This life is a very great boon we have. It is a great sin to waste it.
We have two fine legs. We waste them by not using them properly. We have two good hands. We also waste them by not using them in the proper way.
We waste our eyes. Why? We waste even our brains which perform with great efficiency.
The boatman in the above story was, in a way, a lucky man. He could see at least the last stone before also throwing it in the lake. He had the satisfaction, 'At least this one stone has remained. It is good that I have awakened.'
But many among us are not even as lucky as the boatman. Only after wasting our life in totality do we begin to realize the greatness of life.
It was enough for the boatman to have kept with him the last gemstone. With that he could have wealth sufficient for three generations to live. He need not worry about the wasted gemstones.
If you are asking how to spend the rest of your life usefully, whatever be your age, stop worrying about the life you may have wasted so far.
Life left over yet to be spent is equivalent to a few gem stones. We must learn to live the balance of our lives usefully. It is enough. All our mental grief will disappear. This is called 'awakening'.
Bliss will begin to overflow. We will attain the basic qualification to enjoy the present as well as all our future births blissfully!
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Love
- What we get on seeing a flower is attraction!
What we get on seeing a beautiful art is attraction!
What we get on seeing a human body is also attraction.
What we get on seeing the qualities of a person is also an attraction.
Attraction + Lust = Infatuation.
Attraction + Affection = Love
Attraction + Respect = Friendship
- When the feeling of attraction in the mind is mixed with a feeling of lust it becomes infatuation.
- When the feeling of attraction in the mind is mixed with a feeling of affection it becomes love.
- When the feeling of attraction in the mind is mixed with a feeling of respect it becomes friendship.
Love is a wonderful sense of feeling. You may be surprised whether a saint can speak about love at all.
I will tell you about an incident which happened in the life of Sri Ramanuja. This will give you clarification.
Ramanuja was a revolutionary saint. In those times, when suppressed people were not considered as human beings at all, it was Ramanuja, who got on top of the temple tower and proclaimed loudly, 'All men are embodiments of God. '
Ramanuja was a great Vedanthi (Exponent of all Vedas). He was very thorough with lots of philosophies. But, those who speak relentlessly about various philosophies do not possess a heart with soft feelings such as love etc.
Philosophers are those who give more importance to the brain than to the mind.
Ramanuja was not such a philosopher. The importance he gave to love and affection was unique and special.
Once, a middle-aged man came to see Ramanuja. He prostrated at the feet of Ramanuja and asked, 'Swami, I want to reach God, so teach me a way for that.'
Ramanuja asked him. 'Before I tell you the way to reach God, I want to ask you a question. Have you loved anybody? Have you shown a lot of affection towards anybody?'
The man asked Ramanuja angrily, 'What? Do you ask me whether I have loved anybody? I am a perfect bachelor. I will run away from girls as one runs away from diseased persons. That being the case, why do you ask me such a question?"
'That is all right. During any time in the past, was there a feeling of love in some corner of your mind?' asked Ramanuja.
'You are asking me the same thing again and again! I have come to you only to learn how to pray. Not for learning how to love.' He said again with anger.
From what you say. I find that you are a man, who cannot feel what is love and affection. How can I teach about the prayer to reach God, to a man who does not know how to love? It is not at all possible to know about praver for a man who does not know how to show affection.'
Affection and love are two other wonderful forms of prayer will be successful easily through love. Through that one can also reach God easily. But you don't possess that basic thing at all, learn to love the people. Afterwards you can think about reaching God.' So saying Ramanuja sent him away.
After Ramanuja has explained about the greatness of love and affection so easily, who can raise his voice against it at all?
The best way to rule and control our ego is only love. Between two lovers who have intensed and merged in each other at the being level, the question whether 'you are important' or 'I am important' does not at all arise. We enter into a dark room with two lit candles.
The light which emanates from the candles floods the room with bright light. Is it possible to divide and measure the brightness and say this much of light is coming from one candle and this much from the other?
Love is also such a thing which cannot be divided and measured. Even then, each one will, at the same time, preserve and retain its own individualities. For a river to flow, surely two banks are required on both the sides. Can the river flow with only one bank on its side? These two banks are the two lovers. The river which flows in between these two banks is the love which blossoms between the two lovers.
Though the two banks appear to us as two separate entities, they are actually united under the water. Lovers are also like that.