09.30-31: Love not just ideal people, but also real people

It’s relatively easy to love ideal people: those who have only virtues, no vices. And we do need to love them so that we develop the inspiration and aspiration to become ideal like them.

However, as we live in a world where ideal people are few – even among spiritualists striving to become ideal, we will inevitably find ourselves in a social circle comprising many real people, those who have a blend of virtue and vice, as do we. If we reserve our love and service for a social circle of only ideal people, then we will stay waiting for the rest of eternity; such a circle doesn’t exist in the material world. If somehow we find such a circle, we ourselves won’t gain entry into it due to our not being ideal.

In fact, even Krishna doesn’t reserve his love for ideal people alone; in the Bhagavad-gita (9.30-31), he declares his love for real people, those who are striving to become but have not yet become ideal, and urges us to love them too.