WHAT IS PREMA?

Love is otherwise called PREMA. Liking for any object and a positive response to it is also called Love. It is immaterial if the object is trivial or transitory. The word Love is greatly misused and abused. We can distinguish different forms of Love. The love of the parents for their children is called filial bond or affection. In the same way the relationship between the husband and wife, brothers and sisters, and other kith and kin makes one dear to the other. The sense of material objects provides satisfaction. Attraction to sex can be described as fascination or delusion or ‘Moha’. Today the word Love is degraded in its original meaning and stands for lust—physical satisfaction of the senses. The word has lost its essential  noble meaning! 

‘The yearning to reach for the sublimity that lies inherent in Truth..this alone is entitled to be called by that holy word PREMA. For that is the sweetest, the most charming, the most satisfying possession of man”. declares Bhagawan Sri Sri Satya Sai Baba. Prema or Love is strong enough to overcome all impediments, face with equanimity all changes of fortune. We call some body  as heartless. Why? It is because he has no love, the heart  being the repository  of pure love!  The heart, according to Swami, is the film and the mind the lens. If the lens turns to the world, the heart receives a worldly picture. If it turns to God,  the Divine picture is transmitted

  From time immemorial, our ancient culture has taught and encouragedthe youth with this concept of love. People have been taught to love the poor, the helpless, the handicapped and the disabled. Service to man is service to God. As sage Vyasa puts it, helping others is punya and hurting others is sin.  “Paropakara punyaya papaya para peedanam.”  The bhaktha or a devotee is mad after God His love for God is steadyThat is the nature of his PREMA. “ Love is like the Mariner’s compass which points always to to the North. The thoughts of the devotee filled with love are always directed towards God whatever he may be doing. Such love is described as “Parama Prema”—Supreme Love. God responds only to such love!” says Bhagawan Sri Sri Satya Sai Baba. ( SSS Vol 4)

 How does Prema differ from  ordinary commonplace love? Prema is fearless.  It is shorn of egoism or ahankara. It isselfless. Wherever there is Prema there is sacrifice. A classical example is the love of the mother for her children! It is life and death for her in bearing and delivering the child She is ready to die so that her child may live! Her Prema is Godly and can never be compensated by the child. Ideal love or Prema is that in which  the lover, despite his disappointments wishes his lady well! Such love is called Platonic Love!

We can call the love between the husband and wife as infatuation or moha. Maternal and paternal love is termed ‘ Vatsalya’ while that betweenthe kith and kin is ‘anuraga’ or affection. Love towars God is called Bhakthi or devotion. There are two kinds of love, one related to the physical and the other to the Divine. Physica bondage leads to fears and delusions that torment the world whil Divine love treats individuals and nations as equal. Man thinks that he is perfect. He is selfish. He is a Narcissist and prtnds to love God! A true lover of God forgets himself When you  love others for your sake it is called ‘anuraga’ while loving God for  God’s sake is called PREMA!  Is love far removed from man? Not at all. Man is the embodiment of love. He has insatiable thirst for it His real joy is to receiving and giving selfless love. He is miserable and hateful because he haqs forgotten this

Love starts as selfish love as in the case of the husbandand wife.

 It enlarges itself when children are born. Parents think of their children more than themselves, Selflessness  becomes prominent. Love is the n extended to the society and the nation and becomes totally selfless ready to sacrifice for the country! “Love which moves, flows from one heart to another, from one place to another, from one person to another ultimately reaches the destination which is called the Grace of God; such Prema is i pure” says Swami in his Divine discourse! (SSS Vol 7B) Sri Krishna’s life is an example of pure love or Prema urging us to cultivate it. Prema’s sterlinf qualities are that it has no hatred or selfishness. It does not expect any reward, gives away but never takes!

What is the present situation? The old order has changed but not for the better! Those days of unselfish love are gone! These are days of bargaining. How can it be otherwise inthis dark age, Kali Yuga? The days when the saints, Azwars,and Nayanmars who lived, talked  loved and merged with God are over never to return! Our age is full of jelousy,  conceit, hatred, fear,  falsehood and greed. “ It is an age of faction, marked by fights between parents and children, teachers and pupils, brother and brother! Let me conclude with another gem of a quote from Bhagawan: “Cultivate love, pure, unsullied by selfish desires.  Share that lovewith all your brothers and sisters of all creeds,colors, climes. Let your Love flow into the hearts ofothers. Stagnant waters become foul; flowing waters are cool and clear. Love is Ananda,love is power; love is light; love is GOD” (SSS Vol 7B)