Chapter 10: Love cannot be Expressed

HE says Love cannot be described, if you can describe, it will be far from the truth. This is the only thing in this world that cannot be described.. Yet, throughout history, man has attempted to describe /define and he has failed! Still, mankind has not lost hope:-). HE says, a million words cannot express what a glance can convey and a million glances cannot express what one moment of silence can convey. A moment of silence can convey much more than anything else can. Even silence can be expressed to some extent and Love is beyond this silence. Lovers have this problem, they do not know how to express!

Hanuman loves Lord Rama very dearly, even Lord Rama could not understand hanuman's love. Lord Rama is supposed to have asked Hanuman, how much do you love me?" Hanuman is supposed to have torn open his chest to reveal the Lord in his heart as he could not express it any other way! He says, "every hair in my body says Ram Ram..."

Love tries to find expression in so many forms.... mother calls her child tingu, puppy, etc although he/she have very nice proper names:-). There is no meaning to these words, they make no sense but you get a glimpse of love, it shines through here and there. HE says that every living being is like a pot that can hold nectar. Some pots are opaque and some transluscent. Similarly every creature has the capacity to love, every single person is touched by love, sometime, somewhere or the other.

HE says similarly, love is present in every particle, somehwere it shines through. A dog, a fool, a pigeon, a Saint, all have the same Love. But in a Saint, it shines through as the pot is transparent. At some time an opaque pot can become trasparent. Therefore, do not underestimate anyone in this planet. Therefore, honor all, do not judge or look down on anybody. Honoring a wise person is no big deal, we have no choice:-). Honor others, fools, ignorant people around you, then you have done something.

HE says there are three types of love: Sattvic, Rajasic & Tamasic. Sattivic love is when there is no expectation in return. rajasic love has feverishness and desires to get something back. Tamasic love is the love terrorists have, very destructive. Divine love is beyond these three, beyond attributes - unconditional with no strings attached. For example, mother's love for her child is beyond the attributes. For example, a mentally retarded child is also loved by the parenst. Divine love grows every moment - more and more depth. Such love never breaks! Its is very subtle, very refined and therefore not fully expressed but can only be experienced. A child's love moves from mother to friends to spouse to their own children. This happens in all species very naturally. Your pain only you will know, others cannot; similarly you cannot understand yourself, you are a mystery and can only be lived.

You can shed tears of gratitude, you cannot express love fully to anyone. Love has no flaws, its a continuum. Just like the Sun always shines, similarly it is our nature to love and meditation is immersing yourself in this love. Boredom is lack of juice and love is the juice of life. From boredom you can get to love, love and boredom have a common thread, repetition, for example, rosary. Love is the juice of Life and You are that.

Chapter 9: Crossing the Ocean of Misery

The human mind cannot tolerate misery. Statistics shows that 60% of phone bills relate to people talking about their problems to people who cannot help. One needs to be in the Company of teh Wise. A good company is one when you talk your problems out and leave with a light heart. Bad company is when you walk with a heavy heart. Such a company cannot allow Love to Express.

Narada says, by all means, shun bad company; not that you must not interact with them, you can, but do not shake hands with their mind. Bad company brings with it lust, anger, desires, loss of memory, losing the power of reason - "Sarvanasha". Very nicely HE says, Compassion brings co-operation while company brings competition! Example of wanting to 'catch up with the neighbours'. HE says bad company results in greed gripping the mind; intellect losing its reasoning power; losing awareness and feeling useless. Mind feels agitated - such is bad company. in the beginning, it begins as a small ripple, later it becomes a storm in the ocean. You drown in this ocean of misery / doubt/ anger / greed. Shun such company.

How and who will overcome this illusion of misery??

• By keeping his own company for awhile - called the Heart Sutra. Everything is Emptiness
• By serving the Enlightened - he becomes free from egotism
• by going beyond the immeasurable, go beyond Maya. That reality is the central point of life. Divine Love
• You become free from the egotistic feeling "I"

The language we speak is an imitation - like parrots, children often imitate their parents. HE gives the example of Adi Shankara travelling in search of Mandanamishra with whom he was to engage in an intellectual debate. A person described his house as the one where the parrots outside his home discuss knowledge, that was the identification of the scholar! Similarly, we imitate people in whose company we stay. HE says freedom is when we stop worrying about ourselves, this leads to bondage and depression.

