Hidden Source of Love

[ancient_paztriot]

Hayagriva dasa: Apart from suffering, Kierkegaard emphasized the importance of love in the religious life. In his book works of Love, he considers God to be the hidden source of all love. “God you must love in unconditional obedience,” he writes, “even if that which He demans of you may seem injurious to you… For God’s wisdom is incomparable with respect to your own… .”

 

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, that is also the instruction of Bhagavad-gita. God demands that we give up all our plans as well as the plans of others, and accept His plan. Sarva-dharman parityajya (Bg. 18.66) “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me.” If we fully depend on Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He will guide us home.

 

Hayagriva dasa: In defining love, Kierkegaard points out that St. Paul considered love to be “the fulfillment of the law.” “Love is a matter of conscience,” Kierkegaard writes, “ and hence it is not a matter of impulse and inclination; nor is it a matter of emotion, nor a matter for intellectual calculation. Christianity knows only one kind of love, spiritual love… ”

 

Srila Prabhupada: Yes, love in the maerial world is impossible, because everyone is interested only in his own sense gratification. the love experienced between men and women is not actually love, but lust, because both parties are interested in their own sense gratification. Love means that one does not think of his own sense gratification, but of the sense gratification of the beloved. That is pure love, and that is not possible in the material world. We see examples of pure love, however, in the Vedic depictions of Vrndavana, a village wherein men, animals, fruits, flowers, water, and everything else exist only fo rhte sake of loving Krsna. They are not interested in any return from Krsna. Now, that is real love.

Anyabhilasitasunyam. If one loves God with some motive, that is material love. Pure love is interested only in satisfying the desires of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When we speak of love in the material world, we are misusing the word. Lusty desires take the place of real love. Real love applies only to God––individually, collectively, or any other way. Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the supreme object of love, and this love can be expressed through adoration, service, or friendship. Or we can love Him as a child, or as a conjugal lover. There are five basic relationships expressing true love of Godhead.

 

Hayagriva dasa: For Kierkegaard, love of God is the decisive factor, and from it stems love of neighbor. “If you love God above all else” he writes, “then you also love your neighbor, and in your neighbor, every man… To help another man to love God is to love the other man; to be helped by another man to love God is to be loved.”

 

Srila Prabhupada: That is the basis of our Krsna consciousness movement. We’re learning how to love God, and teaching the same principle to the whole world. We’re teaching that God is one, and that no one is equal to Him, nor greater than Him. God is never dead. If love of God is taught by a religion, that religion should be considered first class, be it Christian, Hindu, Muslim, or whatever. The test of a religion is this: “Have the followers learned how to love God?” God is the center of love, and since everything is God’s expansion, a lover of God is a lover of everyone. He does not discriminate by thinking that only man should be loved and given service. No. He is interested in all living entities, regardless of the forms in which they are existing. A lover of God loves everyone, and his love reaches everyone. When we water the root of a tree, we are nourishing all parts of the tree: the trunk, branches, twigs, and leaves. When we give the stomach food, we satisfy the entire body. God is everything. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, maya tatam idam sarvam (Bg. 9.4). Nothing can exist without God because everything is His expansion.Visnu Purana says that God is present everywhere, although situated in His own abode, just as the light and heat of the sun are present everywhere, although the sun is situated in one place. God is all pervading. Nothing can exist without Him. At the same time, this does not mean that everything is God. Rather, everything is resting on His energy. Despite His expansions, He maintains His personality.

 

Syamasundara dasa: Kierkegaard also considered faith to be an important part of religion. For him, the opposite of faith is sin, which is the same as despair.

 

Srila Prabhupada: If you are in Krsna consciousness, there is no question of sin. It is not a question of faith, but of fact. At the beginning of Bhagavad-gita, Arjuna did not want to fight, but he finally decided to abide by the order of Krsna. That is piety: satisfying the higher authority, God. In the material world, we imagine this or that to be sinful or pious, but these are mental concoctions. They have no value.