Love of God may just be a sentiment in some religions – how can we know it is for real?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
the path to lighting our heart with love.
The concept of love may be conceived also in different ways by different religions and sometimes it may just be very sentimental things. How can it be made more concrete or how can we understand it properly? When we talk about different religious traditions, they all offer us different perspectives of reality. Bhaktivinoda Thakur, one of our prominent Acharyas, he explains in Chaitanya Shri Shamrat that we consider the truth to be like a mountain.
At mountain peak, he says it’s been viewed by Patanjali from one side and Plato from the other side. So, like the different thinkers have viewed the same absolute truth in different ways and they’ve given us some revelations of the absolute truth. Now, depending on how close they have gone, their perspective may become clearer and clearer.
But it is one absolute truth. He’s clear that no tradition has a monopoly on the absolute truth. At the same time, that does not mean that the quest for absolute truth is a total free for all.
There are objective criteria that we can consider. So, when it comes to love or love for God, how do we understand it? There are two things. First is, let’s understand how we look at love in this world.
Many people talk about love and especially romantic love is glamorized in novels, in movies. And say two people fall in love with each other and they say, I can’t live without you. And they fight against the whole world to be with each other.
And then they come together, they live together, then they get married after two, three years, they say, I can’t live with you. So, you know, love is not just emotion. Love is also dedication.
Yes, after I come closer to a person, I’ll see some part of the person that’s not so nice. But then in spite of that, I stay committed. So, normally, when we we have a lot of sentimentality associated with the idea of romantic love, but we consider love in its most moving sense.
Where do we see it? We see it in commitment. You know, if somebody in love one falls sick and still they are there to by their side taking care of the person. When baby is newborn, the baby is like an unpredictable alarm clock.
This goes off anytime. And the mother wakes up and takes care of you. That’s love.
So, how do we really understand love? You see, love is not just emotion, it’s dedication. Or similarly, if you were to look at religious traditions, you can see where exactly do we see dedication? Do we see dedication to God? So, do we see commitment to turn away from the world to turn towards God? So, people may say that, yes, I talk with God, I love God. It’s fine.
Prabhupada once told, Swamiji, Krishna came in my dream yesterday. So, people say, all right, serve him today. No, it’s fine.
Krishna comes in the dream, that’s wonderful. But what after that? Our relationship with Krishna is not in the dream world. It is here.
So, we have to serve Krishna here. And so, if we are practically committed to living in a mood of service, to doing direct services to Krishna and also redefining our life in a mood of service to him, then that actually is dedication. So, we can see love for God not just in emotion, but in the dedication.
So, that’s one aspect of it. Now, how much are we dedicated to the cause of God? Second aspect would be that when we develop love for God, we don’t see God in exclusion. We see God in an inclusive way.
If I see that this is my God, I love God, and then I hate everyone else, then actually that God, that God is actually not the God of scriptural revelation. That is the God simply of my own mental conception. So, it’s like there is a God in absolute truth, but different people may conceive their God in different ways.
So, for example, some people become terrorists and kill others in the name of God. No, they conceive of a God who hates those whom they hate. It’s as simple as that.
They hate some people and they conceive that God hates those people also, and if I kill those people, God will be pleased with me. Now, this is not a God who is given the scriptures. This is a God, that God is simply a projection of their own ego.
My own ego wants to hate someone and I project that into super size and make that God and God hates these people. So, if our love for God is making us intolerant, if it is making us narrow minded, if it is making us hate others who are also children of God, then we have to understand that this is not a real love of God. A love of God should lead to an attitude of loving service towards God and towards everyone in relationship with God.
When that comes about, then we can see that this love is for genuine. Then there are of course further criteria about, we can go into the specifics of the revelation, what is the content of the revelation. All those are technical details, but primarily, if our love for God is genuine, it should just go beyond emotion to dedication.
It’s a committed focus on the Lord, turning away from worldly pleasures for his sake, accepting inconveniences for his sake. And secondly, it should lead to attitude of loving disposition towards everyone in relationship with God. Does it address your question? Just one minute.
Does anyone else have any question? We’ll come back to you.