God is Love and can be won only through the cultivation and exercise of Love. He cannot be trapped by any trick; He yields Grace only when His commands are followed - command to love all, serve all. When you love and serve all, you are serving yourself most, yourself whom you love most! For God's Grace envelops you then and you are strengthened beyond all previous experience. Let all days of living be a continuos offering of Love, as an oil lamp exhausts itself in illumining the surroundings. Bend the body, mend the senses and end the mind - that is the process of attaining the status of 'children of immortality', which the Upanishads have reserved for man.
God is the embodiment of sweetness. Attain Him by offering Him, who resides in all, the sweetness that He has dowered on you. Crush the cane in the mill of Seva, boil it in the cauldron of penitence; decolorize it of all sensual itch; offer the crystallized sugar of compassionate Love to Him.
Seva (service) brings out all that is great in man. It broadens the heart and widens ones vision. It fills one with joy. It promotes unity. It proclaims the truth of the spirit. It drives out all evil qualities in a man. It must be regarded as a great spiritual discipline. You are born to serve, not to dominate. Everyone in the world is a servant and not a master. All relationships - husband and wife, mother and child, the employer and employee - are based on mutual service. The world is progressing because of such mutual service. Seva should be done out of a sense of duty.
The body has been given to man for the performance of right action. Every person has to discharge his duties in life. It is a sin to ignore one's duties. Perform you duties without regard to what others say or do. Engage yourself in service activity. Consider social service as service to God. To earn the Love of God, this is the easiest way. The best way to love God is to love all and serve all. Your entire life sanctified thereby.
Devotion consists in expressing love towards all. You cannot effect a change of heart by speeches. They often lead to confusion and conflict. Better than speeches is practice of love with faith in the divine. Follow the path of love and redeem your love.
Man knows that God is the very embodiment of love. Only through the cord of love can God be bound. But it is only when love is for love's sake that this cord can bind God to man. If love is motivated by desire for worldly objects, God will be beyond our reach. You must become embodiments of love. If you are merely loving, your love will be confined to a few. Only when you become the embodiment of love can your love comprehend all. Only then you will realize that it is the same God who is the indweller in all beings.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the Divine who has not only endowed us with this precious human body but which also sustains it. We shall be able to enjoy these gifts of the Divine only if we discharge this debt to the Divine. How is this to be done? It is by rendering service to other bodies saturated with the same Divine, by doing righteous deeds and consecrating all actions in the service of the society. This debt to the Divine has to be discharged in full in this life itself or during many future lives. The earlier we repay this debt, the sooner we shall realize Divinity.
It is needless to search for God. Verily you are the Divine. Strive to realize this Truth. There is a simple and easy way. Have faith that every human being is an embodiment of the Divine. Love every one. Serve all. The best way to God is to LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL.
Ref: Divine Discourses:
|Jun 26, 1969 |Oct 10, 1983 |Mar 24, 1989 |Jun 21, 1989 |Jul 18, 1989 |Nov 20, 1990 |14 Jan 1995|
