Question : Is it possible to attain to Self-realization by an intensification of emotion, such as love?
Ma Anandamayee :
Yes. Prema, the love of God is certainly a way.
But
what is ordinarily called 'love' is not prema, true love,
but moha, attraction through delusion.
Prema, real love, cannot exist between individuals.
How can one get pure love from that,
which by its very nature is impure,
namely the individual?
Again and again it happens
that people come to this body saying,
"My love for such and such a person is true love, not worldly love."
They are deceiving themselves.
Love for that which is mortal is invariably moha,
attraction through delusion, and leads to death.
Quite obviously so.
Have you not noticed how,
when you find it impossible to get the object of your love
you either wish to kill it or to die yourself?
Whereas prema, the love of God,
takes you to the death of death, to Immortality .
Therefore, it is said, to regard the Guru as all individual is a Sin.
The Guru has to be loved and revered as God.
Some time ago a woman came to this body,
who wanted to commit suicide because her guru had passed away.
I said to her: "Does a Guru die '?
Because he has left his body it does not mean that he is no more.
The Guru is everywhere and never leaves the disciple.
The fact that you want to take your life
out of grief over your Guru’s passing into Mahasamadhi
shows that you love him as a person and not as a Guru.
It was not at all easy to convince the women of this,
and she had to pass through much heartache and
trouble until at last she got over her attachment.
It happens that people fall in love with their Guru.
If he has attained to the state that a Guru should have reached,
he will be able to canalize the disciple's love,
turning it towards the Divine.
But, if he himself has not transcended personality,
difficulties will naturally arise.
This body has come across a number of cases
where inexperienced girls, child widows,
or even married women have been led
into a wrong path by false Gurus.
Tile injunction of the Sastras is that
one has to surrender one's
whole being - body, mind and heart to the Guru.
To surrender one's body means
to surrender one' s desires
so that they may be obliterated,
but not to surrender one's body in the material sense.
If it is misunderstood in this way,
as occurs sometimes, then this body says,
although you may have received diksa from him,
that person is not your Guru.
You should then bathe in the Ganges and
purify yourself and make a fresh start.
Although the mantra cannot be defiled,
there are instances
when it becomes imperative to relinquish even that, namely,
if it is inextricably associated with the memory of the false guru.
In such cases it is advisable to change the mantra to another.
People contract so-called love marriages,
but in some cases both parties are disillusioned and
after a time each separately come to this body lamenting and repenting.