Love dissolves Ego. Naturalness / simplicity / craziness dissolves Ego. When you go beyond the senses, you are free, and when you drop freedom, divine love dawns.

"When you are free, love dawns. When you don't care about even freedon, divine love dawns."

HE says some couples in the US dont want to marry as they are scared to lose their freedom - fear of sharing. HE says craving indicates poverty. HE says calling a stingy person generaous and a short tempered person calm, can bring a change in them. HE then describes 3 ways of being free, in case we can't find an elightened person to serve. These are

1. Going into seclusion. Dropping all the strings, props we have - people, worldly matters, etc. Take a Sabbatical. Often unanswered questions leads to violence. Violent people often have a question in their heart. HE explains that imprisoning people was essentially done to give them seclusion - to settle them down and allow them to drop all bondages.. HE says, often our worries are about either maintaining what we have or wanting what we don't:). HE says 1 hour of worrying is equivalent to 8 hours of hard work. And one who has trust, all his needs will be provided for.

2. Renouncing everything. HE says, we can transcend the qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas and even transcend knowledge and then silence. Then there is no worry as he has total trust and such people overcome the Ocean of Misery. HE gives the example of a man renouncing everything and tells his family and leaves for the forest. After walking for ~10 kms, he remembers that he had left a silver cup in his garden, outside! He hurries back to tell his wife about it:). Such remouncement is of no use as there is no silence at all.

3. Drop the fruit of action. There is no need to rejoice or regret. Just continue with action. We transcend regret and worry. HE gives the example of a poor man who wins a jackpot and gets one million dollars. He decides to buy a home a home in Beverly Hills and the only home available was 1.25 million. So, he became depressed after winning a lottery!

Man needs to accept and move ahead and be centered in any action.. Such a person goes beyond the dulaity. One who drops all concepts, knowledge, he is in ecstacy, gets intoxicated and celebration happens! Absolute divine love is Celebration is Merger. Laughter makes transcend the intellect. The blissful soul is one who transcends the intellect. But you need intellect in the first place in order to transcend:-). Vedanta means the pinnacle of knowledge. The love that arises makes the head hollow and empty. Such a person who crosses the ocean of misery also allows others to cross over.

HE gives the example of how the mind wavers and cannot be trusted through a story of a old woman who wanted to contribute in the middle of the night as she was not not sure if her mind may change the next day!

HE then says a Guru has 5 qualities and in HIS company

• Sorrow diminishes
• Joy arises in you for no apparent reason
• Awareness and wisdom is protected
• Feel the Abundance
• Hidden talents manifest

HE says, all these things blossom around the Master and they also happen around a child.

Chapter 8: Awakening the Divinity Within

HE says the Divine should be allowed to permeate. Wake the Divine Up is an expression used. God is within each one, sleeping. He says, first man wakes up and then the Divinity is awoken. For those in whom the Divinity is awoken, He is is called a Saint. Wake up the God in you. He is not up in heaven somewhere, He resides within.

HE shares a story of how God wants to run away from man after creating him because man is always complaining to God about something or the other. God found it impossible to satisfy man and shares this with a Saint. The saint tells God to go within the heart of man becuase man will never go there!! What it means is, when you reach your heart, there is no complaint.

And man needs to wake up the God within him. It is symbolised in the Hindu scriptures as Lord Narayana resting on the snake with His consort Lakshmi at his side. When Narayana is woken up, so is Lakshmi. Enlightenement is wakening the Divinity. Most important thing is to remember that the means of being in Love is to be with someone who is in Love / Being in the company of the Divine. When you are with an enlightened Saint, you become like them. When grace comes, grab it!! Often disgruntled people group together!

