Thought for the day

He who does not hurt others by word, thought or deed is a true spiritual aspirant 

From the chapter: Selection of Flowers

'And you shall love theLordyour God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all yourmind, and with all your strength.’Thisisthe first commandment.And the second, likeit, isthis: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no other commandment greater than these.

The first commandmentisYoushall love the Lord with all your heart. This is what Swami meant whenHe said there is only one seat in your heartand that isfor God. It is not musical chairs. Yet, nowadays, God alone has no place in the human heart. There is place for I, my, familyand everything else except God.How then can we fully offer our heartto God?

Next,Jesussaysto love God with all your soul. Nowadays,nooneis even aware of theAtma,so how to show love with theAtma, (soul). Without the'i' (the ego)isAtma. Man connects himself with the name and form and then says 'I', 'I and mine'. Once you realize this, you will realize that the ‘I’ is theAtma, which is anaspect oftheParamatma. He then saysto loveGod with all your mind. The mind is a monkey. It jumps by thesecond. What is in the mind? It is our thoughts. Every minute we think and have thoughts aboutmanythings. Only when our thoughts are one pointed can we achieve anything. Thoughts are like the ocean's waves that continue to cometous. When this happensnot evenone taskcanbe completed. In the Bhagavad Gita,Krishna tells Arjuna to be one pointedand persevere. Swamipreachedthe same. Arjunareplies toKrishna, ‘It is easierto control the wind,than tocontrol our thoughts.’

Love God with all yourstrength.In worldlymatters,we use our full strength. If we desire to posses something, how much effort, hard work and full strength we use to acquireit. Similarly, we must use all our strength to show love to God. Strength does not mean body strength.It is thecontrolof mind, senses and intellect;this is strength. Exhibiting physicalstrength,money strengthand intellectual strengthis of no use. Nothingof the material worldcomeswith uswhen we depart from life. God’s love alone is our only possession.

The conqueror,Alexanderthe Greatproved this inhis life. How many countries hadfallen before him!Yet,in theend,he leftthe worldempty handed.To showthisto all,he asked that his body be taken in procession with hisemptyhandshungoutside the casket. We must show our strength by controlling our mind and senses. ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than this. Yet ourenmity and jealousybeginwith our neighbors. Awomanwatchesher neighbor and begins to feeljealous. She thinks,“Oh, he got a promotionand Idid not, his son studieswell, mine doesnot.”In this way, she compares her life with others. Her entire life is spent injealousfeelings.Jesus saysthe remedy for thisis to 'love your neighboras yourself''. Swami has taught the same for the past 84 years. As God is in all, we must show loveto all. OneAtmais in all and pervades everywhere. When man realizesthis,he will never be born again.