bose

The True Love

By

An Indigenous American and an Indigenous Indian.

“Love your neighbor as you would love yourself; all the rest is commentary” – Rabbi Hillel. This is the
essence of Judaism, and it is, at least in parts, the essence of Kabbalah. The main purpose of
Kabbalah is to teach us that there is a deeper truth to life and to bring us close to God. 1

One of the pearls from the teachings of a saint, which he uttered during one of our conversations,
was: "My son, the brain of man is his storehouse for knowledge, but the holding capacity of this
storehouse is limited. Therefore, never put anything into it that is not valuable for your spiritual
progress, or that which is not absolutely necessary for the development and continuance of your
material body to the end of this incarnation, in order to prepare for your entrance into the world
beyond. Learn and store the wisdom of the teachings of nature, for nature is the great schoolhouse
for attaining wisdom, nature is God's voice speaking.

Materialism, generally, is not worth storing, only that which appertains to the elevation of your mind
and soul, that which will raise you to a higher plane, thus preparing you for the continuance of your life
in the world beyond, a step in your eternal life. And remember, that when you enter the world beyond,
you will leave all materialism behind. You can take nothing with you, nor will you remember anything
about it, only Love you will remember, for Love, like your soul, is everlasting, it cannot die.

Approach the Heavenly Father with full confidence and love. His loving arms are always stretched out
to welcome you. If you slip or fall by the wayside, yet approach Him in confidence and penitence, He
will forgive and welcome you because He, Himself, is all Love”.2 It is also said ancient manuscripts of
India that, for our every step to words God, he will take ten steps to words us.

An interesting story narrated by a saint , related to the topic “interrelation between Philosophy,
Science and Culture.

During the kingship period the kings used to go the forest for hunting the wild animals to keep him
fresh in war tactics and the arts such as defense and offense. On that basis, a king went to the forest
along with a minister for hunting. On their return to the palace, rain started and the minister said the
rain might become more intense, hence he suggested that the king wait under a shelter, until the rain
stopped.

They spotted a hut with a small light, and eventually reached the hut. The minister knocked on the
door to see who was inside. The minister said, “The king of this country is at your doorstep, come and
open the door”. The voice inside the hut said, “My dear sons please come in”. An old lady welcomed
both of them with her kind words. Inside they observed a small hut of ten feet by ten feet square in
shape and in which a small lamplight was shining in the darkness.

Soon, a businessman came and knocked on the door, requesting the old lady, to protect his food
grains because it might get spoiled. The old lady allowed him to enter along with the food grains. A
little later, a warrior came with his weapons, followed by a poor old woman with a bundle of firewood.
The small room was filled with more people with their belongings, the king felt ashamed that he was in
a place with all lower class people, and he spoke to the lady; “Look here old lady, you are knowingly
doing a mistake and insulting me as if you do not know my position and possessions and you continue
to accommodate all, whoever come and knock at the door. The old lady simply smiled and kept silent.

After a few minutes, there was another person who knocked the door and asked for the shelter. When
the lady opened the door every body saw a cobbler with his donkey standing in the doorway. The kind-
hearted lady asked the cobbler to enter and immediately the king got annoyed and started shouting at
the lady; at the same time the donkey started making noise. The lady said, you donkey; stop making
noise, and entered into the room first. It is the meaning of love that the old lady showed to all of them.

After a while, the light went off because all the oil in the lamp got exhausted. All of them said, “O lady,
we are all in darkness”, and jointly asked the old lady to fill the oil in the lamp and light it again.

The old lady simply smiled, filled the oil and lit it. Everyone was pleased, and then the old lady said,
“My dear ones, as soon as the light went off, all of you felt like you were in darkness. Please look at
the small lamp; it is there as it was before. It is light, which removed the entire darkness of this room.
Similarly, it is not me but my kindness in the form of love that has given shelter to all you.”

She continued: “O king, you have become as a king not because of your power of physic or wealth or
politics but you are the one chosen by God to be a king, enlighten your own self, the soul, which is full
of love and try to live an example to others, be kind, teach how to be kind and how to love all the living
beings. And today, what you and the minister learned from me and from the practical demonstration of
lighting the small lamp. It is the enlightening or understanding of the true meaning of love and how to
unite with all diversity and to get rid of the darkness called the ignorance.”

After some time the rain stopped and all of them decided to start their journey towards their
destination and thanked the old lady for the help. Once again the old lady smiled, and said there was
no need to say thanks, because it was her (karma) duty. In the form karma, he is a king, he is a
businessman, he is a warrior, she is a poor woman, he is a cobbler and it is as a donkey.

The old lady went on to say, “The cobbler is very kind to his donkey and in turn the donkey is kind to
his master. Through kindness they understand each other and their languages. Didn’t you notice that
the donkey understood when you shouted at me and in turn it replied in its own language? The
cobbler gently patted it to cool down, after that the donkey never made any sound. Don’t you
understand the truth? O king, no one is superior or inferior to each other.” After traveling a little
distance, the king turned back and the hut was not there, but there was a divine light in which he saw
the old lady getting merged with it.

The ‘queen' (Sri or Shree), mother Goddess came to this material world in the form of the old lady to
teach the real meaning of love to the king. The mother is the symbolic representation of kindness and
love. That is the reason; we call our language as mother language, the land as our motherland and
the entire earth as mother earth. We address the males as Shreeman, female as Shreemathi and the
Gods and Goddesses with the word “Shree” before their particular name. Also the temples are known
as Shreekovil, the symbolic representation of mother Goddess as Shree chakra, which is the Shree
yantra, the two dimensional view of Mahameru. 3

Swami Vivekananda says: “Love opens the most impossible gates, Love is the gate to all
the secrets of the Universe.”

We request our sisters and brothers to put away all their diversities and gather under the shadow of
the spiritual tree, to construct a temple of “true love” in our body, by realizing that the true love is our
soul and is the divine soul of the supreme being. It is also the divine light of the entire universe.

References:

1. Simple Kabbalah- Kim Zetter, Foreword by Ira Steingroot.
2. THE TWIN SISTERS--RELIGION AND SCIENCE, CHAPTER X, Pages 293-296
3. Dr. Sree jahannatha Swami, Sri Lalithambigai Peetam,
Coimbatore,T.N., India- 641 108.
© T.L.Subash Chandira Bose 2006
e.mail: "Sri.L.S.C.Bose" <lscbose@eth.net>