Of all
the Qualifications, Love is the most important, for if it is
strong enough in a man, it forces him to acquire all the rest,
and all the rest without it would never be sufficient. Often it
is translated as an intense desire for liberation from the round
of births and deaths, and for union with God. But to put it in
that way sounds selfish, and gives only part of the meaning. It
is not so much desire as will, resolve, determination. To
produce its result, this resolve must fill your whole nature, so
as to leave no room for any other feeling. It is indeed the will
to be one with God, not in order that you may escape from
weariness and suffering, but in order that because of your deep
love for Him you may act with Him and as He does. Because He is
Love, you if you would become one with Him, must be filled with
perfect unselfishness and love also.
In daily life this means two things; first, that you shall be
careful to do no hurt to any living thing; second, that you
shall always be watching for an opportunity to help.
First to do no hurt. Three sins there are which work more harm
than all else in the world – gossip, cruelty, and superstition –
because they are sins against love. Against these three the man
who would fill his heart with the love of God must watch
ceaselessly.
See what gossip does. It begins with evil thought, and that in
itself is a crime. For in everyone and in everything there is
good; in everyone and in everything there is evil. Either of
these we can strengthen by thinking of it, and in this way we
can help or hinder evolution; we can do the will of the Logos or
we can resist Him. If you think of the evil in another, you are
doing at the same time three wicked things.
You are filling your neighborhood with evil thought instead of
with good thought, and so you are adding to the sorrow of the
world.
2. If there is in that man the evil which you think, you are
strengthening it and feeding it; and so you are making your
brother worse instead of better. But generally the evil is not
there, and you have only fancied it; and then your wicked
thought tempts your brother to do wrong, for if he is not yet
perfect you may make him that which you have thought him.
3. You fill your own mind with evil thoughts instead of good;
and so you hinder your own growth, and make yourself, for those
who can see, an ugly and painful object instead of a beautiful
and lovable one.
Not content with having done all this harm to himself and to his
victim, the gossip tries with all his might to make other men
partners in his crime. Eagerly he tells his wicked tale to them,
hoping that they will believe it; and then they join with him in
pouring evil thought upon the poor sufferer. And this goes on
day after day, and is done not by one man but by thousands. Do
you begin to see how base, how terrible a sin this is? You must
avoid it altogether. Never speak ill of any one; refuse to
listen when any one else speaks ill of another, but gently say:
“Perhaps this is not true, and even if it is, it is kinder not
to speak of it.”
Then as to cruelty. This is of two kinds, intentional and
unintentional. Intentional cruelty is purposely to give pain to
another living being; and that is the greatest of all sins – the
work of a devil rather than a man. You would say that no man
could do such a thing; but men have done it often, and are daily
doing it now. The inquisitors did it, many religious people did
it in the name of their religion. Vivisectors do it; many
schoolmasters do it habitually. All these people try to excuse
their brutality by saying that is the custom; but a crime does
not cease to be a crime because many commit it. Karma takes no
account of custom; and the karma of cruelty is the most terrible
of all. In India at least there can be no excuse for such
customs, for the duty of harmlessness is well-known to all. The
fate of the cruel must fall also upon all who go out
intentionally to kill God's creatures, and call it “sport.”
Such things as these you would not do, I know; and for the sake
of the love of God, when opportunity offers, you will speak
clearly against them.
But there is a cruelty in speech as well as in act; and a man
who says a word with the intention to wound another is guilty of
this crime. That, too, you would not do; but sometimes a
careless word does as much harm as a malicious one. So you must
be on your guard against unintentional cruelty.
It comes usually from thoughtlessness. A man is so filled with
greed and avarice that he never even thinks of the suffering
which he causes to others by paying too little, or by
half-starving his wife and children. Another thinks only of his
own lust, and cares little how many souls and bodies he ruins in
satisfying it. Just to save himself a few minutes trouble, a man
does not pay his workmen on the proper day, thinking nothing of
the difficulties he brings upon them. So much suffering is
caused just by carelessness - by forgetting to think how an
action will affect others. But karma never forgets, and it takes
no account of the fact that men forget. If you wish to enter the
Path, you must think of the consequences of what you do, less
you should be guilty of thoughtless cruelty.
Superstition is another mighty evil, and has caused much
terrible cruelty. The man who is a slave to it despises others
who are wiser, tries to force them to do as he does. Think of
the awful slaughter produced by the superstition that animals
should be sacrificed, and by the still more cruel superstition
that man needs flesh for food. Think of the treatment which
superstition has meted out to the depressed classes in our
beloved India, and see in that how this evil quality can breed
heartless cruelty even among those who know the duty of the
brotherhood. Many crimes have men committed in the name of the
God of Love, moved by this nightmare of superstition; be very
careful therefore that no slightest trace of it remains in you.
These three great crimes you must avoid, for they are fatal to
all progress, because they sin against love. But not only must
you thus refrain from evil; you must be active in doing good.
You must be so filled with the intense desire of service that
you are ever on the watch to render it all around you—not to man
alone, but even to animals and plants. You must render it in
small things every day, that the habit may be formed so that you
may not miss the rare opportunity when the great thing offers
itself to be done. For if you yearn to be one with God, it is
not for your own sake; it is that you may be a channel through
which His love may flow to reach your fellow men.
He who is on the Path exists not for himself, but for others; he
has forgotten himself, in order that he may serve them. He is as
a pen in the hand of God, through which His thought may flow,
and find for itself an expression down here, which without a pen
it could not have. Yet at the same time he is also a living
plume of fire, raying out upon the world the Divine Love which
fills his heart.
The wisdom which enables you to help, the will which directs the
wisdom, the love which inspires the will—these are your
qualifications. Will, Wisdom and Love are the three aspects of
the Logos; and you who wish to enroll yourselves to serve Him,
must show forth these aspects in the world.
