Umashankar, S. Spiritual love is life. Spiritual life is love. Love is the medium or path to realize the life and spirit. Love must be pure. Pure love – real love – has no expectations. We should love everyone in the same way that we love our own self. Loving ourself is not a difficult process, but it is, perhaps, a long process. It is a useful, joyful and non-stop journey.

Our body is an organic machine, and in order to help it work properly there are so many things that we have to do. First and foremost, we have to take care of our breath. Then we have to answer our thirst; we have to answer our hunger. Likewise, we have to answer everything which arises from within ourselves. Our approach and response should be calm and unruffled. To achieve this, we need to curb our material needs and command our physical faculties. At the early stages this may seem difficult for the body, but gradually the body will begin to obey us.

Our daily thoughts should be fresh and pure. Such pure thoughts must center round the One Reality, the ultimate Truth. These thoughts should have a free flow from the heart. When a soul takes a body and comes to the earth, air, food, water, sounds and vibrations are moving into the body for the first time. As a result, internally there occurs a lot of reactions. These reactions really have connections with the heart and thoughts.

Anger, violence, ignorance, fear and confusion are created from the inside. It is imperative that these negative forces be stopped or removed. It is our thoughts and emotions springing from within that are the root for all our developments and actions. Comparisons between one person and another, competitive attitudes, criticism, jealousy, anxiety and distinctive outlooks are the war-makers on the inside and the outside.

All these activities are to be resolved peacefully. We should follow our Self. We should look after the Self. We should observe our heart and mind. Bhakti, or pure love, is the easiest way to make the mind pure and peaceful. When the mind becomes pure, the thoughts become pure, too. The heart feels tranquil and serene. At a certain stage there are no more thoughts. The heart perceives an emptiness. It shows pure love.

If internal life becomes peaceful, external life becomes peaceful, too. Every living being is full of love. Everywhere we can feel the peace. Everywhere there pervades perfect silence. We will not perceive any separateness between one another. Formalities such as "yours" and "mine," "theirs" and "ours" will disappear. There is no question of "my life" and "your life" and "his life." All is One and only One. It is That One which is everywhere. That is the mechanism which operates all over the place.

Fear is man's first and last enemy. It comes from two directions. The first is natural disaster. The second is caused through artificial disturbances, violence, etc. All these have to be faced and dispelled. If fear is banished from the heart, life becomes joyous and filled with love. It is the first sign that we have set our foot on the spiritual path. There will be no question of tiredness or fatigue of the mind. This is the foundation for the spiritual path. We will feel that we are always in a state of vigilance. We can see ourselves everywhere. We need to do no research outside. Life is love. Love is life.

Finally, life and love have to be equated to the spirit. The Supreme has to guide us to make life, love and spirit one and the same. Life is love is spirit. Om Shanti.