Knowledge vs. Love

More than Arivu Parivarthanai (sharing of knowledge), Anbu Parivarthanai (sharing of Love) is important. In knowledge sharing, something might be forgotten, not understood, etc. but in the flow of love, there is no question of forgetting, etc. It is beyond the mind, from the heart. If a jivan cannot change someone by imparting knowledge they can definitely change them through love. A child may not be effective, but if the mother is continuously loving, there is a high chance for him to go beyond his ineffectiveness. But if she is not loving and criticizes his ineffectiveness regularly, there is a high chance that he will not improve. In fact, even if he is highly effective if the love from the mother isn’t there, she has failed because he might have knowledge but that lack of love will affect him. This world needs change through love. If you neglect someone from a love standpoint but focus on knowledge, you are the fool. But if you fail in giving knowledge but give a lot of love, you are the smart one, the successful one. Because what is needed is only love. Love is the energy that flows. The stuff on which enlightenment stands is Love.

Mahaprabu asked a disciple, for e.g. just as a measurement: The amount of love you have for God, for Bhagavan, do you have that much love for the person next to you? Tell me honestly. Yes or No.

Disciple: No.

Mahaprabu: Where is God? In all! That doesn’t mean you take a cobra and put it on your lap. That’s why even when you kill a cobra that poses a danger, you pray and kill it. The prayer should be “God is the one who is in both of us. This killing of you is done with love, so that you may change your form and ascend to the next birth. So don’t take this as suffering. It is an offering!!”

So, we should continuously move towards becoming loving, by creating situations to express love. If you want to move towards God, you cannot do that without love blossoming in you. That is the proof that you are moving towards God. If you say that you want to move toward God but won’t be loving toward others, then you have a psychological disorder. You i.e. your ego has created a God and takes pride in loving it. What a psycho. So many people, so-called staunch devotees are in this mode. All they have done is satisfy their ego. They pick a God or a world-famous Guru and take pride in it. But when you come to a real Master, he will see the symptoms in you right away. He will know that what you have is not natural. He won’t bother about what all the symptoms are. He knows that it is not natural. That’s enough. He will create situations to tackle that. For example, if someone comes for a Covid test, he will simply tell whether it is positive or negative for Covid. He won’t diagnose what other issues you have etc.

The real practice

So, to the extent to which you love God, you must develop that same love toward others. Even if they aren’t good by your standards, you need to remember that what is there is the same Paramatma. You don’t even need to express that love. Just have to fill yourself with it. That is Surrender. Only if you are in Surrender, saying “O Lord, I know it is you there (in that person). Go ahead, scold me, shout at me, hurt me, I am not going to do anything to react and hurt you.” That ability to stay silent, without reacting, by thinking of God at that moment when the reaction is about to spring, strengthens you tremendously. That is the real practice. To remember God in that situation is hard. Even though you have some concept or form of God or Guru, it is hard. If that is hard, imagine… Can you remember ‘All is Brahman’ or ‘Who Am I’? It is much harder.

But what is everyone trying to practice? Pure Advaita Jnana. The hardest thing to do. Instead of doing that which is much easier. Remembering that God/Guru is in all forms, therefore let me be peaceful even though the other person is yelling at me, is relatively easier. When you don’t react, what happens? The brahmananda sakthi that is in you connects with the same brahmananda sakthi that is the Guru/God. Because of that connection the response that comes from you will be the perfect one for that situation. So the most important thing is to not react in situations. But you cannot make ‘I won’t react, I will be calm’ as a practice. It might work for a short while but it won’t last long. That’s why you bring God, Surrender. Without God and Surrender, you yourself are in control. Since you are in control, you will decide what the threshold is, and what the tolerance is. How long can you be tolerant? Since you are doing the practice with your ego, it (the ego) will decide when to break its tolerance. At that point, it will erupt saying ‘I have been patient for so long. I’ve had it. I cannot take this any longer.’ All the pent-up control will now blow up. And you will justify your actions further. But if you leave it in the hands of God, saying ‘O God, only you can give me the strength, please let me not react’, you have given the control to whom? To God. So you won’t break it easily. And if you do that and still react, you will not justify your reaction. Instead, you will feel bad. Therefore you will ask forgiveness and pray for more strength and move on.

