The Difference Between Universal Love and Individual Love

What is the way of practicing Swami’s teachings? How can one get complete benefit of Swami’s darshan (being in the presence of a holy being)? It is only through love. Love is God. Love is life. Life is awareness. Love is a challenge. Love is a dream. Love is a game. Love is everything. Love is life, so live in love. Love is said to be universal, but it is the mind that is the basis for this. Mano moolam idam jagat—Mind is the basis for this creation. The mind is the whole world. When there is no mind, you don’t see anything in the universe. 

Therefore, the mind pervades everything in this universe. The individual mind and the universal mind are one and the same. Because of the individual mind, we say ‘You and I.’ It is this same mind that is all expansive. There is nothing like the universal mind. There is no difference in the brilliance (chaitanya) of the individual and the universal mind. Chaitanya is chaitanya only. What is the shape of water? It has no definite shape. If you pour it into a glass, it will take the form of the glass. If you pour it into a jug, it will assume the form of the jug and so on. Similarly, when the mind is in the body, it will assume the form of the body. Depending on the nature of the mind, things change. So, it is all love.

                                Love is a Challenge – Meet it
                                Love is a Game – Play it
                                Love is a Dream – Realize it
                                Love is Life – Live it
                                Life is Love – Enjoy it

Without love, there is nothing. However, because we compare worldly love with Divine love, it assumes several forms. Worldly love is filled with attachment. You say, “She is my daughter and so I love her. He is my son and so I love him. She is my wife and so I love her. She is my mother and so I love her.” But all this love is filled with worldly attachment. However, love is one.

You may prepare ‘Athirasa’ (a sweet) with some rice flour. You may prepare ‘Rava Laddu’ with wheat flour and ‘Kesari’ from some other powder (other sweets). The delicacies may be different, but the sugar in them is one. In the same way, love is one. There is no distinction between individual love and universal love. Individual love gets transformed into universal love. How does this happen? Individual love by itself has limits. You blow a balloon, for instance, and tie it up at one end. There is air inside the balloon and outside. The air outside is the universal air. If you continue blowing the balloon it will burst, and when this happens the air inside and the air outside become one. So, too, individual love merges with the universal love. As long as you bind it, it remains individual love. The moment the bondage bursts, it transforms into universal love. So, individual love and universal love are one and the same. Merger of the individual love with the universal love is called moksha (liberation).

What is maya [illusion]? There are three attributes⎯rajas, tamas, and satva. Once we get away from these attributes, we will be free from illusion. The whole world is born out of attachment (moha). When we are away from this moha or attachment, it naturally amounts to moksha or liberation. We are born with attachment. When this attachment is cut asunder, it leads to moksha or ‘moha’ plus ‘kshaya’. Individual love is bondage whereas universal love is liberation. The feeling of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ is individual love. When you move from ‘I’ to ‘we’, it becomes universal love. The former is contraction of love, while the latter is expansion. Even in the case of truth, there are Absolute truth (satyam) and transcendental truth. Brahma is the Absolute truth (Brahma satyam). The truth that changes is the transcendental truth. Prajna is conscience, not radiation. The radiation is one endowed with power. Comprehensive wisdom (paripurna jnana) is the conscience. That is chit. It is the full knowledge.

What is karma?

Karma in English is called action. Karma is not merely what is done with the hands and legs; whatever is done with the mind is also karma. Blood circulation is karma; pumping of blood by the heart is karma; the movement of the eyelids is also karma. So everything is karma. Digestion, breathing, and all the involuntary actions performed by the body are karma. English pronunciation is as such very funny. It has no rules and regulations. ‘Put’ and ‘But’ are pronounced differently even though they have the same spelling, but for the first letter. 

Karma has two aspects to it⎯one is that which is done in the past lives, and the other is the one that we are doing currently in this birth at this point of time. But if we see it from the spiritual point of view, karma is karma and not action. The word ‘karma’ has its genesis from the root word ‘krut’ that also means ‘kriya’ but cannot be translated as actions or deeds. Swami had once given this example that just as a patient (rogi) is given some painkiller to free him from the sense of pain due to the disease (roga), in the same way the grace of God is necessary for giving one the strength to bear the burden of one’s own karma. Though westerners are new to these concepts of karma, they try to give their equivalent meaning by translating it as ‘action’—that does not give the full meaning that the word ‘karma’ gives.

The role of students in society

If you take a loan and spend it lavishly without being able to pay it, then it is bad. We should place the welfare of the country before ourselves. Once a devotee got down from his car and he found three beggars each on either side of car. He gave them one rupee each. They said, “Sir, we won’t get even one Roti [bread] for this money. We won’t get any Vaddi (interest) also for this.” Even beggars have some shame and self-respect. But today there are union leaders who take away money from the workers in the name of saving group money! Today there are no students, doctors, or lawyers who work for the welfare of the country. During General Elections, the students close down the college and go to the roads voicing their opinions for various political parties. The students take lakhs (of Rupees) as loan for their education, but waste that money without focusing on their studies. Are students supposed to be like this? No. Students should be like the protection pillars for the country.

Importance of chanting the food prayer

Three things must be clean—patra shuddhi, paaka shuddhi, and padartha shuddhi. The material brought for cooking may be purchased through different means. It is possible that the food obtained may be stolen from somewhere or purchased through wrong means. The person who is cooking may be cooking with bad thoughts and feelings. It is not possible for us to purify all these. But when the cooked food is offered to God, it becomes prasadam [consecrated food]. And this prasadam will not have any defects whatsoever. After chanting Brahmhaarpanam, the God within (Vaishwanara) responds by digesting the four forms of food and supplying it to all the parts of the body. You may ask, “Where is God?” The answer comes from within, “Oh, mad man! I am present in your stomach as the Vaishwanara. I am the Vaishwanara in you. I am present in all bodies. I digest the four forms of food.” What are the four forms of food? The four forms of food are the food that has to be chewed, the food that must be sipped, the food that must be swallowed, and that which must be tasted (like pickle). So I am the One who digests all these four forms of food.

Source: Discourse 16, My Dear Students Volume 4;
Divine Discourse delivered on April 1993 at Sai Sruthi, Kodaikanal