PREMA (Love)

By Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Mahaswamiji

PREMA

Life without love is a waste. Every one of us should cultivate Prema or love towards all beings, man, bird and beast. If we are full of this universal love, we shall feel no sorrow. Children overflow with Prema; but as they grow older, Prema decreases. Prema is exemplified in the mother's love for her child. As the saying goes, an in-affectionate son may be seen in this world; but never an unloving mother. Like the mother's attitude towards her child, we too should be prepared to consider the happiness of every creature as of more value than our own happiness.

PREMA TO GOD

That which has a beginning must have an end, is an inexorable rule. Prema is no exception to this rule and so Prema is not unmixed with sorrow. When a beloved one dies, the survivor suffers grief. On that account is it wrong to cultivate love towards others? No, But there is a which does not produce grief in the end. We should seek this Prema that is in destructive namely, Prema to God, who is indestructible. All things on earth and in heaven may die out but God is eternal. Everything else springs from Him, lives by Him, and, at death, goes back to Him. Loving God, if we look upon all things as God, we shall have in effect loved them as intensely as we love God. To consider things as God, we should remember that they are all Isvara-svaroopam, possessing the Chith and the Sakti of God, without which none of them can exist or function. A non-luminous skylight illumines a dark room when the sunlight falls on it. So too do all objects of the world obtain their intelligence and power from the Omniscient and Omnipresent God. If we love everyone and everything around us as God, even if they disappear, we will not be afflicted by grief, because our love of God will continue to remain.