Bhakti vs. Jnana

Sri Buddha focused on pure Jnana. So many focus on pure Jnana. That approach requires that you begin with Arivu, knowledge, your mind. But to approach God, whose nature is Love, will you start with knowledge or Love? The approach of Jnana is highly risky. It may be beautiful but is very mind-oriented. You will keep on satisfying your mind, collecting more and more information. Even though love could have blossomed from the beginning, it does not because you have started with knowledge and mind. The success rate is low and if one is really strong it will still take a lot of time. With Bhakthi marga you start with love. From the beginning, love starts blossoming. So it has a high chance of success. Because of the step-by-step growth of love in you, the impurities in you start to disappear, good qualities rise, then you go to Nirguna, attain Brahman, and with it comes all Knowledge. But in the Jnana path, if you ever get there, Love will finally come. But there is no assurance that you will reach there in the first place. It may come after several janmas. But in Bhakti, it starts with Love and will eventually end in Wisdom. You can be assured.

Paramahamsa mixed Bhakti and Jnana. He wants you to eat the jackfruit, and to make it easy, he peels it, dips it in honey, and shows you the dripping honey. That is Bhakti. It can pull anyone. Following pure Jnana is very difficult. Because all around you, people are not following Jnana (referring to most humans). For e.g. Say there is a traffic signal that is mostly red. Yet you wait each time for it to turn green. But everyone around you is going through the red light (there is never any police there). One day or the other, chances are high that you will also lose your values and go through the red light. But with Bhakti it is the opposite. So many around you are following it. That is how Nature has made it.

When it comes to knowledge vs. feeling, the latter always wins. You might have all the knowledge stored in you, but when a stressful or new situation comes, it is your feelings that take over. You will automatically look to the higher power. Even a great batsman like Sachin, let’s say in two matches he gets bowled out in the first ball, the 3rd time you think he will be comfortable and rely on only his skill? He will pray. Look at the Covid situation. People are now living locked up, in fear. Since they are helpless, they are naturally looking toward God.

Love and Devotion is the way

So increase your faith genuinely. Not as a technique for you to stay calm. There must be genuine love. Strengthen your Surrender. “O, God. In all situations You must come to my mind.” Will this attitude increase or reduce your Ego? It will reduce it. Anything to reduce Ego alone will take you towards Jnana. So what is the benchmark of progress? In any situation how loving have I been. We can feel it. Nature has given us that ability. You can feel it both ways. If you have been loving or not loving. If you are unable to feel it, the Guru is the mirror for you to know. He will point out what is love, not love and even what is weakness. At one point you will know. Till then what is needed is Satsang. To know what is permanent/impermanent, Love/Not Love, Strength/Weakness, to gain that discriminative ability is why you need Satsang. The Guru makes you know through various situations. So make this your scale. ‘Am I filled with love or not filled with love’. In every one, that Godliness is there. You should feel that equally in all beings. You don’t need to express love equally to all, but you should feel that love equally. Then you are flowering and becoming a ripe fruit. This is real growth. If you don’t then the growth is stinted. Disease sets in. You rot like a tree affected by disease.

Since we are blessed with intelligence we should inspect and see where we are stuck, fix it, and move forward. Keep the urge that you should be filled with love for everyone, whether you express it or not. That is why it is said “Unnal nanmai adaya vo, theemai adyavo adhiya patta anaithu uyirgalukkum nee kattura anbu” The love you show towards beings to whom you are going to do good, and towards those beings whom you are going to harm!. When you are nice to someone you will be able to show love more easily. That’s not surprising. But if you are going to hurt someone, will you show love? It is difficult but it is possible. You should. Like the example of the snake, I gave you. Once you decide to kill it, you have to hurt it. But you can do it with love as discussed earlier. So the manobhavam (mental attitude) is what is important, not the action! We have to bring that manobhavam into our actions. But we cannot remember to do it for each situation accordingly. Instead, if you live with the attitude at all times, that all is God, that will take care of it. Only that will work. Never believe your mind is capable of remembering.