Love is God. The most powerful word in this world is – LOVE. It is love which is the basis of all activities in life. Mother is at the pinnacle of the state of love. For all living organisms, whether animals or human beings, mother is the symbol of love. As we say in Tamil, there is no temple greater than mother on the earth. Love showered by mother is non-pareil. Even the saint who has renounced the world cannot do away with his duties to his mother. One must love her and protect her. One who does not care for his mother is a useless, rotten and confused character.
A great saint has said: Life depends on love. Love leads us to spiritual greatness. Love lays the foundation for wisdom. Humility is acquired only thorough universal love.
Love is the key to all problems. Love conquers all. One who loves others will feel sympathy for fellow beings. As a result, he becomes a spiritually wise person and the God dwells in him.
King Paari, while spending some time in the jungle, saw a flowering creeper (mullai) stranded without a support for its growth. He left the chariot, which he used as conveyance, near the creeper to provide support for its growth. The king walked the distance to his palace. He is a symbolic representation of love.
Another Indian Emperor, Sibi Chakravarthi, was in his palace when a dove fell on his lap. An eagle came there claiming that the dove was his prey and food for the day. In order to save the dove which came to the king for refuge, Emperor Sibi cut some flesh from his thigh and gave it to the eagle. Thus he had protected the dove and at the same time provided food for the eagle, following the universal order and the eco-system. Emperor Sibi proved that he was a supreme human being, illustrating his love for all living organisms in the world.
Manu Murai Kanda Cholan, a great King of Thiruvarur, displayed the sense of fair mindedness and justice. Once the Chola prince was driving his chariot madly along the streets of the town , and accidentally killed a calf on the road. The Chola king had a big bell in front of his palace. The grieved person could request for justice, by ringing the bell. The mother of the slain calf came to the palace and rang the bell of justice. The king immediately ordered for the execution of his own son in the same manner as the calf was killed. Manu Murai Kanda Cholan was such a just and fair- minded king in those days. How did it happen? The king had such an immeasurable love for all.
The king realized the irreparable loss for the cow and inflicted the same kind of filial loss on himself.
From generation to generation the universal love was practised, and Vallalar was born with the same kind of love for all living things. He felt the suffering of crops when they were dying without water supply. He realized the suffering and pain of starving people and offered food by establishing a charity for providing food for them. He showed the path of salvation for the ignorant and explained the true nature of God and paved the way for the people to become enlightened through the path of light.
He introduced the remarkable chant (Maha manthiram):
The enormous light of divine grace
The enormous light of divine grace
The uniquely abundant compassion
The enormous light of divine grace
Vallalar showered his divine grace on all human beings and attained everlasting life without death (end). India is a blessed land where so many supreme saints were born, lived as embodiment of love, and their loving nature blossomed into grace and sympathy for all living organisms. This is not an ordinary humanitarianism but surpassing to the pure state of love for all souls (Aanma neyam). This attitude of love for all living beings arose out of love for plants and animals and of course, all human beings after realizing the eternal truth that God dwells in all and pervades everywhere in the universe. We must also aspire for and attain such integration and the “universal feeling of oneness” (Aanma neya orumaipaadu).
Those who love all will develop this kind of love-bond with all souls. The supreme state of love is one which leads a person to help others without expecting anything in return.
A devotee of God treats every living thing as his own soul. It is a great blessing to serve such devotees, says Vallalar. However, will any kind of love ever match the maternal love? “Mothers are mothers”, in the best sense of the term.
Even the ferocious wild animals give birth to the cubs and look after them and protect them. The cubs too cuddle up to their mothers and get nourishing milk. Who taught them about the significance of filial love? All these animals get the knowledge through the divine grace showered on them. They live their own lives according to their nature.
Who has designed all these? Must we not know about the birth of man, the reason for his birth and how he was born into the world? Why are we born and for whose benefit? What is life? How is the body able to move around? Who is the creator of all these things? We must know the answers for all the questions and understand the sense behind them.
Atheists will easily answer to these questions as acts of nature. They believe that life is to be lived in happiness to the brim. Discussing, and analysing about the God, universal love and other philosophical questions are arising out of utter foolishness, according to them. Well, are they happy? Do they lead happy life?
When are we happy? When we are healthy and without any physical or mental problems, we are happy. Basis of health depends on the right choice of nutritious food. Clean vegetarian food is the best for healthy life. This was accepted long ago and even now people all over the world have started accepting it as harmless food for human beings. Vegetarian food offers us happiness. It is true. When we are happy, family members, friends and neighbours will also be happy.
