Love is the Essence…

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba spoke to His devotees on Shivratri [night sacred to Shiva] and emphasized that one cannot win God’s grace by means of vows, fasts, feasts, and recitation of hymns of praise or by offering of flowers, etc., but that love is the only essence.

The rays of the morning sun induce buds to blossom into fragrance and beauty; they prompt the divine in you today, to blossom into fragrance, purity, and holy endeavor. Earth and sky take on a golden hue, reminding us of the hiranya garbha [golden womb] from which all creation emanated in the timeless past. This is a sacred day, according to the traditions of this land; it has been revered and celebrated for numberless centuries. But at the present time, people are content to listen to the praise of the day and repeat what they have heard like a parrot.

What really matters however, is the experience of the bliss that it is designed to confer. Those people who are intuitively ready have surely realized that the vow of fasting and vigil prescribed for this festival will guarantee certain results. But there are few genuine practitioners, and even they do not communicate their ecstasy to others. Therefore, faith in the cultural calendar has declined, and the validity of vows is being questioned.

People who travel this land will notice the large crowds that attend temples, that partake in bhajans [sacred songs] and namasankirtans [singing the names of God] where the glory of God is sung with demonstrable enthusiasm, or that mill around venerable personalities who preach and teach the ways of God. From this they infer that this is a sacred land full of pious individuals, who tread the pilgrim path to divinity. But, these are hollow rituals, empty exercises, exhibitionistic picnics or hikes; the pilgrims are more interested in shopping, both in the temple and the bazaars, than in stopping the ungodly habits to which they are attached! They are not aware of the basic truth of God, nor are they anxious to earn that awareness through the hard path of discipline.

Love wins God’s grace

Without an intellectual grasp of the fundamentals of the divine principle, all vows, fasts, and vigils are imitative, routine, mechanical activities that result in a waste of time and energy. Realize the need for this basic step on this Mahashivaratri, for this ratri [night] is the night that has to usher in the dawn of realization.

On this Mahashivaratri, impress on your consciousness that nature is alive, since God is life; that nature appears ever‑lasting, since God is eternal; that nature is but a reflection of God. He lends the color of order, purpose, and activity to inert nature. Without this motivator, nature is helpless and powerless. Appearance is but a reflection of reality; Eashwara [God] is but a reflection of Brahman [divine reality], the intelligence behind the awareness of all. Shivaratri inspires us to learn this basic truth and shape our lives in the light of that illumination.

God’s grace cannot be won through the gymnastics of reason, the contortions of yoga, or the denials of asceticism. Love alone can win it, love that needs no requital, love that knows no bargaining, love that is paid gladly, as tribute to the all‑loving, love that is unwavering. Love alone can overcome obstacles, however many and mighty. There is no strength more effective than purity, no bliss more satisfying than love, no joy more restoring than bhakti (devotion), no triumph more praiseworthy than surrender.

Vedanta prescribes right living

The essence of Vedantic [essence of Vedas] teaching is the achievement of ananda through prema (of the highest bliss through the highest love). Vedanta is an often-misunderstood school of philosophy. It does not mean the study of profound tomes, or the calculated breathing of measured quantities of air through trained nostrils, or even wandering without any assured abode or source of sustenance. Right living, balanced living, true living is the prescription of Vedanta. Fanatics and false interpreters have disfigured the fair face of Vedanta. They created confusion where clarity existed and so people lost faith in spiritual discipline. Vedanta is love, and explains the philosophical basis for that love.

Love should not be rationed on the basis of caste, creed, economic status, or intellectual attainment of the recipient. It should flow full and free, regardless of consequence, for it is one’s nature to love, to seek out the dry dreary wastes that love can water and make fertile. Wherever there is a vacuum in any heart, love flows into it and is glad that it can fill the emptiness. It is never held back but is offered in abundance, without guile or deceit; it does not wear the cloak of falsehood, flattery, or fear.

The tendrils of love aspire to cling only to the garments of God. It senses that God resides in every heart, in His infinite splendor. So it probes silently into the innermost recesses of all personalities around it to discover the seat of God, so that it may bloom therein. That is real bhakti (devotion). When the tendril clings to worldly objects, it is bhukti (gourmandism), not bhakti. It is the direction that is crucial.

Love alone ennobles

When love is directed toward things that cater to the senses or bodily happiness, it will dry up when they fail or disappoint. When profit is loved, loss will undermine it. Discontent will sap its springs, when you love with the motive of worldly contentment. Even when ten million disappointments combine to distress you, never give up love; fix it on the source of love, the spring of love, the supreme goal of love, namely God. Whatever the handicap, however you are tempted to loosen the grip, hold on to God. There is always a calm, after the storm; a bout of hot weather invariably brings welcome showers. Love saturates all activities with joy and peace. Love ennobles the least and the lowest. Love yourself for the God that it embodies, love others, for the God that is enshrined in them, that speaks and acts through them.

This is the bedrock on which you can build the mansion of happiness, this recognition of the divine that motivates you from within. Thousands are here before Me now; you claim to be devotees, with hearts full of love and devotion; you roll rosaries over your fingers, and roll the name over your tongues; you indulge in breathing exercises or contortioned feats, but unless you revere all and worship all in the abandon of selfless love, you only insult the unique tradition of this land. Passion, agitation, and anxiety degrade human nature. They are born out of hatred, greed, malice, or envy, which love alone can counteract.

