Article by Chaitanya Keerti published in The Asian Age, India, on December 8, 2013:
While everybody in the world is seeking love to nourish one’s being and soul, people end up having all kinds of troubles and misfortunes because of love. Everybody desires nectar but gets poison in the name of love. Everyone wonders how that happens. What is the answer, what is the solution? Is it possible to find love in a true sense?
Many sages, philosophers, psychologists, priests and other people have tried their best to enlighten us on this issue and most of us have been following their advice. But the advice does not work.
It does not work because the source of the advice is outside us — it is not arising from our own hearts. Our heart, if it functions properly, if it is open and sensitive, can show us the way to love. But the trouble is that the social atmosphere, in which we are brought up, is not conducive to this. It is filled with doubt and fear. It would be a real miracle, to maintain the original purity of our heart in such an atmosphere.
A child comes out of the womb and enters the world, with all the trust. There’s mother to feed him and look after his needs. The mother showers her unconditional love on the child. The child grows beautifully, feeling trust and love. But when he enters the world, goes beyond the confines of the immediate family, the child does not find the same atmosphere. It is quite the opposite: ambition, competition, doubt, fear, fight and violence.
It begins with education, where a child is taught to compete and come first in the class. Unthinkingly, his own family also starts supporting this ambition.
This certainly is not the way of the heart — it kills the heart gradually. When the child grows up, he falls in love. This is not the same love that he had received as an infant. Now the love has become contaminated with ambition and competition, doubt and fear. This is going to reflect in his new love-relationships. After a few years, the relationship will stagnate. The heart will be dominated by the mind, contaminated by social corruption. Love will evaporate in such storms and life will become miserable. In such a situation, life can only go downhill.
If a man is able to protect his consciousness from this social atmosphere, he will seek meditation and spirituality to raise his consciousness. Only such a consciousness will show him the way to pure love. Meditation will create a bridge between him and the universe and he will get the same motherly love on a higher level. When there’s faith, the whole existence functions as a mother.
Osho says:
You are not accidental. Existence needs you. Without you something will be missing in existence and nobody can replace it. That’s what gives you dignity, that the whole existence will miss you. The stars and sun and moon and birds and earth — everything in the universe will feel a small place is vacant which cannot be filled by anybody except you. This gives you a tremendous joy, a fulfillment that you are related to existence and existence cares for you. Once you are clean and clear, you will receive tremendous love from all directions.”
Swami Chaitanya Keerti, editor of Osho World, is the author of Osho Fragrance
Photos added by Osho News
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