This happens when we love others. This universal feeling of love will multiply our happiness.
Following a disciplined law-abiding way of life also generates happiness in you. Never be wicked in order to lead a comfortable life.
When you help others, help will come to you when you need it. This is a benevolent cycle of kindness, which is a part of the universal law of natural order. A proverb in Tamil illustrates this concept: “When you look after the children of others, your children will get the same kind of care automatically”. This adage illustrates the power of love.
If you help a neighbour in suffering and pain, another stranger will rush to share your suffering at the right time when you need some help. This is the humanitarian feeling which leads one to develop universal love in him.
It may appear that end of theism is atheism. That is only appearance and not reality. The first step in the path of wisdom may look like atheism. This is also an outcome of ignorance. Ignorance is represented as darkness, and wisdom means light, that is, end of darkness. When man is led from darkness to light, his ignorance disappears and he becomes wise. As he achieves this state of complete wisdom, only love pervades his soul. Here is a story to illustrate this principle of love.
Once a saint was walking on the banks of a river, he saw a scorpion in the water struggling for life. Out of pity he took the creature out and left it on the bank. When he touched the scorpion and lifted, it stung the saint on the hand. Unexpectedly the creature fell into the water again. The saint did the same act and got a sting from it. The people around stated that the scorpion was stinging again and again but why the saint saved the creature again. The saint replied, stinging is the basic natural instinct of scorpion and taking pity on suffering creatures is his nature. Even though he knows that he will be in trouble, he helps the creature.
How great his love for suffering organisms! Love leads to pity which leads to sympathy for fellow beings.
There are so many stories to illustrate the power of love. Here is yet another story from the Bible. Once a young man fell in love with a charming but wicked girl. She said that she would accept his love on one condition. That was, he had to bring his mother’s heart as a present to the girl he loved. The son told his mother about the condition. She was ready to oblige and asked him to kill her and take the heart so that he would live a happy life with her. He did the same and started running towards his lady love. While running he slipped on a stone and fell down. Immediately the mother’s heart asked affectionately whether he was seriously wounded. That is the nature of a mother. Only then he realized his mistake and repented for the serious sin he had committed. How wonderful the maternal love is! It is non-parallel!
As Thiruvalluvar says, a mother expects his son to be wise and appreciated as an illustrious son by well-read persons.
No mother will like her son to be a wicked brutal person with all bad habits like drinking alcohol, murdering others, torturing others and similar anti-social activities. Mother of such a son will have intense pain in her mind. Even a bad mother would always try to bring up her son as an educated, well-disciplined person. A mother’s love knows no bounds and the mother will always be willing to sacrifice her own life for the welfare of her children.
If a human mother has such noble qualities, how can we express the grace of divine mother? She supports and protects all living beings, transforming herself into five elements of nature.
One who has succeeded in doing penance, shows the same kind of maternal affection towards all. We must receive mother’s love and blessings before receiving father’s affection. Only when we receive the milk of human kindness from mother, we quench our thirst and satisfy our appetite.
As we love ourselves, we look after our bodies, cleanse our minds and surrender to the mother Goddess of universe, only then, Goddess will bless us as we practise saintly path of wisdom. As a result, we get the guidance of supreme spiritual teacher (sadguru) to become enlightened. The universal mother will be dwelling in our body and guide us to our destination. The Tamil verb says: There is no better temple in the world than the mother. Another ancient Tamil saying tells us: There are no holy words better than the advice of a father.
Our body is a temple where resides mother in the form of light and father as sound. This is what we call “Half mother, Half father” in one human form. So we describe God as Arthanaareeswarar in Hindu concept.
Vallalar addresses God in his song, “Oh mother! Oh father! Oh, precious gem that stands beyond comparison! Oh, divine nectar received from the ripe fruit of love!”
Mother and Father. If we realize this and do penance following the path of wisdom, we will receive the divine nectar. This principle will pave the way for spiritual wisdom. We can see God in human form. We realize God who resides in us and the one who pervades the universe. This is the blissful state of divinity. No joy can be compared with this unique experience of bliss.
Let me suggest an easy path to attain such a divine blissful state.
God in temple is represented in the form of a sculpture made of stone. This is the state of senselessness (like a stone) which must be aspired for by the man as he stands before the sculpture of God. As a result, God will reveal himself to the “stony” man. The same man becomes a devotee, who in due course becomes an enlightened person, who will be a saint finally.