You become what you feel

When you have the very embodiment of love here as your dearest treasure, why welcome the waves of hatred, faction, fear and doubt into your hearts? Why turn them into volcanoes of cruelty and wickedness, when they can smile as green valleys of fragrant flowers? When there is fear in you, the reaction of fear greets you. When you have hatred in you, it resounds from all whom you come across. All around you echo the sentiments that you carry in your own heart! Yad bhaavam tad bhavati—you become what you feel. Making or marring is the activity of your own mind. When you pronounce another person as vicious or bad, you are making a pronouncement on your own wickedness or vice. Your own impurity casts that suspicion upon that person. No one can judge another, for when another is judged, you are yourself condemned!

You may ask how it is possible for a man to be wicked or vicious, when his body is the temple of God. His words may be harsh, his actions may be reprehensible, his behavior may be revolting, but he is nevertheless divine! Look upon him as the atman, [universal soul] reflected as the particular “I”, not as a body with a name and form, or a mind with emotions and feelings, or reason with resolutions and conclusions. That “I” is as pure, peaceful, illumined, and expansive as the universal “I” of which it is but a wave! Cultivate this attitude toward everyone; then you can rid your mind of prejudices. The “I” in him and the “I” in you are identical, for both derive existence, knowledge, and bliss from the same absolute “I”, the paramatma.

Wisdom is compassion ultimate

Your devotion must stand by you when you seek to revere the reflections of God in the body‑mirrors that move around you, otherwise how can you claim to be devoted to God, the original of which these are but faint and faltering echoes? This is the sadhana (spiritual discipline) I prescribe for you.

Without steady faith in this sadhana and sincere practice of this sadhana, if you simply group together, preparing and sharing prasadam [blessed food] on every conceivable occasion, or even singing and extolling God, your efforts are all in vain! Expand your hearts, enlarge your vision, enlarge the circle of kinship, and take more and more of your fellow beings into the tabernacle of your hearts. Adore them in loving worship.

Wisdom is only compassion at its highest because through sympathy, you enter the heart of another and understand him completely, you go behind the veil of pretence and punditry, convention and custom, you go behind good manners and fashion to see the agony and ignorance people hide from the rest of the world. True wisdom is finding the unity in this diversity of roles.

Think only of God

You consider Shivaratri to be a great event, a sacred festival, because of the emergence of the linga [symbol of Siva] from this body. The linga emerged this day from the embodied Shiva. Some superficial scholars say that Shiva was born this day, as if the sat-chit-ananda swarupa [embodiment of being-awareness-bliss] has either beginning or end! Some say that He started tapas (penance) today, and some others say that today marks the conclusion of His tapas! Even this is an attempt to drag divinity down to the human level, so that man can peer into the face of God.! The affinity should elevate both, not degrade the outer and the inner divine. No low desire or vulgar ambition should be ascribed to Godhead by the meanness of man.

God is all-powerful, God is everywhere, God is all-knowing. To adore such a formidable limitless principle, man spends a few minutes out of 24 hours before an idol or image or picture! It is indeed ridiculous it is practically futile. Adore Him so long as you have breath, so long as you are conscious. Have no other thought than God, no other aim than knowing His command, no other activity than translating that command into action. That is what is meant by surrender. When you intend going on a journey, you hand over the keys of your car to the chauffeur and sit in comfort and security in the back seat, forgetting the possible troubles on the way. You have surrendered your life into the hands of that man, with his intelligence, alertness, and skill. Some men do not fully surrender; they are too egoistical for that! They interrupt the chauffeur every minute with tips, hints, and suggestions about driving, and with questions and doubts about the condition of the car or the road! And so, they confuse him and confound his confidence so much that they inflict accidents upon themselves! Be steady, have faith, and reach the goal safe. Life is the car; your heart is the key. God is the sarathi (chauffeur). Surrender to Him and be rid of further bother. Travel safe and arrive happy.

Surrender and love

There are many who declare that they have surrendered to Me. They use the word arpana [to offer]. They proclaim that they have dedicated their tana, mana, dhana [body, mind, wealth] their all. But they still continue to say, “I did it, I feel so, I think so, I like it, I do not like it,” etc. The “I” raises its hood so that it may receive homage or praise! It is therefore a big lie to say that you have surrendered! It is sheer falsehood. The word arpana is a word that is just thrown about without any value or purpose. How can you surrender something over which you have no control?

You are the slave of your mind, of your passions, of your prejudices, but yet you dare to claim that you have surrendered your mind, your thoughts, and your plans to God! While you are struggling to escape from the coils of the mind and the stranglehold of the passions, how can you dedicate them to Me? No. You need not boast of such bravery, such sacrifice, and such devotion. I do not need or ask for such declaration. It is not enough if you believe that God is everywhere and at all times, and that you are yourself no different from Him. When you are God yourself, to whom are you going to surrender and what? Think over this deeply and attain that realization.

Thousands of you have gathered here from all the corners of this world. You have put up with many discomforts, hardships, and inconveniences, in your struggle to earn grace. For each of you, it has been a lesson in love, tolerance, fortitude, and patience. Your innate quality of love has enabled you to share in joy and peace. Love makes you all theists. If you have no love in you, you are an atheist, however demonstrative your religiosity may be! If you believe that you can win the grace of God by means of vows, fasts, feasts, and recitation of hymns of praise, offering of flowers, etc., you are woefully mistaken. Love alone is the sine qua non.

The Gita [song of God] says you must be adweshthaa sarva bhoothaanaam” [without hatred to all beings], but even that is not enough. A wall has no hatred toward any being! But, is that the ideal? No. You must positively love all beings, actively love, actively engage yourself in acts of love. That alone wins the grace for which you crave.

Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 11