"Mahath" is what exists beyond the field of ego - in the whole creation. If ego is an atom, beyond the atom, the space is Mahath. Therefore, one who lives in this space element is called Mahatma. The Company of one who is free can give you freedom. Company of the rich will bring you riches. The company of the Divine will make be in Divine Love. Its very difficult to get the company of Saints. You cannot understand their depth. It cannot be described in words.

HE shares a story of a Saint who comes to live just outside a Kingdom. The news spreads of his ability to solve people's problems. The King wanted to go meet the Saint and sends his Commander in Chief to check him out. The saint received him well and the Chief gives a fine report to the King. The king then sends his Minister. He also came back with a good report of being treated well. So, the King visits the Saint, and the Saint turns his back on him!! But the King felt the presence and serenity and was filled with gratitude. He is happy. But the disciples don't understand... This can be explained by the saying, "A good horse runs by the shadow of a whip!". A sensitive person will and can feel the presence.

During the time of Jesus, only 12 innocent people knew Him, the others didn't. It needs some sensitivity. Knowledge of the Divinity in Jesus also comes with Grace only - even for that grace is needed. The ways of the Lord is very different.

Intuition is beyond Reason and Saints work from intuition. Saints are known to scold for no reason.. the Zen Masters are known for it. HE gives the example of a Master walking with a disciple in the forest. There were some boys teasing the disciple for his looks etc and was being taunted for a long time. The disciple didn't react. Later they got onto two different boats to cross the river. The boat carrying the boys toppled over and the boat carrying the Master and disciple was fine. The master is supposed to have slapped the disciple. He says because the disciple didn't react, the boys became the victims of their karma and blamed the disciple for it!! The ways of the Saints is beyond comprehension.

You cannot demand the company of the Saints. One gets it by grace only. It is purely the choice of the Divine to give Company. HE gives another story of a nun reaching hell. The nun is sure there has been a mistake and asks for clarifications with God. God confirms her place in hell as he says he didn't want to be bothered by her, like she did on Earth:). But the taxi driver goes to heaven because he got his passengers to pray sincerely when he drove!!

HE says, when in bliss, there is no sepration between you and the Divine, there is no gap. When your child is scolded, the parents take the blame and claim to be responsible. Do not miss an opportunity to be in good company / satsang. This can take you across the Ocean of Misery.

Chapter 7: The Means to Divine Love

There is a very close co-relation between love and pain. "Why is it so difficult to fall in Love? When the heart breaks, why is it so difficult? When you are alone, why is it so difficult?"

Love and pain have a close connection. We are born with pain. Process of birth is painful. Therefore the child is very tired for weeks. Therefore there are tears when its born. The second experience of a child is Love. The child's eyes are so innocent. Similarly old people's eyes, those >95 years; there is a lightness. "What is the way to Divine Love?"

The great teachers have sung the Means. There is a melody to the Heart. Logic has no rhythm; Logic is Straight. Heart can never deceive. Love is effortless

Means of Love:

