We often mistake temporary pleasures of this world to be love. This mistaking of temporary sensations of the world lies at the very core of human conditioning. These flickering sensations are like a mirage. A person who is in the desert is searching desperately for an oasis of water. And in that desperation, due to longing and hopefulness, sometimes a mirage appears. It appears that that mirage can quench his/her thirst, but all he/she gets is a mouthful of hot sand.
So what is real love? In order to understand that we have to understand who we really are. This body is like a vehicle, it is matter. The eyes don’t see, the ears don’t hear, the nose doesn’t smell, the tongue doesn’t taste and the flesh doesn’t feel. It is you and me who is experiencing life through the senses. Our body is compared to a chariot, the mind is compared to the reins, the senses are compared to the horses, and the intelligence is supposed to be directing the journey of the passenger, the aatma or the soul. This is the basic teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita—that we are not the body, but that we are the living forces within the body. And that living force, our spiritual nature, its potential is to love and its need is to be loved. It is spiritual love what we are all searching for.
By H. H. Radhanath Swami Maharaj...
Comments