24 | Spiritual Love – Part 1 | Dr Harbhajan Singh

Transcript of “Spiritual Love – Part 1”

You know, God is love and love is God and the way back to God is also love. What is love? Everywhere it is spoken of, but where it resides, how to get it back? It is the essence of life, without which nobody can live.

The love that is spoken of in the world is not love, this is an attachment which finishes after some time or decreases after some time – it is not love, it is attachment. Whereas the (true) love grows. It is just like a plant, you nourish it – it grows day after day and it brings fruit.

You know, with the worldly love (it is like this), when the eyes do not bear the weight of love, it transmits to the heart, the physical heart, then it transmits to the eyes, and then flows down in the form of tears. This is worldly love – it may have some wishes. But Master-love also goes the same way, but it goes to the heart – the heart of the Master is here, His heart is here (at the seat of the soul) – and it radiates the whole body and merges back into the heart – it rises from the heart and then again it merges into the heart. So this love of the Master(power) is everlasting, it gives food directly to the soul. It lies within the soul.

The love of the Master(power) is the breath in the breath. We take one breath and in this breath there is again one breath – there is a love. So those who yearn for Him, they remember Him, they love with each breath. Each breath that comes outside bears the vibration of the Master(power), remembrance of the Master – that is the love of the Master, that is very potent. It is life in itself.

Through those who dwelled in the world as Word-personified form this love had been overflowing. As you know, those who came in contact with such a personality, they only got a little bit of it and they were intoxicated.

Once king Babur asked Guru Nanak – because he used to have what we call “bhang” (intoxicant) and he offered one cup of this to Guru Nanak. Guru Nanak said: “This intoxication will leave you after some hours and you have to drink it again. I have such an intoxication which lasts forever, that does not finish. If you (put) two thousand pots of wine together, it will be even much more intoxication than that.”

So Masterpower is a Love-personified-form, so is the son, so is the disciple – that (love) is overflowing in all of us, nobody is devoid of it. It is the life in it. Why do we need some intoxicants outside? People want something with which they want (to get) some intoxication, because our soul demands it. It is the urge from the soul. It is a yearning from the soul.

You know, when the child is born, it cries. Why it cries? Because he is cut-off from that subject, from the light and sound within, so he cries. And what do we give him? We show him light, we ring a bell and he is happy, because beforehand he was in contact with both. Inside it is the right one, the original one, outside it is the picture, the image of this (inner) one. So he feels happy.

Similarly, we need intoxication, because there are so many wines, very good wines in the world. Even in churches, you know, they also take wine, because it is written in the holy scriptures that there is a very big intoxication overflowing in man. It is eternal “wine”.  They are not getting it from within, so they are taking it from outside.

So it is said that once a swan – swan is called “Hansa” (legendary bird that only feeds on pearls) – happened to go to the field of a farmer, and when this farmer saw the Hansa in his field, he ran after it so that it may not eat it up. It was not the fault of this poor farmer, because he never had been at the ocean and never saw the swan swallowing the pearls, because he didn’t need the coarse grain or any type of grain.

So there is much difference between an awakened person and a worldly person. Worldly persons would outwardly be very nice outlooking, but inside they are all black. Everyone is like this. We come to the Satsang to have our heritage back. Everyone can get it, everyone is blessed with this man-body, only to have this gift of life. Every saint has a past and every sinner a future. So how to get it and in how much time to get it depends upon your yearning. It all needs your yearning, it all needs your determination and decision in your life. There are so many stories and you have heard a lot of stories, rather I told you during this time also many stories, which concern (this subject) – but if our purpose remains dormant, remains concealed, then our condition is like a dead palm tree which has no shadow, and the fruit is also at too (great a) height to relish it; we cannot relish it. So now, how to get it back, how to come in contact with it? You need not to search outside, you need not to search in books. The mention about this love is written in these scriptures, but the love is not there.

Once Vivekananda went carrying his one chemistry book to his Master and his Master asked, “What is this?” He said, “Master, this is a chemistry book.” – “What does it tell you?”-  “It tells, what this water is, what all those elements are there,” everything he told. He said: “Squeeze it out, if any water comes out of it.” He said: “No, this is all dry papers.”

We have to rely on the teaching, but the teaching is within you. If you simply rely on the worldly love – it is not love, it is an attachment. So what is the hazard in the worldly love? There is a very big hazard. Once we are caught in the attachment – where your attention is, there you must come back! So this love sometimes destroys. Now our mind is identified everywhere in the world and we say, with love we are attached. No! With mind you are attached everywhere, because your mind discriminates, whereas your soul, your spirit has to discriminate. Now the mind differentiates something, “This is good for me, this is not good for me.” – like this.

So differentiation is there, but when you take this thing at the level of the soul, your soul will identify everywhere in the world, but then you will see where is the right thing and where is not the right thing, where is the love and where is not the love. You will experience each and everything. And who knows that? – He who is conscious. The one who is conscious, will definitely get a drop of it. One drop of it is sufficient to lead back to home eternal.

The waterlily is a plant that blooms at night only when the moon is full. This flower has a close connection with the moon, although they are very far from each other. Distance is no bar; they are very close.

There is some bird who lives on the bank of a river. The love of these birds is considered as something very special. During the day it sometimes happens that on their search for food the male and the female bird are separated from each other. In the darkness they cannot find each other, so they are flying from one bank of the river to the other, the whole night thirsting to meet again. Whole the night they do not take rest because they are separated. They want to be together but they cannot meet. When the sun rises, they meet each other and they feel very happy.

Kabir says, “What will be the condition of that person (who is separated from God and) who meets Him neither at day-time nor at night-time?” He does not live with the Master, not by heart, because he is not true to himself. If he were true to himself, he would definitely come in touch with Him.

Once Kabir came into a garden. There he saw a bird called “papihar”. This papihar is always thirsting for rain, for one drop of rain that comes from the sky. It would never drink any water from the earth, from a pool or from a pond. The bird was crying because it was very thirsty. Kabir was watching very carefully as what would happen with the bird as there was no rain coming from heaven. At last, the bird fell into a tank full of water. But in spite of that it did not drink the water.

Kabir became very sad, as this privilege (of such determination) was given to man but he never uses it. How disciplined this bird is, who only wants to take the water that comes from the sky, not from the earth! Kabir says, “Even the birds need it, the animals, even the wild beasts need it, but man, whose turn it is to go back now, he does not need it.” So we do not really live a disciplined life, a life of determination and devotion. How can we start with it? It is not sufficient only to talk about love, we must begin with it. How? It is very simple! Go back to your holy scriptures, everything is there: Charity begins at home.