God Loves Us As We Are But He Loves Us Too Much To Let Us Stay As We Are Gita 18.61
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
God loves us as we are, but he loves us too much to let us stay as we are. Some people ask, does God really love us? And if he loves us, then why does he impose so many rules and regulations? Why does he demand obedience? Why doesn’t he love us as we are? The answer is that God certainly loves us as we are. Love has two aspects to it, acceptance of the object of love and aspiration for the object of love.
Consider parents, they naturally love their children and some children might have some deficiencies behaviorally, intellectually, emotionally, relationally, whatever. The parents accept their children and love them. At the same time, the parents love also expresses itself in another way, that is wanting a brighter, better future for their children.
So that love impels them to impose certain discipline on the children. Don’t just keep playing all the time. Even if studying is difficult, do it.
Do it according to your capacity, but do it to the best of your capacity. So parents love their children too much to let them stay as they are. That means if children are just simply playful, whimsical, restless, irresponsible, then they can’t have a bright future.
And one aspect of the love of the parents is to impose the discipline that helps the children to become better. And the same principle applies to our relationship with God. He loves us as we are.
This is evident in the fact that He has provided all of us the basic necessities and utilities for existence. Air, water, heat, light, these are provided to everyone irrespective of whether they are devoted to Him or not, whether they are obeying His rules or not. Simultaneously, God is also present in the heart of everyone as the indwelling super-soul.
In the Bhagavad Gita 1861, it is stated, ईश्वर सरभूतानम। ईश्वर सरभूतानम। The Lord of all living beings stays in the heart of all living beings and guides or directs their wanderings through material existence. So the very fact that He is in our heart and He is guiding our wanderings means that He loves us as we are. He is not forcing us to come to Him.
Wherever we go, He goes with us. So He accepts us as we are. Simultaneously, He wants the best for us and what is best for us is our spiritual evolution, the raising of our consciousness from the world, from the worldly level, material level to the spiritual, eternal level, for us to be able to find happiness in the things that last.
And the one thing that lasts forever is spiritual love, love for Him. And therefore, He urges us to follow the process that will help us attain that love. And thus the next verse states, तमेवशर्णम्गच्छ सर्वभावेन भारता तत्प्रसादात् परांशान्तिम् स्थानं प्राप्सिशाश्वतं। He assures that if we surrender to Him in the heart, तमेवशर्णम्गच्छ, and not resentfully, not half-heartedly, but wholeheartedly, तमेवशर्णम्गच्छ सर्वभावेन भारता तत्प्रसादात् परांशान्तिम् we can attain the supreme peace, तमेवशर्णम्गच्छ स्थानं प्राप्सिशाश्वतं। We can also attain the supreme destination, प्राप्सिशाश्वतं। That is, God loves us too much to let us stay as we are, and that’s why He uses guidelines, He uses the process of Bhakti Yoga, which involves prescriptions and proscriptions, which are all meant to further our spiritual evolution and to help us create the brightest