Sharanagati

(from discussion with B.K.Tirtha Maharaj, 26.11.2006, Sofia)

Tirtha Maharaj: What do we love in a person? Think half a minute for yourself.
Somebody: I think we like the divine quality in a person, his soul, which is a manifestation of love, kindness and mercy.
Tirtha Maharaj: I think you have given the final answer!
Hari-lila: The first part of my answer is actually the same. But we like the people for the various ways they satisfy us. In the best case we like their soul as a sparkle of God.
Small Dani: We love what we are missing.
Somebody else: Must there be any reason for loving? Can’t we love without reason?! Causeless… I think that love is not affected by anything external.
Kripadham: From philosophical point of view we love God. Practically we are attracted by the different qualities of the person and we are looking for the uniqueness, our love is unique.
Tirtha Maharaj: “Everybody is searching for purity, everybody is searching for love…” *
Yamuna: In connection of what he said; I think that we always like the six divine qualities when somebody reflects them – richness, strength, glory, beauty, knowledge and renunciation. Once Ramvijay told me: “Ah, what you want is north and south together!” Somehow our love is like this; we like when somebody has opposite qualities to extreme degrees at the same time.
Hari-lila: You should speak specifically for yourself, that you like this, not that we like.
Yamuna: Maharaj, I object. I think it is general.
Ramvijay: We object. We don’t think like this.
Rukmini: At first I also wanted to say that what I like is the divine manifestation. But really what I like or love is the people’s ability to make the world a better and more beautiful place; and the people who make me better, who  enthuse me to become better. And it is not true that we love those, who are creating comforts for us. It might be “the more you beat me, the more I love you.”
Tirtha Maharaj: Extremely true!
Prema: We love beauty.
Dani: I think that people might be beautiful in many various ways. But what makes the ugly person beautiful or the beautiful person ugly is his ability – or respectively disability – to care for others and to serve others.
Ramvijay: I don’t know in other languages, but in Bulgarian there is one word – that is the word “obicham”(love) – which has two meanings. “ I like sausage” is one meaning. This completely means “exploit”. And absolutely the same word is used when I love somebody – which has to be sacrifice and service.
Rukmini: There is a state, which is called “I am in love”…
Tirtha Maharaj: That means “I am in illusion.”
Ramvijay: But “I am in love” again very often means “I am attached” – to cigarettes for example, or to alcohol. It is also love! So this question is very tricky. Because one word and one condition is almost the same for full exploitation and for full service! This is my feedback.
Tirtha Maharaj: Thank you. This just reminds me one definition of love. That love is the most intelligent way of exploitation. I think you gave very remarkable answers and opinions. That we worship the divine qualities, that we like the divine qualities, that we love the soul like representation of God in the human beings – this is very high. Usually we like people for their qualities. Or for their possessions. May be we love them for their mood. You can go to finer and finer levels. You do not like the person, but you like the pocket. You do not like the person, but you like the car. You do not like the person, but you like that he likes you, or she likes you. You do not like the person, but you like that he serves you. It is very difficult to come to the standard, where you love him. Not anything outside of him, but you love him. This goes very close together with the idea that you love his existence. His being, that he exists – you love that he exists. These are very, very high ranks of love. But if we have the divine vision, if we have the spiritual vision, then we can love the soul – the ultimate aspect of the person. Not anything outside of him, but the soul itself. And if we see the soul, the qualities of the soul will remind us of the divine qualities. Like sat-chit-ananda, eternity, knowledge and bliss. We can put it in other words that the meaning of life is love. Sat-chit-ananda, the life’s meaning is bliss. Life’s (sat) meaning (chit) is love (ananda). Then it is very close to us.
But we can go on theorizing the levels of love… Until we do not know what it is, this is just theory. Let’s find a practical definition of love – that is service. Love means service. So if we want to check our theory by practice – do it! Therefore if we want to love God, we have to serve Him. And the best service is to glorify Him. This is the religion beyond religions.

*Quote from a song composed by Kripadham das