“When our hearts are full of love, life is a smiling valley of beauty and joy, romantic and divine.”
Q. If detachment is the key to happiness, do we not merely invite sorrow by taking on responsibilities and living as it is inevitable that we will become attached to friends, family, career, our hard work. Surely we have to renounce all to be happy?
A. No! Taking up work, helping others, sharing with others, is not attachment unless you want something in return for yourself. Always remember, love the world more and more, become less and less selfish and you will become less and less attached.
Love creates detachment
Because where there is love, there is no selfishness, where there is no selfishness there is no greed, where there is no greed there is no Me! Me! Me! And when there is no me! There is no attachment. The giver is always free, and the receiver is still bound, attached. A lover says, “Let my beloved be free. If they come back to me, then they were mine. If they go away, then they were never mine.”
… And of our self? We must correct our view of our self and understand the purpose of our life.
We must realise the difference between our empirical self and our absolute Self. Perfect is only that which is infinite, and once we discover this infinite and we become complete. Who are others?
Others are also infinite, but can you have many infinite?
There can only be one infinite. The moment you come to discover your true self as the infinite you recognise that the Self in me is the Self in everyone. In the dream, you have your best friend, and you have your enemy, but when you wake up can you have any hatred for your enemy? Or any particular attachment for your friend? We can only have a love for both of them because you realise that the role you were playing as your enemy was also you.
And thus, you come to realise that everything is nothing but myself only. And this is love, is when I see the other person like myself. Love makes everything seem perfect.
The Story
There is an exciting story about my handsome friend who was in love with this girl, whom we had waited to see for one year. When we finally got to see the girl, we were shocked – she was cock-eyed! When she left, we all asked him, “Did you not notice she’s cock-eyed!”And he said, “But that’s why I’m in love with her! One eye in heaven and the other is down to earth!”
See? Love makes everything perfect! Other people in the world may not think of you as cute, or beautiful, or handsome, but does not your mother always find you attractive or elegant? Your grandmother must be old with age, wrinkled and grey by now, but don’t you see her beautiful?
When there is love, the whole world is beautiful
And when there is the love you will remove the suffering of anybody whom you feel is suffering. Isn’t that a perfect view of the world? An ideal view of the world is not gained by changing things, but by developing love in your heart. And how can you build respect in your heart when you live a life of finitude, always wanting from others. You can give to others only when you have happiness with you.
Remember, two incompletes can never make a whole. Love can be there when you are complete.
When there is such love, there can be no suffering in the world. And you may think “But everybody is not going to become like that!” You can’t change the world, so turn yourself. You complete yourself and go out to give the world what you can, see how beautiful the world becomes around you. This is a view of perfection. Perfect yourself and the world around you will become perfect. Clear?
So with this, best wishes to all of you. May you attain that perfection, live a perfect life and see an ideal world. It is possible; it has been done, it can be done. And when you look with love, everything is perfect. Every joy, every sorrow is complete.
Change your vision about yourself, change your vision about the world, and you will see that everything is already perfect.
“When our hearts are full of love, life is a smiling valley of beauty and joy, romantic and divine.”
Reference: Article by Swami Swaroopananda published in Chinmayam – May 2004