Love does not expect anything. Love only gives and gives and ultimately gives completely without expectation.
First let us understand - who is a neighbor? Neighbor is not just one who lives next door to you. Let us start with our body. We live with this body. If you read the life and teachings of St. Francis he said - body is a brother and called it brother donkey. He loved his body as a brother. Do you love your body? If you really love your body you should be careful of what you eat, drink and how to manage the body. A big mistake we do is, we do not know what is good for us. Love your own body and take care of it. In the Bible it is said, your body is the temple of God. Take care of it like a temple of God. It is a beautiful temple. Take care of your surroundings. Keep your room clean. All the things you use, your room, your books, your computer are all your neighbors and you have to love them and take care of them. You have invited those objects into your house to give you pleasure, so take care of it.
Extend it to your family. You can expand the periphery of love as much as you want. But start with yourself and with your family. Do not try to change others. Try to change your attitude so you could be happy and make others happy. In this world you cannot try to change the world. The world is as it is. Only thing you could really change is our outlook, our attitude, our interaction, our acceptance and our love.
There are two types of mind - one is the political mind and the other is the spiritual mind. Political mind wants to change the world and talks of changing the world. The spiritual mind says, before you talk of changing something, you first change yourself. If you are standing with a sorrowful face, you cannot ask others to smile. First you be the proof of what you are advocating.
Coming back to the family - Can you love your mother and father? Do you love your brothers and sisters? I have heard people say, "I can love others but not my mother because she did not love me and was not good to me when I was growing up" Now let us understand love a little bit more deeply. Love does not expect anything. Love only gives and gives and ultimately gives completely without expectation. This type of love does not happen overnight but develops over a period of time by living a life of giving.
Now let us understand giving. You are sitting next to someone, it could be in the market place or in an airplane or in a meeting- whoever is next you is your neighbor. Can you love them? Can you greet them just with a smile? In the West I find a very nice thing. When you stop to pay the toll, many times you are greeted with a good morning or a good evening. It makes you feel good.
I recall an incident. I was in the hospital with my teacher who was 95 years old for the last seven days of his life. There was another patient in the next room a lady who did not speak English. Sometimes I could hear her crying. Whenever my teacher was resting I went to see her. She did not understand me and I could not understand her, but I went just to be there to comfort with a little smile and a friendly touch.
In the Bible it is said God created us in his own image. We are the children of God. There is so much of the creative potential of God manifested in the human being. We can live like the children of God and love plants and animals and also each and every human being. We have such strong likes and dislikes that each of us has divided our world into two- I like this food -I don't like that food. I like this weather, I don't like that weather, I like this person - I don't like that person,-a world of likes and a world of dislikes".
When you cannot change something and you have to live with it, what do you do? You should accept it. Love begins with acceptance. Human being lives with relationships and this relationship become beautiful when there is an element of love.
Now let us expand this idea more. Could we expand this loving the neighbor to the whole neighborhood? Could we expand this to the whole country and also to the neighboring countries? Think of a country as a house in the neighborhood. Think one house is America, next house is Cananda, another one is Mexico and so on and extend your love.
Sometimes during my travels when the immigration questions me about from where I am coming and where I am going I feel this is all one world and we have created so many boundaries. Remember - any boundary is man-made. Love is God made. With love we can cross any boundary
Now how to communicate to more and make this love more palpable? The advances in informative technology have broken down the barriers of distances. We can reach any corner in the world in no time. Just with the click of a computer. But unfortunately the distance between individuals has increased. It has increased so much that even staying in the same house members of the family do not even have time to sit down together. The son is busy with his own computer; the mother is watching TV while the father is busy with something else.
Even to listen to another can be a meditation or a prayer done with the right attitude. I could think my time is very valuable and sit with my computer or sit in meditation. But listening to some one is not a waste of time. It could be a beautiful investment. If you can give a little of your time to someone who is in need of someone to listen and by giving a little of your time can create a great joy in that person and you also benefit from that. Remember love expands you. Cultivate that living in love and cultivate that living in joy. Cultivate the art of living in peace. Cultivate the art of sharing with others.
Every one is hungry for love. God is love; we are children of God and children of love. God is love but God loves love. God wants us to manifest that love in our lives. How to practice this in our daily life? When you get up in the morning and find that your body is still active it should fill you with love. There are many people who may go to bed and not get up in the morning. Stand in front of the mirror and think of how much love you can give. Love is like money in your pocket. When you have some money you can give or share with someone. When you have enough food in your bag you can ask others to join. Similarly when you have some love in you, you could share that love. We all have that love within but the problem is we are sometimes not aware of it. We are sitting on that treasure of love and we are begging for love. This treasure can be explored.
As I said love begins with acceptance and grows with understanding. We always think we know our selves but we really do not understand or know our tendencies fully. Instead of trying to understand and judge others try to understand yourself better. If you understand yourself better you can love others better.
Let us take religion for example. Every culture has made a unique contribution to the world. Every religion has contributed its own beauty to make the world more beautiful. Understanding is important. As I said love grows with understanding and love finds perfection or culminates in unity.
This unity comes up with living among others. We are rational beings and we are divine beings. Every day we grow and every day we learn so much from others. If my thinking is mature and sensible it is because of learning from many religions and many cultures. By the grace of God or by the grace of my Master I have read the holy books of every religion.-the alpha and omega of every religion. The Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Gita, the Buddhist scriptures - I have gone through them all and I found the same truth in all of them. Love is the binding principle in all of them.
When there is so much love why is there hatred in the world? Theoretically we talk of love but we do not practice it. If we live in love, in acceptance and in understanding there will be peace and there will be harmony. There could be differences of opinion. But do not argue. Fools argue and wise men discuss. Try to discus and eliminate the difference. Be a messenger of peace, a messenger of love and a messenger of harmony.
Can we not do this? Theoretically we know a lot. But if we do not practice it is of no use. My Master used to say an ounce of practice is worth a ton of theories. Real success is through practice. Wherever we are use the opportunity and practice. Let us deal with some love with the neighbors, with the family, with the friends and expand it to with other countries, with other religions and so on.
So first know yourself and then know the others. The best way to live in this world is to live like a bee and not like a fly. A fly goes from one dirty object to the other spreading germs and bacteria. A bee goes from flower to flower collecting honey for itself and also stores for us. This is how one should live. Start with yourself. Yes life has some problems but life also has a lot of opportunities to learn, to love and to grow.
This class room lecture of Baba Prajnananandajis to the Ethics Class CMSU on Oct 26 is dedicated to Gurudev.