1. Going inward - back to Source - Surrender (Mana - outward, nama - inward). When mind withdraws, surrender happens! Ability of the senses is limited; desires are however unlimited. Senses give us limited joy (eg., music, taste, touch - this external world can only tire you out). Knowing this, you get back to the Source. When you say 'lovely', that moment you are in Love. You get in touch with your Nature. observe the senses - be a Witness - You get in touch with the Source. Eg., Story of Mullah Naseeruddin riding a horse!! He goes up and down on the horse and when asked where he way going, he says, "I don't know, ask the horse!"Our senses are the like the horse, we are obsessed with them. Eg. Bulimia. They keep on eating and finally throw up. Similarly with sex. As long as there is feverishness, there can be no love. OCD happens because you don't retire from senses.
2. Retiring from the company of people - removes obsessions. Recharge batteries, Be a Witness. This happens effortlessly in this path. Eg., a muslim gentleman travelled with Guruji 15 years ago. Later, he came with his kids and met Guruji and shared that those five minutes of connection with Guruji had changed his life and that he remembers him everyday. You are that Love. You only have to open the lid.
3. Bhajan - that which we share. To share peace, love, caring -is the Divine. Uninterrupted sharing is Bhajan. The Divine comprehends the opposites. Uninterrupted singing / sharing / connection. Example, "I surrender every night". For example, you think of God only during problems. Do not hold any corner of yourself from Divine Love. Share everything with the Divine. Guilt does not work here. You need to share and offer everything to Divinity. Let Divinity permeate every corner of your life.
4. Even in day-to-day activities, appreciate and see the sacredness, the divinity everywhere, in all that you do. For example, Ayudha Puja -bowing to an inanimate object, car /bus.. it is honoring the Life - everything - this is Puja Example, when you see good qualities in others - you feel uplifted! When you must crticize, say it from your lips. You are saying out of Love. Krishna calls Arjuna - Anasuya - one who does not pick on people - uplifting. Wherever you see beauty, it belongs to the divine. Beauty only triggers the feeling of Divinity. Flowers feel bad when you don't see the divinity. A guest is worshipped as God. Love makes inanimate objects alive!! For example, we have dialogue with the moon. Lions talking, elephants expressing feelings /emotions. Mickey mouse - when you grow up, you don't see life in animals! A child elevates animals to a higher level than itself - that is Divine Love. God never feels jealous because there is no Second. Does God test man or vice-versa? He knows all, why would he ever test?
5. Singing the Glory of God. Listen to good things. God plays all roles - good, bad. Every action and reaction is God. Apparently, when somebody says some scandals, gossip etc., Guruji's grandma used to say, "Shiva Shiva..". The shlokam Badram Karneybhi Shrunayama Deva... means Let me hear only good things; Let my life be of service to all the angels.

Chapter 6. Love and Respect

Intimate Love + Respect equals Love of the Enlightened. Though the Gopis were so close to Krishna, they never forgot for a moment, the glory of Krishna, yet their respect for Krishna never diminished. It kept increasing! You see the unfathomable depth of Personality.

If you are regular with Sadhana, you will gain, respect will never diminsh. Respect by your smile, compassion (values), stays with you forever. Everybody has these virtues. You need to go to the Centre. Narada gives a thread here - Love and Respect can co-exist in Divine Love - its is all encompassing. You cannot understand yourself. You are so vast, deep as the ocean. Do not be judgemental of anybody. Anybody, anytime can blossom!! Divine Love takes you to that level of Non judgemental. To hold the vastness, that is, Love, do not be disrespectful. When you disrespect someone, your consciousness shrinks!! Love and respect needs to be maintained in any relationship. For example, closeness of Gopis for Krishna. Inspite of all their games, troubles with krishna, the Gopis never lost their respect for Krishna.

Ego cannot stand closeness. When ego gets squashed....love develops. Anything that is far, at a distance appears to be glorious and when it is close, you cannot see the same glory.

Purpose of ego is to gain respect. When you are being in your Nature, repect for you happens.

Chapter 5. Love is Pure Communication

Narada speaks about the love of Gopis for Krishna. Krishna broke all the rules. He was very naughty and mischievous. Although the love of Gopis for Krishna was intimate, they looked at Krishna as their beloved. He was so close to their heart.

Communication comes down when you keep people at different levels - up or down. There are three levels of Love

1. Attraction - lust
2. Longing - love has happened
3. Love culminates - Surrender

Love and respect - there is conflict. Love knows no distance and respect needs a distance. Gopis loved Krishna so much and kept HIM in an equal level. They were so spaced out in HIS presence. There were 16,000 of them. Was it it lust?

Love has 2% lust; Lust has 2% Love. Lust means coming close. Lust is aggressive, demanding, feverishness. Love is submissive, caring, giving, joy. In lust you make the other an object; in Love you elevate the other. Lust is stimulation of body and Love is stimulation of Soul. They are so close. This discrimination /awareness is missing in society. "A fraction /moment of samadhi equals 1000 times of sex" - Rishis said this.

