(based on a lecture given by Srila Sadhu Maharaja in the USA, 2011)

Many people think that actually in religion we only have to love God and THEN everything else will follow. It even sometimes goes so far as that many people neglect the life in the here- and- now and concentrate on the “after-life”.
Now, if we really want to experience and live true divine love, we first of all have to love our own SELF.
We have to start right there.

Who are we?
We are eternal spiritual souls.

We have a subtle and a gross body. It is very important to find a wonderful balance between the life “in the body and mind” and the spiritual life. At one point, we will not find a difference anymore. All will be spiritual and divine.

If we concentrate on one aspect too much or too little, we are unbalanced and we suffer.

Sriman Mahaprabhu said once: “jive daya, name ruci, vaisnava sevaya”.

These 3 things are very important.

“Jive daya”: Mercy to the living entities. What does this mean? It means that we should see all living beings as parts of the Supreme Whole, Krishna. We should respect every living being and see the Lord residing in each of them. But we first have to be merciful to our own jiva. We have to love our Self. When we know our Self as eternal spiritual souls, we can truly love our Selves.

We should accept who we are with all the “ingredients” of our being. We have our “material life” and needs and we have our spiritual life and needs.

We have to put emphasis on our spiritual life. This means that our life here in this world (job, family, friends) should be permeated with our daily sadhana or spiritual practices.

I am a teacher for elementary school.
If I don´t do my sadhana in the early morning hours, the whole day is influenced by the strong waves of the material ocean.
My consciousness then is not clear. I don´t live in the soul-consciousness.

When we are clear in mind, we see things as they are and we are “in tune” with what the universe under the Lord´s control has “in it” for us. Everything will be seen in the light of Divine Love.
If we don´t recognize our actual stage of bhakti and we force our Selves to be 100% spiritual in our daily life, this means that we are not honest with our Selves.
We have to see where we stand. We have to acknowledge that there are still “impurities” in our hearts. We are in the process.
If we are not merciful to our own Selves, we then condemn our Selves for the mistakes we are bound to commit.
If we constantly feel guilty about our Selves, we will never experience love.

When a child falls down, it gets up and moves on. This means “constant endeavour”. We don´t become lazy and use any excuse we can get for “slipping from the path”. We recognize our “dark sides” and we pray to get rid of them, all in a very loving manner to our Selves.

If we can´t love our Selves as spiritual persons in this world, we can never love each other, what to speak of loving God.
Mercy-giving (jive daya) starts at home.

All relationships here in this world serve as “training exercises” for the REAL relationships in the spiritual world. If we can´t love our partner in life, our parents, family, friends, etc…how can we expect to love Sri Sri Radha and Krishna?

We have to practice love-in-action (bhakti) here, now. Every day.
When we live like this, in this loving consciousness, balanced within our Selves, we can progress in our spiritual life.

Then we can experience: “Name ruci”, taste for the Holy Name of Krishna, the all-in-all of bhakti-yoga. Without the Holy Name nothing is possible. Taste for the Holy Name is the most valuable treasure in our life. With the help of the Holy Name under the guidance of Sri Gurudeva we can easily progress through the stages of bhakti and reach the goal, prema, pure love.

Then the next principle, “Vaishnava seva” is an “everyday-thing”. We love to be with Vaishnavas, serve them, learn from them. Without the association of Vaishnavas, our life is meaningless and doomed.

So, “Jive daya”, love to our Selves, to all beings and to the Divine Couple. Then “Name ruci”, great taste for the Holy Name awakens and then “Vaishnava seva”: Being with an serving the Vaishnavas.

This is the perfection of life.
And under the loving guidance of a loving Sri Gurudeva it is possible even for me in this material world, under all circumstances.

TGd