Love beautifies everything

By Sant Kirpal Singh
^{(Light of Kirpal, chapter 20)}

If you want to have love for somebody, remember Him sweetly. That will result in attachment of the mind and outgoing faculties. When you get sweet perfume in the company of the saints, it is like a man who sells perfumes; when you go into his shop, you enjoy perfume, even by radiation. And if he will give you a phial of perfume, then — what more do you want? This is the way the saints develop that love within you. Your angle of vision will be altogether changed.

These are the elementary steps: to live what the Master says — obey His commandments. The more you come in contact with the God Power within you, you will naturally overflow with all virtues. All virtues will come to you. Faults will leave you. You’ll become the abode of all virtues. That requires sincerity and devotion. These are the things to be lived up to. They are developed in due course; not in one day. If you begin from day to day, you’ll find after some time — just a heart to heart communication has developed.

Love knows service and sacrifice. Love does not want any taking. It is always giving, sacrificing for others. Serve and sacrifice for others because of love. God is love and love is God.

That is why all saints laid a great stress on the truth. The tenth Guru (Guru Gobind Singh) proclaimed,

“Hear ye all! I tell you the truth.
Those who love, they can know God.”

Only those who love can know God. You may belong to any social religion, that makes no difference. You are a man after all. These are only social bodies, the badges of which we are carrying.

In the Bible Christ says,

“Love thy God with all thy heart,
with all thy soul, with all thy strength.”

The second of the Commandments:

“Love thy neighbour as thyself.”

If we love God, and God resides in every heart, can you hate then?

Well, they say you are a liar, you see? So all Masters have stressed love, laid stress on the (true) love. They say, “Without love you are nowhere, whether in this world or the other world.”

Love starts from the body but is absorbed in the soul. And that love which arises from within the body and is absorbed in the body — that is lust. That’s the difference between the two. The first is called charity and the other is called lust. So love is there. You are love and when you are attached anywhere, you forget all duality. When you have love for the Master then you will feel some day, “It is not I, but it is Christ living in me.” That means to become a Gurmukh — the mouthpiece of the Master.

Put in one ounce of love in all your affairs, even the mundane affairs; you will have your happiness. All these strife are going on for want of love. And the main thing is: Love knows giving. Love knows service. Love knows sacrifice. If we learn that subject, everything comes in.

There is a parable in the Hindu scriptures. They say once that Lord Vishnu invited all angels, and gods, and men to a feast. Lord Vishnu stood up and said, “Look here, all this is for you. Eat to your full satisfaction. But there is one condition: do not bend your arm to put food into your mouth.” Those who were worldly people said, “How can we get the food into our mouth unless we bend our arms?” They became angry and left the scene. And the other gods who were there said, “This is something Lord Vishnu says; so there must be some secret in it.” They thought over very gravely. “Oh, that’s all right. Why bend our elbows? We can give food to the other and he can feed me.”

You bend your elbows. That’s the basic cause of the world troubles. If you learn to give, give, give, then where is the trouble? If you won’t let anybody remain hungry, can you remain hungry? If you won’t suffer anybody to remain unclothed, you cannot remain unclothed.

If you make everybody happy — then?

Generally we live for our own self, the whole trouble is there. We should learn to live for others. Then there will be happiness in the world, heaven will come unto the earth! It’s all the feat of love. The whole trouble is: we want to congeal within ourselves and have everything for our own selves. We are man — only animals live for their own selves. They fight like anything to be the king of the other. We have to learn to live for others. The world is full with those who have love for themselves.

Only he is a man who lives for others, not just for himself. Then he has the right to be called a man, because only he who is overflowing with love is a man.

He will have no attachments. All strife’s, all conflicts, all troubles go when you live for others. This is the main teaching the Masters give. Guru Nanak said, “Peace be unto all the world over, under Thy will, oh Lord. Hear ye all, I tell you the truth. Whosoever loves God, he meets Him!” Very strong words.

God is love and love is God, and the way back to God is also through love.

And that is already innate in you. You don’t have to buy it from the shops or grow it in the fields, it is within you. That can have a boost when you come in contact with someone who is overflowing with love and intoxication of God. That is what you get in the company of the saints, by radiation, direct. When the thought is pure that which you see goes to the heart; it goes to the heart. He speaks to the soul direct. That is why we want and pray for the company of the Saints. “Oh God, let us have the company of those who love You.” Every night we should pray, “Oh God, let us come in contact with those who are overflowing with the love of God.”

You have to find no outer performance or outward this and that thing. What is the ultimate object of performing the outward rituals in this or that way?

It is to develop love for Him. Again I would say, it cannot be bought from the shops, nor grown in the fields. It is given from One who is radiating, overflowing with love.

That is why They have stressed,

“The company of the Saints for an hour only
will give you results which you could not
have of your own self for years.”

Love is everything, you see! If we but love. Develop love, it is already within us. Put in an ounce of love in your home affairs, there is peace. Put it in all your rapports, outward and inward, you are at peace. Put in love between religions, there will be peace. Put in an ounce of love between countries, there is peace.

So we should learn to live for others. That saves. That’s only the result of love. If you love, you will learn to give. Love knows service and sacrifice. You live for others, that’s all. That requires no special drawing inferences. Solid facts, you see. All your outward affairs will be beautified. They will become a source of joy and peace.

This is the basic teaching of all Masters who came in the past. By radiation our souls are drawn to become one with the Oversoul. So love is everything. To keep the company of the Saints in sweet remembrance, and contact the God-into-expression power, are the main things.

