20. SATSANGAM

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20. SATSANGAM

(Read, Understand, Appreciate, Internalise and Assimilate to reach

the Ultimate)

It Shines as 'I'

 

Your duty is to be: and not to be this or that. 'I AM that I AM'

sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in 'BE STILL'. What

does 'stillness' mean? It means 'destroy yourself'. Because any form

or shape is the cause of trouble. Give up the notion that 'I am so

and so'. Our sastras say : ahamiti sphurati (it shines as 'I').

(from Talks; 1978, no. 364, Sri Ramanasramam).

 

LOVE

 

Love, without desire to possess, knowing well that in the ultimate

sense there is no possession and no possessor: this is the highest

love.

 

Love, without speaking and thinking of " I, " knowing well that this

so-called " I " is a mere delusion.

 

Love, without selecting and excluding, knowing well that to do so

means to create love's own contrasts: dislike, aversion and hatred.

 

Love, embracing all beings: small and great, far and near, be it on

earth, in the water or in the air.

 

Love, embracing impartially all sentient beings, and not only those

who are useful, pleasing or amusing to us.

 

Love, embracing all beings, be they noble-minded or low-minded, good

or evil. The noble and the good are embraced because Love is flowing

to them spontaneously. The low-minded and evil-minded are included

because they are those who are most in need of Love. In many of them

the seed of goodness may have died merely because warmth was lacking

for its growth, because it perished from cold in a loveless world.

 

Love, embracing all beings, knowing well that we all are fellow

wayfarers through this round of existence -- that we all are

overcome by the same law of suffering.

 

Love, but not the sensuous fire that burns, scorches and tortures,

that inflicts more wounds than it cures -- flaring up now, at the

next moment being extinguished, leaving behind more coldness and

Loneliness than was felt before. Rather, Love that lies like a soft

but firm hand on the ailing beings, ever unchanged in its sympathy,

without wavering, unconcerned with any response it meets.

 

Love that is comforting coolness to those who burn with the fire of

suffering and passion; that is life-giving warmth to those abandoned

in the cold desert of loneliness, to those who are shivering in the

frost of a loveless world; to those whose hearts have become as if

empty and dry by the repeated calls for help, by deepest despair.

 

Love, that is a sublime nobility of heart and intellect which knows,

understands and is ready to help.

 

Love, that is strength and gives strength: this is the highest Love.

 

Love, which by the Enlightened One was named " the liberation of the

heart, " " the most sublime beauty " : this is the highest Love.

And what is the highest manifestation of Love?

 

To show to the world the path leading to the end of suffering, the

path pointed out, trodden, and realized to perfection by Him, the

Exalted One, the Buddha.

 

" Love is the only reason for living & the only purpose of life. For

the sake of love, an actor performs, the sensualist enjoys pleasures

of the body, a meditator turns within and isolates himself from the

rest of the world. LOVE IS ESSENTIAL FOR ALL OF US. We are born out

of love and sustained by love. This world is nothing but a school of

love. Yet the love we experience through other people is just a

shadow of the inner Self. Only because love exists within us are we

able to love our family, friends. When two lovers embrace each other

after a long separation, they close their eyes and go within

themselves. But once they stop embracing, their joy begins to ebb.

That is why; if we want to experience complete love we must plunge

within, go to the source. Through meditation, inner love is

unfolded. The love, which pulsates within the cave of the heart,

does not depend on anything outside. It does not need the friction

of two bodies; it is completely independent; it does not expect

anything. The mundane love we experience is not love at all, but

business. We love each other for the sake of self-interest, but as

soon as our desires get fulfilled we no longer belong to each other.

 

True love is self-generated; it never dies. It knows no distinction

between man & woman, high & low, it penetrates your entire being. it

is supremely free. The inner love is so delicious that one who

tastes it becomes completely fulfilled. Such a being loses all

desires. To have such complete love for God is a great saadhana. A

person who is immersed in such love need not say " I love you " to

express his feelings. Love of such a lover spreads to everyone who

comes in contact with him. If you want to attain this sort of love,

you have to become love. You have to discard your* I " ness, the idea

that you are a man or a woman or an intelligent person or a fool.

THE GATES OF LOVE WILL NEVER OPEN FOR ONE WHOSE LOVE IS CONTAMINATED

WITH FALSE IDENTIFICATION.

 

If you want to experience such love, you have to start by loving

yourself. First you have to love your body(being HIS residence) ,

then those who are related to that body, then the master of the body-

the Inner Self. Whatever you are doing in your daily activities, if

you experience love while you are laughing, when you meet your

friends, while eating, when taking bath , even that is love of the

inner Self. However, when you depend on the love emanating from

these things , it is only temporary. Love should well up within you

without depending on anything without a cause. THAT IS TRUE LOVE.

 

If you give up attachment, you will not have to make an effort to

love because very naturally you will experience the love that always

exists within you. It is attachment that obscures real love.

 

Sage Yagnavalkya told his wife, " O Maitreyi, I love you for my own

sake, not for your sake. The reason I love you is because I feel

that love within me. " Whoever truly loves others loves them with the

awareness that they are his own Self. "

 

.... Extract from the book " I have become alive " by Swami Muktananda.

 

Sri P Gopi Krishna

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