God is our mother, father.... unlike in the West. In Hinduism, we always habe both together. Prakriti + Purusha (Nature + Source)... its always Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Parvathi; Lakshmi-Narayana

Gopis saw the spirit of Krishna. They saw the Grandeur and Glory of Krishna. Story goes that one night, Krishna was playing the flute in the garden and soon Krishna told the Gopis to go home as it was getting late. The Gopis refuse to go home and after much cajoling, they finally leave but they tell Krishna that they know HE plays the flute better when they are around! Love rejoices in the Joy of others.

If the divine spirit is not there, it is like the prostitute. In such lust, there is no joy, no comfort. Nature of Love is to bring comfort to the other.

Another story goes that Lord Krishna once had a headache and he was then the King of Dwaraka. All the Vaidyas come and are unable to rid the Lord of the headache. Krishna is supposed to have said, "only the dust from the feet of my devotees can rid me of the headache"... Lot of discussion happenned and no one came forward as it was considered to be a Sin and Hell was guaranteed for such action! Sage Narada went to the Gopis and told them about the Lord's requirement.. They sent truckloads of dust for the Lord - such was their love!

And when Krishna was ready to leave the Universe, HE tells one of his greatest devotee Uddhava to go see the Gopis and give them Knowledge after HE left. The gopis apparently ask Uddhava, "What knowldege you are giving us?? Every particle of our body is filled with longing. We are not there at all".... Such was the amazing state of Consciousness of the Gopis. It is said that the Angels rejoiced with just one tear of Love /longing of the Gopis.

There is a taboo in the East to express Love. In lust, there is too much expression; the feelings get lost and too little expression stifles you. Follow the middle path. The love of the Gopis was they rejoiced in the Comfort of the Divine.

Chapter 4. Rejoicing without Conflict

Love and discipline are opposite in nature. When there is an interest in any activity, there is no need for any law. Lovers know no Rules. Conflict creates confusion and chaos and Love also creates confusion and chaos. But you cannot discard discipline. To preserve Love, you need to follow the Laws. Even in food, day to day activities, you need discipline. Discipline is required when there is no interest. Anything in extreme has to be dropped! Even in meditation, love, talking, otherwise even Love will turn Sour. Example, Love marriages breakup, very often. There is too much expression of Love.

Honor certain rules /discipline - This will uphold you. Discipline appears stifling, actually it gives you freedom. Example, child brushing teeth - this discipline prevents toothache. The other side of discipline gives you freedom - in the long run. Discipline takes you to Divine Love. However, don't be rigid about it. Police have traffic rules; but the ambulance needs to break the rules sometimes! Love knows no boundaries. Love can accomodate all the different opinions /the opposite values

SIGNS of LOVE

1. Love to perform Puja - like Rishi Parashara. Puja is action that comes out of fullness. Pu means fullness; Ja means born. Example, Nature loves you dearly, so we offer them during Puja - food, light, water, flowers, fragrance, Aaarathi. You are in total Joy - Ecstacy. Expression of immense gratitude is Puja.
2. Telling stories - like Garga Rishi. Example grandparents talk 24/7 about their grandchildren. Praising through stories, rather, rejoicing in stories, Divine Love manifests in the stories.
3. Rejoicing in Oneself without any conflict - Rishi Shandilya. Conflict is the work of intellect. Rejoicing is the work of the heart. Shandilya was very chaotic but there was no conflict, he was is in Divine Love. Our work, service, conversatons can be without conflict.
4. Offering all - good and bad to the Divine - Sage Narada. Only when you forget God, you are miserable. Unconditional Love - this is Divine Love. Restlessness is a sign of Love. When there is longing, there is Love. Gopis never forgot Krishna, their love and longing for Krishna brought them to Divine Love

Radha means longing; Shyam /Govind means Love.

Bhakti Sutras lift us! Example, the month of Aashad (Aadi in tamil) is meant for longing. Two feverish people get together, love disappears /exaporates and they end up suffocating each other.

Love is your very nature and longing is an integral part of it. Love is never complete - the longing keeps it Incomplete. Completion brings boundaries. The Gopis rejoiced in this Incompleteness. Example the love of the Gopis of Brindavan for Lord Krishna is an example of Love. Whatever actions have happened, offer all of them to the Divine - Relax!