For whomsoever you develop love you also love those near to him. Suppose I love you — if your children come to me, don’t you think I would love them also?

Naturally. If we say we love the Father but not His children, how can that be?

That is why Christ said:

“Those who say they love God
but do not love other men, are liars.”

Where there’s love there is peace, bliss, joy. For want of love, all these troubles arise, whether it’s the worldly way or any other way. Unfortunately, people say, “We love the Master”, but they don’t love one another; those who also go to His feet. Can they be telling the truth? They say, “Love God”, and fight with themselves. Where’s the teaching?

The main thing is to come in contact with that God-into-expression power which is already within you.

Fortunately you have got a contact with Naam. Come in contact — you will change within a month or so. Spirituality is not difficult, but to become a man is difficult, I would say. God is after finding a man. A man standing on the top of a hill knows where fires are burning.

Kabir says,

I’ve become so purified within, that God
is after me, calling, “Kabir, Kabir, Kabir.”

So God is seeking you, He is within you. We simply go astray. Direct your attention towards Him, you’ll be attracted like anything. What you get by meditation you’ll have all at once! That’s a step for going up. And how fortunate you are, you have been given some contact to rise above body-consciousness for a while on the very first day. When you rise above body-consciousness every day at your will, this is the ABC to start from — not the end-all.

So love is a great blessing, you see. As I have already defined, love is not love which begins in the physical body and ends in the physical body. Love is that love which begins in the body and gets absorbed in the soul within. Then you forget everything. When you have love for somebody, you may be sitting in a gathering of two thousand people, but your whole attention is on the one for whom you have love. You are sitting amongst so many but still you are not sitting amongst them. So those who have love for God — they live in the world.

Why should we love the Master?

Once our Master told us, “Master has already love for God, He has no need of your love.” We love Him only so that all of the outward attachments are broken and come to one point. He used to give an example of a pipe with so many holes in it. If the water flows through each hole in the pipe, drop by drop will ooze out. If you close all the holes except for one, then the water will sprout forth. To love the Master, the God in Him, is to direct all your attention to Him. That gives you a boost. To love the Master is Vairagya — renunciation.

True renunciation is to love God with the whole attention. Then naturally you are in the world yet out of it. Boat is in the water and not water in the boat. That’s all. So love is a great blessing.

So we should love the Master, the God in Him.

Master used to say, “Well, Master does not need love of you at all.” It’s for our own purpose, we become overflowing with love by coming in contact. If you are sitting by the side of a fountain, you will not get wet. But if you just sit under the fountain, you’ll be drenched with water. So love is a great blessing of course.

Why do we pray for the company of the Saints?

So that we may have some injection you might say, something to start with by radiation. And if He gives you the means to come in contact with God power which is all love, then? That is the greatest blessing you can have. If you have love, naturally you will have no ill will for anybody else. When a child is besmeared with the filth, the mother washes it with love and keeps it to her breast. She does not kill the child. Hate the sin, but love the sinner. This is within you all. We are brothers and sisters in God.

It is a great fortune to have love. Such a one lives for others. He always thinks of the good of others, he lives for them. If it is necessary he will sacrifice his everything for the sake of others. He is prepared even to give his own life.

You know, the Master gives you the contact with the God Power, which is already within you. He is Word made flesh, He gives His whole life to you people. Take the example of matchboxes. You may have dozens of matchboxes put under an oven, but will they heat the water? But if you ignite one, the whole thing will be ignited, then the water will become hot.

Do you follow what I mean to say?

If a man is already ignited, and you come in contact with him, you’ll ignite, you see? The fire is within you already and that will sprout forth. That is why we need the company of a saint. He is all the time conscious of that God Power within Him. He always differentiates between himself and that. He says, “I am the son of man and God is in me.” Christ, in his life, too said this: “I am the son of man and God is in me. Who has seen me, has seen the Father.” So this is the truth given out by all Saints who came in the past. This is a digest in few words.

Ultimately love knows unification. All duality is gone. It cannot remain two. It becomes one: two in one.

Gurmukh means: He who has become the mouthpiece of the Guru. “Father and son take the same form”, as Guru Arjan said. St. Paul also said, “It is I, not now I, but Christ liveth in me.”

Sometimes, when you are absorbed, you don’t know whether you are speaking or your Master is speaking, you cannot differentiate. So that’s the ultimate end of a soul.

Of course that cannot be developed in a day. It comes by regular devotion of time, and constant remembrance and coming in contact with that God Power which is already within you. You have not to buy anything from outside, it is already within you. Great is man. All these things are given in scriptures and books. The very source of all this, what they gave out in the scriptures, you will have in first-hand contact. You will speak books. You will see books in rivulets and sermons in stones.

So develop love, please. He is the greatest man who has love for God. And His power goes all around him in whom He is already existing. It is just the controlling power in you.

He loves the snakes, He loves the birds. He loves all creation. As I recently mentioned, one day the talk was going on, when a cobra came and sat in front of me. “Here is a cobra, don’t mind.” The talk was going on for an hour or more, all the time it was looking at me. When the talk was over, it sneaked away. They said, “Let us kill it.” — “Why?” I asked. It is only love that beautifies everything. Even the children sometimes take the snake and put it in their mouths, they don’t bite them. When you see and think, “Oh, kill it!” that very thought affects it. It takes defensive measures, but it will not harm.

So love is a great blessing. We have developed love for our own self. Now help one another. If you live for others, only then can you be truly called a man in the terminology of the saints. Learn that lesson — we are already blessed. Everything will be beautified. Love beautifies everything. Love knows service and sacrifice.
All right, God bless you.