Sharanagati

Question of Kripadham: I want to ask what is freedom and what is the connection between freedom and love?

Tirtha Maharaj: Freedom – I don’t know. I am a servant. I am a servant of my spiritual master and all the devotees and God Supreme, so I don’t know what is freedom. Long, long time ago I heard something about this freedom, but I have forgotten that already. So I don’t know what is freedom. But I enjoy service.

Freedom… I think freedom does not exist. So I cannot really tell you about freedom; and what was the other part of your question? Love… Ah, baba! I’m an emotional invalid. So I don’t know what is love!

Kripadham: Even the invalids have heart and they know something.

Tirtha Maharaj: Something… Something I know – this is what I try to express. But talking too much about these topics might corrupt the meaning. So it’s not enough to talk about freedom and love, we have to practice it.

Freedom is very precious. That means we have to pay a very high price for freedom. But freedom is not easy. Therefore instead of freedom we have to find shelter. The highest shelter is the divine lotus feet of our masters, or the shelter of the holy name, or the mission where I serve – these are our shelters. Freedom means you are under the threat of attack. But shelter means that you are protected. Therefore shelter or service is higher than freedom. And love… Love is such a contact that will bind people emotionally. Right, this is love. Divine love is such a contact that will bind the human being and the Supreme Being in a loving contact – that is divine love.

Love is the ultimate capacity of the soul. And this is the most intelligent way to possess someone. Love is the natural element of the soul. Pain you have in the heart, love you have in the soul.

Kripadham: Why do we say, for example: “His soul is free”?

Tirtha Maharaj: About whom?

Kripadham: For example, who is passing away.

Tirtha Maharaj: Ah! Released from the material body – that’s true. That’s true that the body limits the soul, but mind also limits the soul. So in order to get rid of the body-mind complex you have to find the way out from this entanglement.

The ways of love are very natural and very intricate at the same time. If you bring a young man and a young woman together, you don’t have to explain too much. They will understand soon and the natural inclinations will come. But the ways of love are meandering, moving like a snake. So if you expose your spiritual identity to this all-attractive power of Krishna, that will be a natural attachment, natural connection. Maybe the ways are a little moving like a snake, meandering. But finally we will reach the goal.

Therefore we can say that divine love is the way. Divine love is the goal and divine love is the way. We want to achieve bhakti through practicing bhakti.