divine spirit of love, not demon money

[Guest guest]

Divine Love, Not Demon Money,

Is The Centre-Point of Life: Amma

 

Amma began her 55th Birthday Address by saying that the point of

religious and cultural festivals was to help human beings gain peace of

mind. Amma lamented that in general this wasn't happening. The culprit

Amma said was the world's obsessive focus on money. " While meditating on

money and luxuries, we forget to live, " Amma said. " We forget the very

love that lends life to life. "

Amma went on to say that life is an opportunity provided for

humans to grow and expand. " That which brings order, purity and meaning

to life is loving thought and action, " Amma said. " Unfortunately, the

only meaning we attribute to life today is as an opportunity to make

money. In order to achieve this end, the human intellect is ready to

accept any means. No wonder values are deteriorating! "

Amma

then explained how spirituality is not opposed to wholesome prosperity or

fulfilling needs,

but that requires one should always look to producing good.

" Strengthening family and the community are the two reasons for

'commerce'. We need

to make sure that they remain the focus, " Amma said. " That is the

reason

why our saints and seers stressed that the pursuit of artha and

kama -- money and pleasure -- must never move us from the path of

dharma. "

Speaking about the

global economic crisis centred in Washington, Amma said that the evil

was worldwide, and moral change very long overdue.

However she said that the needed change was primarily

internal -- changing our negativities into positive qualities. " If we are

not ready to change, Nature, or Spirit, will take up the task, " Amma said. " SHE

will never allow wickedness to overgrow and suffocate virtue. The

need of the hour is to cultivate a society of good-hearted individuals. "

For that education process, Amma said that we most every day further the

instilling of values in children of all ages, that they will be instilled in

ourselves. " To end the violence of

competition, children should never be indoctrinated with feelings of hatred and

revenge, " Amma said. " We need to teach them to love one another. We

should fill the syllabuses of our colleges and schools with lessons

about nature and culture, love and compassion. This will each day put an end to

the

exploitation of the sorrows and miseries of the downtrodden. War and

violent clashes will lessen and we will be able to realize the dream of

world peace. When mutual love grows, Nature

also will become peaceful. "

Amma said that true

happiness can only come through understanding

our own mind. " As long as we are determined to maintain the prisons

created by our old mental weaknesses, nothing can save us, " Amma said.

" If we don't have the permission and blessing of our own mind,

regardless of what we possess we won't be happy. "

Amma

explained that attaining happiness was, in truth, not such a difficult

task. All it takes, she said, is love. " Love is the bindu -- the

centre-point of life, "

Amma said. " We should perform all our actions,

remaining focused in this centre-point. Only then will we be able to

both experience love for ourselves and share it with others. Today

we've managed to transform life into something about everything but

love. It is for this reason that human-machines everywhere are

disappearing and in their place human-beings are taking birth.

Somehow we're managing to turn that most distant internal separation --

fear and ignorance into the one thing that is in fact the

closest to us -- love. "