AFVOA Newletters of Year 2004

Page 142 of 153 By removing earthly desires, the devotee makes room for the unlimited love of God to rush in as an exquisitely subtle experience that expands forever. After achieving the boundless love of God, the deevotee sees love, hears love, speaks of love and is consumed by the love of God ~ Narada’s Bhakti Sutras Truth beyond Reason - Sri Sri Ravishankar 103. You’re caught up in life. Why is it that you cannot see the reality as it is? What holds you back? You are moving every moment towards the grave! Every moment is making you into ash! Yet, you cannot see. Why is it you cannot see the reality which is so obvious? Because you crave for pleasure (sukha) and you’re afraid of sorrow (dukha). Everything should have logic, but faith transcends reason; faith transcends all logic. You’re obsessed with feverishness of desire and you’re greedy for some achievement. 104. Sukha, Dukha, Logic and Feverishness — these four reins pull you backwards. You dream of pleasure; this is so amazing! Even after experiencing different pleasures a human being thinks there is pleasure somewhere else. He’s pulled by the rein of pleasure. Every pleasure has been so momentary, has left your hands empty, depleted, drained. Yet one hopes for more pleasure, some unknown, unseen pleasure. 105. Sukha is pleasure and Duhkha, the fear of sorrow. What is the sorrow that you are afraid of? What is going to happen to you? You have gone through many problems. As a child, you cried so many times when a toy broke. But what happened? You passed through that. You have passed through many stumbling blocks in life, which you thought were impossible. Yet you remained untouched by any of them. Nothing could ever shake you. It appeared to have shaken you at that moment, but later on you found that you are as complete as were before. It is Duhkha, the fear that holds you back. 106. And then there is desire for more, wanting more and more. We burn with desire; and this burning in desire does not allow you to relax into the peace of your being. Unless you let go of the desires, you can never find peace, you can never rest in the divine love. Love is the process of dissolving, of giving, of offering, of serving. Even if you do service to gain some merit, it is not service. Many people do service and they want their name to be put there to earn a name. It’s like paying to an advertisement company! 107. Many times people say, “Oh, I will do this service. What will I get in return?” Tell them, “You’ll get nothing in return!” Wanting to gain pulls you back; it holds you back. And, your love, devotion does not flower Drop all the reins that hold you back. Let go of them! You are anyway the dearest son or daughter of the Divine; you belong to the Divine. You think the Divine will not take care of your pleasures and will not take care of your concerns and your desires? 108. Let go of these desires. When you are able to let go, then you blossom. Wait for the blossoming. Wait for the time; don’t be in a hurry. Every bud takes its own time to bloom; don’t force a bud to become a flower. Wait, wait for the time to come. Wait for the total opening in you to come, have patience. Let go of desires; sit and wait with patience. You will have to follow a certain code of conduct. This is the manure by which the rose of love will