What is the object of Love of an Atma-sAdhaka? - Part 5 of 5

(Continued...)

Love placed in the noblest of objects is Bhakti.

Love placed on our equals is friendship.

Love reposed in elders whether they are noble or not, is respect.

Love placed in younger ones, or those below us, is grace.

Love placed in those who suffer is compassion.

Love placed in noble ones with humility is Bhakti.

The noblest object is God and so if we humbly submit to Him with Love that is Bhakti.

This Bhakti then becomes Guru Bhakti, Matru Bhakti, PitR bhakti, Bhakti towards our nation and so on.

Among these, only God and the Guru can really take our Love as well as our individual ‘I’ and melt it in the universal ‘I’.

The SadhakA on the jNaNA path is supposed to have his God, not with attributes, but as the nirguNa-Atman. So he has to show his Love, Bhakti, only towards that Atman.

What is the object of Love of an Atma-sAdhaka? - Part 4 of 5

(Continued...)

However, when Love is sprouting from inside, that nectar of love has to be poured to some one to whom one should be giving oneself up – then only one can hope to reduce the ego and enter the innermost small recess of the heart.

Who should be that some one, if not the Atman itself?!

Atman should be wooed – that is what we said when we were talking about mumukShutA. The wooing should become a surrender to the Atman in a spirit of dedication of the self.

The Atman should not only take over the individuality but actually ‘vanquish’ it to nothingness – that should be the attitude of Love towards the Atman!. Maybe before the Atman reveals itself, one has to go through severe testing.

The readiness for such testing is to be shown by the attitude: “ Am I keeping anything with me without being offered to you? Then why all these tests? I am ready to be consumed by you”. This is where Love turns into Bhakti!

(Continued...)

What is the object of Love of an Atma-sAdhaka? - Part 3 of 5

(Continued...)

It is we who have to do service to him with the thought: “We have got ourselves into the mire of samsAra.

At least some rare person is struggling to get the Release. Let us do whatever we can to smoothen his journey of life”.

Thus neither to individuals nor to the society does this sAdhaka have to show his love. That does not mean he has to be inimical to society.

There is neither love nor hate. Non-violence is his first characteristic – by the very fact that he has taken a promise at the time of taking SannyAsa, that not a single being shall have any fear of me – in other words, “ I shall not harm in any way any living being”.

So he cannot have any hate towards any being or society.

This absence of hatred, however, which has come as the effect of the strength of his SAdhanA, is not to be shown as an explicit love in the outside world.

(Continued...)

What is the object of Love of an Atma-sAdhaka? - Part 2 of 5

(Continued...)

Of course it is true that a JnAni after he has attained Brahman realisation sometimes does perform worldly service by the prompting of the Almighty of the mAyic world.

Our Acharya himself was one such.

But that was, after the stage of influence by MAyA – in other words, one has established himself as ‘MAyA-proof’!

That JnAni is not doing things on his own volition; he does them as an instrument of Ishvara.

Thus love can be expressed or exhibited either before one begins any such thing as advaita-SAdhanA or, after one has attained Realisation, in the form of service to the world or to individuals – but not at the present stage of advaita-SAdhanA that we are discussing.

One in a million who has engaged in this SAdhanA not doing worldly service is also not a big loss to the world. In fact it is the other way.

(Continued...)

What is the object of Love of an Atma-sAdhaka? - Part 1 of 5

But to whom do we exhibit this Love?

What is the object of this Love?

To whom does one give himself up? If it is to other people, other places, the nation, or the world – these things are out of place at this stage.

For, such an action will germinate an attachment and a consequent danger! One need not forget the story of JaDa-Bharata.

In earlier stages, service to others, to the nation and to the world are all good self-effacing acts that will result in the cleaning up of the mind and so turn out to be very good.

That belongs to Karma Yoga.

But now one is going on the JnAna path towards the discarding of everything that is MAyA and, love or service towards the to-be-discarded MAyA world is inconceivable.

(Continued...)

Ego & Love - Part 5 of 5

(Continued...)

Actually the gains in Atma-SAdhanA, that have so far been obtained, along with the individuality, should be melted away in the Atman. Instead of that, the ego appropriates all the honours to itself. And it thus fattens itself!

It is the feeling of individuality that is at the head of all these and that is what prevents it even of thinking to reduce and merge into the locale of the Atman.

In other words, the most important thing needed for Brahman-Realisation, namely surrender of the ego, never takes place.

The function of Love – the noblest attitude of giving oneself up -- is exactly this: it prevents the ego fattening itself on the great achievements and helps it to thin out.

Fortunately, the acquiring of discrimination, dispassion, shama, dama, etc. have refined the antaH-karaNaM.

So if only one makes the determination, one can generate the necessary Love.

And one can go on to surrender the ego and the individuality and thus exhibit this Love.

Ego & Love - Part 4 of 5

(Continued...)

One may ask: Did not one reduce the fatness of the Ego by dispassion, shama and dama?

What was reduced was only the fat in the mind and the intellect.

It is true that they were cleaned, sharpened, churned and reduced. But the Ego is more subtle than these.

It is the one which drags us into the mire of duality, without our even knowing that it is so dragging us!

We may not be outwardly bragging with pride: “I have got dispassion; shama and dama, etc. have been achieved by me”.

But inwardly without our being conscious of it, this individualised ego which has separated itself from the ParamAtmA, will be patting itself on its achievements.

(Continued...)