Through this path man can perceive God anywhere and everywhere as He permeates through all things in the universe and displays himself in all. This is universal truth (sathyam).
This was what happened to me. The Divine mother of grace, appeared before me a I became a “stony’ person in front of Her. She blessed me by appearing before me as a child accompanied by two girls. This divine vision was possible because I practised what Vallalar preached. This is the compassion for all the suffering and expressing love for all creatures in the world.
I perceived this divine form with my eyes. I experienced the unique blissful state which cannot be expressed in words. The divine mother appeared in my mind’s eye whenever I thought of her. I have understood the meaning of this birth. This was how I was brought to this spiritual life.
Meanwhile I went through a lot of suffering due to the sins committed in the previous births. All my physical and mental sufferings disappeared because of the divine grace of Mother, just like the mist before the sun.
It was the Mother who made me realize that all relatives and friends are deceptive appearances. She is the one who gave me this human form and the one who dwells in this human body. It is this universal mother who blesses me.
The Mother Goddess appeared before me in the form of a girl and saved me from all past actions and sins and blessed me with a blissful state. Mother Kanniakumari (Goddess in the form of a girl) has saved me, redeemed me and blessed me. I must have led a virtuous life in the past.
The supreme energy, universal mother settled in Kanyakumari has blessed my wife, my son and me and led us in the path of spiritualism. How can I express my gratitude to her for her maternal love and grace showered on us!
I was anointed into the path of light offered by Vallalar Swamigal through the saint Jothi Ramaswamy Desigar, a great saint from Tiruchirapalli. The true spiritual teacher took me as his disciple and purified me with his blessings and guidance for the spiritual path. Since that day in 1980, I have been leading a spiritual life and guiding other people around me.
I have started my spiritual journey in the path of Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga Sangam in Kanniakumari. Members of this sangam have provided me for my subsistence. Living with what is provided by others is the path for a monk leading a simple life in the monastery (ashramam) . Mother Goddess provides us with what we need all along with her blessings.
Whenever I was suffocated with sufferings I was rescued by many saints. Even the poison which came into my body disappeared without harming me. Such great saints help us by removing all past karma (fruits of all past actions). They are embodiment of grace, who sometimes in the form of spirit and at other times in human form, remove our sufferings and pains.
Govindan was an enlightened soul (Siddhar) who protected me in both the above-mentioned forms. He came on his own and helped me. I never knew him before. He appeared before me at the right time and guided me to reach the Mother Goddess through proper channel. I used to wonder why he showered such abundant love on me.
Enlightened souls do not pick and choose particular persons. They voluntarily go to all souls which have started leading a spiritual life. Their only aim is that everyone should attain the blissful state.
The world we live revolves around the concept of love. Once we start loving other souls, then those who believe in the efficacy of love start loving us. All the saints will come forward to help us to cut the knot of births and deaths and become the enlightened.
Oh, dear souls! Practise love. Love is God. There is a proverb in Tamil: “Child and God are pleased when we care them”. This is because we know that the infant cannot feed for itself. It is we who provide milk and other food according to the needs of the infants, dress them with clean and attractive clothes and ornaments.
The more we are affectionate towards the child, the more attached to us it becomes. Likewise, we pray God through all religious ceremonies like giving a bath, dress up the idols and provide food for them. The more devoted we become, the more we are cleansed off our sins. As we become humble, and repent for our sins, we become detached from our attachments with the world and attain saintly state. This is a universal truth. A Tamil song illustrates the forgiving nature of God: The child and God are endowed with the same quality that is, forgiving nature which is common to both of them.
God is present in and around us in order to protect and bless us. This is my personal experience. The Mother Goddess appeared before me as an illustrious girl and blessed me. Thus, I became ennobled.
Love is not based on sexual attraction. It is not at all concerned with human body or mind. This is a universal affection for fellow souls, showered on all living organisms – plants, animals, birds and human beings. It is a special feeling of compassion towards all. It is nonpareil.
This kind of love converts human mind and makes it feel the highest form of happiness, a blissfully happy state of mind.
We can conquer the world with the power of love. Thirumanthiram says: Love and Lord Shiva are two different entities according to stupid people,. Pleasant facial expressions and smile should be present in our body language. Those who see us will also feel the same pleasant expression and reveal the happiness through their smile.
The life of man must be guided by the path of love; if otherwise, the man is just a body made of flesh and bones.