*Chapter 1 - Intense Love*
From Waves of emotion by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
Intense love purifies one's mind,heart,body and surroundings. If God longs for one thing, it is for intense love. God has everything, but he longs for it.
The peak of love is silence, contentment, and a state of complete fulfilment. It is deep meditation. How do you feel when you think of someone you love? You feel so nice.
And how do you feel when you think about someone you dislike? You feel your whole system contract. You feel unpleasant. You should not hate anybody.
This saying is for your own good. It is not because you will do some harm to the other person by hating them.
It is because when you hate somebody, you imbibe some of their negative qualities. There is a story in the ancient Puranas.
The guards at the gates of Vishnu’s abode behaved in a disrespectful manner with some saints. It is said that, God is a servant of the servant and so, he is a servant of the saints.
Now how could the guards repent for what they had done? They had two choices. One was to be born as a good person for 100 lifetimes, or to be born as a very bad person for three lifetimes.
It seems they chose to be born for three lifetimes as enemies to God. They were born as demons, and they hated God so much that they got liberated.
This is because when they hated God so much, they imbibed His qualities When you hate somebody, you imbibe their qualities.
That is why it is said, ‘Don’t hate anyone, love everyone.’ So, start from somewhere. Think of someone whom you love.
Feel all the love in you. You will see that their face and form fades away, what remains is just love, and that it is what you are.
The Master would say, “Thou art that.” Do you see how much love you experience? “Thou art that.” Everybody is made up of this same love, and you are that love.