The Poverty of Love
Why are we desperately searching for something that is already shining deep within our own hearts?
Today, 90 per cent of the ailments we suffer are due to mental strain and tension because love is fading from the human heart. Problems diminish when there is love, but a lack of love increases and intensifies our problems. Just as food is needed for the growth of the body, love is needed for the growth of the heart. Love is as valuable and precious as breast milk for a baby.
In the name of modernity and development, humans have become more and more selfish. We have become like isolated islands, cut off from the rest of creation, cut off from life, cut off from true joy.
Look at a tree. It gives shade even to the person who cuts it down. It gives its sweet, delicious fruits to the person who harms it. But our attitude is completely different. When we plant a tree, we are only concerned about the profit we will make from it. If a tree stops yielding fruit, we will cut it down and make furniture from it.
Selfishness reigns supreme. Selfless love cannot be found anywhere. Because of this selfishness, humankind today sees Nature as being separate. Individuals think that Nature has been created solely for them to use and exploit in order to fulfil their selfish desires. This attitude creates a separation and a distance.
Scientists have found methods to produce a hundred tomatoes from a plant that could otherwise bear only ten fruits. They have also succeeded in doubling the size of fruits and vegetables. While it is true that with this increased production, poverty and starvation have been reduced to a certain extent, we remain largely unaware of the harmful effects caused by artificial fertilisers and pesticides, which become absorbed into the body.
These chemicals destroy cells and make us more vulnerable to disease. The number of hospitals has also had to increase as the push continues to artificially force plants to yield fruit and seeds in quantities which are far beyond their limits. Science has reached unimaginable heights, but owing to selfishness, humankind has lost the clarity to see the truth of things and to act with discernment.
This understanding and vision that we are a part of the totality is the path to physical and mental well-being. Seeing unity in diversity through proper understanding and spiritual practices is the only way to heal humanity and Nature.
For true peace and happiness, ultimately, people will have to embrace spiritual principles. Most people see life as a constant struggle just to get through the day. Such people believe in the theory of the survival of the fittest. They are satisfied with a normal way of living — for example, getting a house, a job, a car, a wife or husband, children and enough money to live.
Yes, these are important things, and we need to focus on our day-to-day lives and to take care of our responsibilities and obligations, small and big. But there is more to life, a higher purpose, which is to know and realise who we truly are. In essence, we are love. It is through this knowledge alone that we gain everything — a feeling of complete fullness, with absolutely nothing else to wish for. That realisation makes life perfect.
Regardless of all we have accumulated or are striving to acquire, for most people life still feels incomplete — like the letter “C”. This gap will always be there. Only spiritual knowledge can fill this void and unite the two ends, which will make it like the letter “O”. The knowledge of the inner Self alone will help us feel grounded in the real centre of life.
Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known simply as Amma, is a spiritual master and humanitarian who has given her darshan in the form of a motherly embrace to more than 4 crore people. Listening to the cries of the suffering, Amma leads an NGO that reaches across more than 50 countries, working in the areas of healthcare, disaster relief, education, gender equality, and environmental restoration; Views presented are personal.
