Bhakti yoga is the magic. The secret is love for God, that is the secret, when you love God.
A lot of times when people hear this they conclude (because they do not have a full understanding) that that means I cannot love anybody in this world, I can only love God. So that means I cannot love my mom, my dad, my husband, my wife, my children, my friends, only God. No, that is not what it means. It is exactly the opposite of that, you see. But the trick is I have to first develop love for God before I can actually even love anybody really.
Because God is the source, He is the reservoir, this is where love comes from. Why do I have a little love in my heart? Because I am part and parcel. There is a little drop of love in my heart that came from the whole ocean, the reservoir of love. I have a drop of love, but it is small drop. And even if I really love somebody else and I give them my drop of love completely and even if by chance they give me their drop, I am still going to have a drop. I am in the desert, man. A drop in the desert does not go very far. And usually even if I want to give them my drop they are glad to take my drop and they do not want to give me theirs at all. So here I am with no drop and they have got two.
We often say, “Why do I always tell you I love you and you never tell me you love me. Why am I always doing things for you and you do not do anything for me? You do not pay me any attention.” Have you ever heard that? Maybe you said that, it is common language. Because it is a one way street, as much as I can get without giving out the better it gets for me, you see. That is the game of lust. That is the game of greed, jealousy, anger, all these things. Demoniac, that is what it is.
But anyway back to the idea, even if I have a drop of your love and you have a drop of mine there is still just two drops. But if I am connected with the source and my heart is filled with love because there is no shortage, it is filling up my heart completely and spilling out. I can love everybody unlimitedly. I can give all kinds of love away to everybody and I do not need to get anything back from anybody because I am full already, I have got no room. I am just giving love away to anybody and everybody.
Is not that what the great teachers have done? The great lovers of God have come into this world and what do they do? They give love to anybody, they are not trying to get anything. The true master is trying to give, he does not get back anything. That is life. Therefore you can truly love your mother, your father, your husband, your wife, your children, your friends, your enemies, all living beings. And you are still full, still full. That is life, that is real love.
We have that opportunity, it is available to every single person. It is not that God withholds love, He wants us to love Him. Remember who He is – the Supreme Father, Supreme Perfect Father, the love of all life comes from Him. We are His children.
He is giving us love but we refuse to accept it. His love comes in the form of this truth, this is His love. Is it not that love from the mother is coming to a child in the form of her instructions to the child, guidance to the child, sometimes chastising the child, is that not her love? Sometimes parents even say that when they spank us. (It is not allowed anymore but it used to be.) “You know, it hurts me more than it does you.” I do not know about that, but anyway. That was the idea – I do not want to do this, but it is necessary. Because I love you I have to teach you this lesson. All of this is available to us. But we think, “No, get away from me, I do not want it. I do not even want to know that you exist. I am independent, I want to be god, I want to live, I want to enjoy. Get out from my life.”
Somebody comes and talks about God and people run away. They run and they run very fast. “It is dangerous, man. It is in the way of my life.” Run if you will but where you are going to hide? There is nowhere run to, because wherever you are, you are still there, you are still you, you are still empty, you are missing what you need and so therefore you fail. Run, run, run, but there is nowhere to run.
These are heavy topics, like I said. This is not a light lecture. When I come here before starting to speak I have no idea what I am going to say. I have no idea, all I know is what the title is, I look up at the poster before I come in. I tried to get a topic right (laughing). Oh, relationships, okay, and here we go. That is what we have got tonight.