation, sustenance and destruction are because of love alone. If you understand the true nature of love, there is a chance for you to attain equanimity between the dualities of communion and parting, happiness and sorrow, creation, sustenance and destruction.
Scriptures consider Tamasic love as the love of the lowest order. It confines to oneself, objects belonging to oneself, one’s own people and relations. This is narrow-minded and selfish love. This is love for the body which is of the Tamasic nature.
The second type (Rajasic love) pertains to achieving selfish and vested interests. In view of selfish and self-fulfilling agendas, men of high office, well to do people pretend to be loving and get their work done. This takes place in such a way that people go to officers, garland them and pretend to be submissive to them, show off obedience, fear and faith and thus get things done through them. This is well understood by students of modern times. Students show their respect in a variety of ways till they get admission and complete their studies. This is limited not only to the students, but also to their parents. This is a live example in today’s times. To achieve what they want, they exhibit love in a worldly way, behave selfishly and showcase that which is not their true nature. This is the second type of love which is of Rajasic kind.
The third type is pure Sattvic love. Men who have love of this type are very rare in this world. They believe in the fact that the same God, who is a personification of love, pervades all beings and believe that there is no life without love and thereby live without discriminating between theirs and others. Thus they expound the principle that the same God pervades all beings. ‘Ekosi Sarva Bhootantaratmanaam’, they believe in the truth that God, who is love personified, pervades all the living beings as Atma, and thereby look for Divinity in all the beings. They look at the Atmic principle.
Reserve the Ticket of Divinity at a Young Age
One who has the inner vision – the vision only on the Atma, is considered equivalent to a lion. A lion has no fear of anything. It is fearless and keeps under its control all other animals and is the king of animals. It has no second thought. It does not give chance to any setbacks. Those who believe that the body is real are comparable to sheep. A sheep is always scared of something or the other. It wastes all its life in fear of something. One who envisions the soul is like a lion. All animals are controlled by the lion. Mind, discrimination, intellect, ego are all under the control of the Atma. If you follow the Atma, you can gain control over all these. There is nothing wrong in leading a worldly life having God as the cardinal goal.
Students! There is nothing wrong in following the body, mind and intellect as per your Dharma, having your aim as the Atma. It is essential to understand the importance of Divinity in this tender age itself. Consider one small example. If you purchase appropriate coupon in the morning itself and go to the canteen in time for lunch, you are certain to have your meal. If you don’t purchase the coupon and even if you go to the canteen in time, the availability of lunch may be doubtful. Hence it is very essential to reserve the ticket of Divinity in this very tender age itself.
Aspire to become Owners, not Servants
You should not pursue spirituality with end result in mind. One who works for wages will become a worker not owner. He works only for wages and hence does not have any interest or devotion to work. He does not work with purity. He does not think of accomplishing the task. He works as per his schedule say till 5 pm, takes his wages and leaves. Thus, he thinks he is separate from the company or the organisation. In his house, his wife and children do their respective duties, but not for any wage. His wife does not demand any sort of income for the activities she is doing like cooking food for him, etc. She discharges her responsibility with purity and perfection. She takes care of everything at home. Thus she has freedom along with some authority. One who prays for result is like that daily wage earner. One who enjoys the feeling that God is his own, and God is inside him is like the owner. You should aspire to become owners and not servants.
The Three Paths
There are three different paths one can adopt to achieve this. One is the Matsya Marga (the fish path), the second is the Mruga Marga (the animal path) and the third one is the Kurma Marga (the tortoise path). What is the difference among the three? Fishes can live only in water and not on land. Animals can live on land alone and not in water. Tortoise can live both in water and on land. The first type of aspirant confines his spiritual practice, silence and focus to himself, his family and his relations. The aspirant of the second type experiences happiness in solitude and seclusion. He can’t concentrate in a crowded place. An ordinary householder wanted to practice meditation. He went inside the Puja (prayer) room in his house and closed the door. Each of his children came one by one and started banging the door. He got disgusted and thought that it would be better to go to the forest and continue his practices. He went into the forest and sat under a tree and began to meditate. All the birds on that tree were making noises. He was disturbed there also. He was disturbed by his children at home and the birds on the tree. He felt it would be good to commit suicide. He was unable to bear any type of sound either at home or in the forest. He was unable to realise that everything in this world is manifestation of God. This is the attribute of Rajo Guna. The Sattvic type is as follows. Wherever such a person is, he can concentrate. He sees equanimity both in a crowded place as well as alone. Even if someone disturbs him, he believes that God is disturbing him. He accepts even that also as the gift of God.
Source: Discourse 6, My Dear Students Volume 3; Divine Discourse delivered on June 27, 1989 at Sri Sathya Sai Hostel for Senior Students, Prasanthi Nilayam
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