Worldly love has two faults in it: selfishness and infatuation.
Sometimes both selfishness and infatuation are present in a person with worldly love. At other times, only one is present: If selfishness is not present, infatuation will be present; if infatuation is not present, there will be selfishness.
A dog, for example, loves its master. It might not have selfishness but will have infatuation toward its master. Parents love their kids. They might not be selfish, but they will have an infatuation with their kids. Some parents might have a trace of selfishness along with infatuation toward their kids.
The love of Bhagwan is the only love that is free from selfishness and infatuation, and we can’t find such love anywhere else. Bhagwan’s pure, selfless, and faultless love for a soul can’t be matched even with a million parents’ love for their kids. Yet do we believe in the love of Bhagwan for us?
We believe that parents love us so much, but we don’t believe in the love of Bhagwan, which is our foolishness. We don’t believe in the pure love of Bhagwan on us, but we believe in the love of parents that is contaminated with selfishness and infatuation.
Even if a person is told a thousand times, he still values the selfish and infatuated love of his family and relatives more than the selfless and faultless love of Bhagwan, and thus he gets trapped. By looking at all his family and relatives, every person believes that “All these people are so good; they are all my own people.” He doesn’t believe that one day these people are going to throw him into the darkest hell.
Sadguru Gunatitanand Swami, in his Swami Ni Vato, described a story about family relationships.
One day, a young son of a businessman met a saint.
The saint asked the boy about how strong his relationship with his family is.
The boy replied, “Swami, how can I describe their love for me? I cannot find words to describe such a precious love. They don’t even eat food without me, and they can’t live without me and would die for me.”
The saint replied, “Really? It is impossible to get such selfless and pure love in worldly relations. All that love is false, and I can prove it if you do as I say.”
The boy agreed and acted as per the saint’s instructions.
One day, while the boy was with his family members, he drank a glass of milk and started acting as if the milk had poison in it. He told his family that there was poison in the milk and asked his family if anyone was willing to drink it and die along with him.
Everyone became emotional toward him, but no one was willing to drink the poisonous milk.
The boy fell to the ground and lay unconscious as if dead.
Everyone was crying not for the boy but for their selfish infatuation toward the boy, yet no one touched the glass of milk.
The boy then understood the truth in the saint’s words.
Thus, the soul is tied up with these false relations. Even if millions of scriptures and millions of saints say that worldly love is fake, the belief of a person in worldly relations wouldn’t leave him. With such belief in worldly relations, he works hard and spends his whole life fruitlessly.
Nishkulanand Swami says that “Bhagwan has protected you while you were in your mother’s womb. Even after coming out of the womb, the mother and father of this body are helpless and are completely dependent on circumstances to take care of their baby. The real protection is provided by Maharaj.”
References:
- Chosathpadi Katha Part 24 (Pad 29-32)