Skip to main content

Second angle of the "love for God" triangle

Love knows no fear

Some religions define "God-fearing" as a good quality of a person. and some define "God-loving" as a good quality. They are very different. A God -fearing man does good actions only because he thinks he will be free from the wrath of God. But a God-loving man does everything out of love for God.What happens when you sincerely love somebody? You want to do only what pleases him/her. You do not want to hurt the loved ones. So this sentiment of love gives rise to other positive emotions like consideration and compassion. God is personification of love and how can one get closer to Him by fearing Him? 

When Bhagavan is the personification of love, a real Bhaktha will have no fear of his God. All the fear and other emotions are replaced by unalloyed, pure love. He does everything out of love and he can see Bhagavan's presence in everything. So a God -fearing person is completely out of this triangular love directed towards God. When love is replaced by fear, the most negative emotion that can trigger all other negative qualities, the journey becomes downward towards the dark depths of ignorance. Fear of God is the father of fanaticism.

Second angle of the love triangle is "love knows no fear". It conquers fear. If a mother and child walking through a street is confronted with a big dog or bull, what will be the reaction of a mother? Even if she is afraid of the dog or bull, she will try to protect her child first rather than running to save herself. Here fear is replaced by unconditional love. Vivekaananda Swamiji says: "fear comes from the selfish idea of cutting one's self off from the universe. The smaller and the more selfish one makes oneself, the more is one's fear. And the less one think of oneself, there is less fear. It is a degradation to worship God through fear of punishment."

The story of Kamsa is a story of fear and story of Prahlada is a story of love. Even though Kamsa had all the comforts of a king and a cruel dictator, he experienced extreme stress and anguish every moment of his life because he was afraid of Bhagavan. Bhaktha Prahalada was subjected to all kinds of physical torture and ill treatment, but he did not experience any sorrow or pain because he loved Bhagavan with all his heart and had complete faith in His love for him. 

May Bhagavan bless us to have unconditional love for Him!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vishama

I always used to wonder why one of Bhagavan's name is  Vishama:  because the ordinary meaning I associated with that word was "a state of unhappiness or sorrow arising from some kind of difficulties". But when I started studying the meaning of each name of Bhagavan in Vishnu Sahasra naamam, I realized how ignorant I was of another most beautiful meaning of the same word when it is used as a noun. I thought it is worth sharing with those who are like me wondering about the meaning of this name. Those who already know the meaning of this name of Bhagavan, please ignore my jalpanaas. Na vidyathe sama: yasya sa  vishama : meaning - One who has nobody equal to him. So no question of anybody superior to him. He is unequalled The same thing is told by Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita when he saw the Viswaroopam: "None there exists who is equal to you, how can there be then another superior to You in the three worlds, Oh Being of unequalled power?" May Lord Visham...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shathaabishekam

6/21/08 When is Shathaabhishekam celebrated? When it should be celebrated? We have heard about different versions of when it should be celebrated, when you complete 84 years, or when you complete 81 years and 10 months or when you complete 83 years 4 months. Shathaabhishekam is celebrated when a person sees 1000 full moons lives through 1000 full moons in his life. Since it is a mathematical calculation, there should only be one answer. Then how are we having all these three answers? (It really does not matter when you celebrate, but out of curiosity to know the reason behind the celebration, I did some research and I thought some people may share my curiosity. Of all the explanations I read I liked the one given below.)   Here is a convincing explanation based mainly on a question -answer series in Bhakthapriya magazine published by Guruvayur devaswom. For clarity, I am trying to express it as mathematically as possible.   Number of full moon...
7 comments
Read more

Bhaktha Prahlada's previous life

5/7/09 In Bhagavad Gita Bhagavan said:    "Antha kale cha smaran mukthva kalebaram ya: prayaathi sa madbhaavam yaathi naasthi athra samshaya:"   "One who thinks of me at the time of death will attain me. This is beyond doubt."   Also Bhagavan clarifies further by saying:  "What you are thinking at the time of your death shapes your next janma because you would have meditated or continuously thought about that for a long time in your life and because of that vaasana you would be able to think only of that."   In Bhagavatham Jadabharatha's story illustrates this point. Bharatha, son of Rishabha Deva  was a great devotee of Bhagavan. But he was deeply attached to a deer and ended up thinking of it at the time of death. He was born as a deer and later got a human janma and got salvation.   It is interesting to note that Bhaktha Prahlada was born as an Asura, as the son of the greatest enemy of Vishnu Bhaga...
5 comments
Read more