Path of Love is Easy
Table of Contents
“The path of knowledge leads to Truth, as does the path that combines knowledge and love. The path of love also leads to the Truth. The way of love is as true as the way of knowledge.
All paths ultimately lead to the same Truth. But as long as God keeps the feeling of ego in us, it is easier to follow the path of love.
“The vijnāni sees that Brahman is immovable and actionless, like Mount Sumeru. This universe consists of the three gunas - sattva, rajas, and tamas. They are in Brahman. But Brahman is unattached.
God’s supernatural powers
“The vijnāni further sees that what is Brahman is the Bhagavan, the Personal God. He who is beyond the three gunas is the Bhagavan, with His six supernatural powers.
Living beings, the universe, mind, intelligence, love, renunciation, knowledge - all these are the manifestations of His power. (With a laugh) If an aristocrat has neither house nor property, or if he has been forced to sell them, one doesn’t call him an aristocrat any more.
(All laugh.)
God is endowed with the six supernatural powers. If He were not who would obey Him?
(All laugh.)
Different manifestations of God’s power
Just see how picturesque this universe is! How many things there are! The sun, moon, and stars; and how many varieties of living beings! - big and small, good and bad, strong and weak - some endowed with more power some with less.
Has He endowed some with more power and others with less?
As the All-pervading Spirit, He exists in all beings, even in the ant.
But the manifestations of His Power are different in different beings. Otherwise, how can one person put ten to flight, while another can’t face even one? And why do all people respect you?
Have you grown a pair horns?
(Laughter.)
You have more compassion and learning. Therefore people honour you and come to pay you their respects. Don’t you agree with me?
There is nothing in mere scholarship. The object of study is to find means of knowing God and realizing Him. A holy man had a book. When asked what it contained, he opened it and showed that on all the pages were written the words ‘Om Rama’, and nothing else.
“What is the significance of the Gita? It is what you find by repeating the word 10 times. It is then reversed into ’tagi’, which means a person who has renounced everything for God.
The lesson of the Gita is: ‘O man, renounce everything and seek God alone.’ Whether a man is a monk or a householder, he has to shake off all attachment from his mind.
Chaitanyadeva set out on a pilgrimage to southern India. One day he saw a man reading the Gita. Another man, seated at a distance, was listening and weeping.
Do you understand all this?
No, sir, I don’t understand a word.
Then why are you crying?
I see Arjuna’s chariot before me. I see Lord Krishna and Arjuna seated in front of it, talking. I see this and I weep.
Why does a vijnāni keep an attitude of love toward God?
This is because ‘I- consciousness’ persists. It disappears in the state of samādhi, but it comes back. In the case of ordinary people the ‘I’ never disappears. You may cut down the Aśwattha tree, but the next day sprouts shoot up.
(All laugh.)
Even after the attainment of Knowledge this ‘I-consciousness’ comes up, nobody knows from where. You dream of a tiger. Then you awake; but your heart keeps on palpitating! All our suffering is due to this ‘I’. The cow cries, ‘Hamba!’, which means ‘I’.
That is why it suffers so much. It is yoked to the plough and made to work in rain and sun. Then it may be killed by the butcher. From its hide shoes are made, and also drums, which are mercilessly, beaten.
(Laughter.)
Still it does not escape suffering. At last strings are made out of its entrails for the bows used in carding cotton.
Then it no longer says, ‘Hamba! Hamba!’, ‘I! I!’ but ‘Tuhu! Tuhu!’, ‘Thou! Thou!’. Only then are its troubles over.
O Lord, I am the servant; Thou art the Master. I am the child; Thou art the Mother.
How do you look on Me?
O Rama, as long as I have the feeling of “I”, I see that:
- You are the whole and I am a part
- You are the Master and I am Your servant
But when, O Rama, I have the knowledge of Truth, then I realize that You are me and I am You.