Supreme Love
In this discourse, delivered three decades ago during Christmas, Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba offers His quintessential message—imbibe and practice selfless love toward all.
The Lord is love, His form is love,
All beings are love, love saves and serves,
Through love alone can good arise.
Love reveals the God in all.
Love binds one person to another. Love attaches one thing to another. Without love, the universe is naught. The highest form of love makes us aware of the Lord in every one. The Lord is equally present in all. Life is love; and, love is life. Without God, deprived of God, nothing and nobody can exist. We live on and through the Divine will. It is His will that operates as love, in each of us. It is He who prompts the prayer, “Let all the worlds be happy.” He makes us aware that the God we adore, the God we love, the God we live by, exists in every other being as love. Thus love expands and encompasses all creation.
On closer inquiry, we discover that life itself is love; they are not two but one. Love is the very nature of life, just as burning is the nature of fire, wetness of water, and sweetness of sugar. We tend a plant only when the leaves are green; when they become dry and the plant becomes a life-less stick, we stop loving it. Love lasts as long as life exists. The mother is loved as long as there is life in her; when life departs, we bury her without the least compunction. Love is bound with life. In fact, love is life. The person who cannot share love is as bad as dead; this is the reason why love expands in an ever-widening circle.
Love is the fruit of life. The fruit has three components: the skin, the juicy flesh, and the seed. To experience the fruit, we have first to remove the skin. The skin represents the egoism, the ‘I’ feeling—the excluding, limiting, individualizing principle. The seed represents selfishness, the ‘mine’ feeling which is the possessive, greedy, and desiring principle. This too has to be discarded. What remains is the sweet juice, the rasa, which the Upanishads describe as Divine, the supreme love. Parama prema is jyoti, amritam, Brahma: “Aapo Jyotheeraso amrutham Brahma.” Everyone has the right to partake of this nectarine prema [love] and to share it with others; no one is excluded from partaking it on the basis of race, caste, creed, or place of origin. The only requirement is: “Have the skin and the seed been removed?”
Love God and be liberated
When the principle of love is known and practiced man is freed from anxiety and fear. Imagine that you are visiting a friend in a city, and are planning to stay with him for ten days. You have some money with you, and you are afraid to carry it about with you. If you hand over the purse to your friend for safekeeping, you can happily go to all the places in the city and suburbs that you long to visit. You can roam through the busiest market without any trace of fear. The purse you had is love—give it all to God. He will liberate you from worry, anxiety, and fear.
Through japa, dhyana, and seva [repetition of the holy name, meditation, and selfless service], you have to cultivate love toward God. Take Dhruva [the child devotee], for example: he prayed and practiced austerities in order to induce God to grant him his father’s kingdom. But when God appeared in the form of Vishnu [one of the trinity] before him, he said, “Lord! I do not desire the kingdom. I want you and you only.” Similarly in the preliminary stages, one prays for worldly boons and material gain, but as thoughts get clarified and purified, one desires just one boon from the Lord—He Himself!
The change in aspiration is because God is the entity closest and dearest to man. Your mother and father might be a little distant but God is right with you, and in you. Even if you do not love Him, He will not depart from you or move afar. “Anoraniyan” (smaller than the atom), say the Vedas [the Hindu scriptures]. He becomes “Mahato mahiyan,” expanding beyond the cosmos, and filling all with grace. He is in every cell within you. You can earn this awareness through intense love.
Good provokes the wicked
Jesus was compassion come in human form. He spread the spirit of compassion, and conferred solace on the distressed and the suffering. Noticing the torture of birds and beasts at the temple in Jerusalem, He reprimanded the vendors and drove them out of the precincts. Thus, He drew upon himself the anger of the priests.
Good deeds always provoke the wicked. But one should not falter or fear when opposition obstructs. The challenge gives joy; it evokes hidden sources of strength; it brings down [God’s] grace to reinforce the effort. Pleasure springs during the interval between two pains. One has to struggle with difficulties in order to taste the delight of victory. Jesus was the target for many mighty obstacles, but He braved them all. As a result, his name, story and message shed light filled with splendor worldwide now.
Besides Jesus, every prophet, messenger of God, teacher of truth, and spiritual leader has had to face ridicule, neglect, and persecution. Though a diamond is cast in a dustbin, its luster remains; and, its price will not diminish. Though a sweet pumpkin grows on a thorny fence, its taste remains and its attraction does not diminish. Even if a peacock’s egg is hatched in a fowl-roost, its charm and characteristics don’t change.
The Divine, though it moves across everything, can never be affected or deflected. Envious folk heaped insults on Jesus. Even among his disciples, some betrayed him and deserted him. Self-dominated people turn envious at greatness and goodness. But since Jesus’ prema had no trace of selfishness in it, Jesus was not afraid. The loveless are enveloped in fear. Love instills courage and promotes adventure. It delights in daring. If you follow the master, you can face the devil, fight to the end and finish the game.
Love must bind all believers
Jesus was love. Sathya Sai too is love. That explains the gathering of Christians of all sects, which we see here. In Rome today, Catholics gather to celebrate the advent of Jesus. The Protestants celebrate it by themselves in their churches. The Jews are not welcomed anywhere. But, in the presence of Sathya Sai, all are equally welcome. The Jews arraigned Jesus, and demanded that he be punished; however, in this presence [of Sathya Sai], Jews too adore that very Jesus. The prema of Sathya Sai has transformed and transcended those memories. It made them realize that there is only one caste, the caste of humanity and there is only one religion, the religion of love.
A few moments ago, Al Drucker spoke to you about Jesus Christ. He got the courage and the wisdom to offer homage to Jesus Christ, because of the impact of Swami’s presence. He understands that there is only one God, and that God is omnipresent. Names and forms are, of course, different but they are all aspects of the One [Divine being]. Love must bind all believers together. More importantly, we should love and serve both believers and non-believers, seeing His image in all.
Further, love must be manifested as service. Service must take the form of food for the hungry, solace for the forlorn, and, consolation for the sick and the suffering. Jesus wore himself out in such service. A compassionate heart is the temple of God. Jesus pleaded for compassion. Compassion was His message. He was sorely distressed at the sight of the poor. Today, Jesus is worshipped but His teachings are neglected. Sai is being worshipped, but His teachings are neglected. Everywhere there is pomp, pageantry, and hollow exhibitionism. Lectures, lectures, and lectures everywhere! There is no activity, no love, and no seva. People are heroes while lecturing, but are zeros while putting what is said into practice. Develop compassion; and live in love. Be good; do good; and see good—this is the way to God.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Feb. 1982
