
There
is more to chanting the maha mantra than the relief it gives us
from the daily pains of stress and anxiety. It goes deeper than
that....way, way deeper....
Even
more beneficial is the effect it has at reawakening a love that
is so deeply buried in the core of our hearts. We all have this
love. This love is burried under all the dirt and filth that has
accumulated on our hearts as a result of living in this material
world. This love has been covered by negative feelings that build
up within us all; feelings like anger, lust and greed that totally
repress our original spiritual nature. But, this love is still,
nontheless, there, underneath it all. This love is Krishna
Love, or you can call it
God Love. It's real love. It's the original
love. It's the love we all try to get from one another but more
often than not, it always tends to fall short. That's because
material love has limits. Love of God has none.
A
modern day saint named AC Bhaktivedanta Swami translated a book
by Srila Rupa Goswami called Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu and
called it, The Nectar of Devotion. In his preface he
wrote.....
The
basic principle of the living condition is that we have a general
propensity to love someone. No one can live without loving someone
else. This propensity is present in every living being. Even
an animal like a tiger has this loving propensity at least in
a dormant stage, and it is certainly present in the human beings.
The missing point, however, is where to repose our love so that
everyone can become happy. At the present moment the human society
teaches one to love his country or family or his personal self,
but there is no information where to repose the loving propensity
so that everyone can become happy. That missing point is Krsna,
and The Nectar of Devotion teaches us how to stimulate our original
love for Krsna and how to be situated in that position where
we can enjoy our blissful life.
In
the primary stage a child loves his parents, then his brothers
and sisters, and as he daily grows up he begins to love his
family, society, community, country, nation, or even the whole
human society. But the loving propensity is not satisfied even
by loving all human society; that loving propensity remains
imperfectly fulfilled until we know who is the supreme beloved.
Our love can be fully satisfied only when it is reposed in Krsna.
This theme is the sum and substance of The Nectar of Devotion,
which teaches us how to love Krsna in five different transcendental
mellows.
Our
loving propensity expands just as a vibration of light or air
expands, but we do not know where it ends. The Nectar of Devotion
teaches us the science of loving every one of the living entities
perfectly by the easy method of loving Krsna. We have failed
to create peace and harmony in human society, even by such great
attempts as the United Nations, because we do not know the right
method. The method is very simple, but one has to understand
it with a cool head. The Nectar of Devotion teaches all men
how to perform the simple and natural method of loving Krsna,
the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If we learn how to love
Krsna, then it is very easy to immediately and simultaneously
love every living being. It is like pouring water on the root
of a tree or supplying food to one's stomach. The method of
pouring water on the root of a tree or supplying foodstuffs
to the stomach is universally scientific and practical, as every
one of us has experienced. Everyone knows well that when we
eat something, or in other words, when we put foodstuffs in
the stomach, the energy created by such action is immediately
distributed throughout the whole body. Similarly, when we pour
water on the root, the energy thus created is immediately distributed
throughout the entirety of even the largest tree. It is not
possible to water the tree part by part, nor is it possible
to feed the different parts of the body separately. The Nectar
of Devotion will teach us how to turn the one switch that will
immediately brighten everything, everywhere. One who does not
know this method is missing the point of life.
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