There was once a great scholar of the Scriptures. He went to a God-realized Saint.
He said, "Maharaj I have studied many books and done many
rituals. But till today I have not had a divine experience. I have not even seen
the light of God. Can you please tell me some sadhana that will give me a divine
realization." The saint smiled, he knew where the problem was. So he asked the
scholar to go out, to lift his hands towards the heavens and cry out for two
hours to God. He promised he would get a divine experience. The scholar was
obedient. He walked out into the open sky, and there he lifted his hands and he was
crying out to God. Unfortunately, after 15 minutes, it started raining and then it
started pouring. So all the water was falling upon him, he was getting drenched
for one hour and 45 minutes. Finally he returned. The sage said, "what
was your experience?" He said, "Maharaj, the water was drenching
my face. My clothes were all soaked and so was the hair, it was flowing down. A
puddle had formed around my feet. I was feeling cold and I had my arms up
towards that sky. I was crying out to God. I felt
like I'm a gross fool. The Saint said you got your first spiritual experience. What
is spirituality - to humble yourself, to make way for God.
I am nothing, He is everything. By thinking I'm a fool, you got your first
spiritual step. Until then you were just increasing your pride learning the
different verses and different quotations. This journey begins with
humbleness. So, similarly we do engage in devotion. But we are not there as yet. our
faith is lacking and so is our love. But that doesn't mean that we should remain
there. Once we realize a deficiency, we are now prepared to take the step. How do
we move forward from here? So come to an important spiritual
principle. I'll tell you a formula of how to develop love for God. This is related
by Tulsi das ji Maharaj in Ramayan. He says (Hindi verse)
He says, if you wish to develop love for God, you need
faith in God. And if you wish to have faith, you need knowledge of God. So
knowledge will lead to faith, faith will lead to love, this is a sequence.
Understand the sequence through a worldly example. There is a man who lives
at home in the city. His family lives in the village. He's working in the city.
That's why he lives by himself. So to take care, he's kept a servant. Now in the
morning, he goes to office and then comes back. The servant takes care of the home.
One day while this officer was in the office, a sadhu came to the house. The
sadhu told the servant, "look I am really hungry.
give me lunch, I have got a Paras (mythical stone). I'll give that to you." Does anybody know what
is a Paras? It's a mythical stone. In English, it's called philosopher's stone.
If you touch iron to the Paras, the Paras transforms the iron into gold.
so this Sadhu promised the servant, you feed me, I'll give you the Paras. The
servant was illiterate. He did not know what this Paras was. But he had a rough idea,
it's something nice. So he fed the sadhu, and the sadhu handed
the Paras to him. Now the servant thought, what will I do with it? let me offer it
to my master, and he will decorate it and keep it in his drawing-room. So the
servant put the stone on his master's table. In the evening at six o'clock, the
officer returned. He was in a bad mood. Some people, when they come back from
office ,they are in a bad mood. See some people leave the office there and
come with a free mind. Some people bring the office with them. Some people bring
the bad mood with them. The wife knows my husband's voltage has doubled because he
come from office. He is now a 220 or 440 volt not 110 volt. The master saw this stone on
the table. He said, "Ramu, who has put this stone here?"
Ramu said, "Sahab, you know one sadhu came. I gave him lunch and he has handed me this Paris.
So I have given it to you. Sahab said, "Ramu what a buddhu (idiot) you are!"
somebody who has got Paras, will he go around begging? He has given you an
ordinary piece of stone. Sahab took the stone, and chucked it. The stone went and hit
the latch of the door. That latch happened to be of Iron. In contact
with the Paras, it transformed into gold. Now that officer saw, oh my god this has
become yellow metal! is it actually Paras? He ran to pick it up, he touched his key
to it. The key also became gold. He took the spoon from the table, touched
it, that also became gold. Three out of three! now the statistical
probability is tremendously high, right? It's a confirmation. His intellect is
convinced, this is a Paras. He started thinking of all it can do for him. "Ohh my
God, if I had touched that railway line it will become gold all the way from
here to Houston." "if I walk into the steel plant, I'll make a mountain of gold."
"I don't need to work for anybody now. Happy days are here for the rest of my life."
He has fallen in love with the Paras. He went running with it to his
bedroom, went into his closet, open the locker and then there's a locker within
the locker of the closet, right? So, he put it there. He has developed so much of
love for the stone. How did this love developed? Only by knowledge.
When he had no knowledge of what the stone can do, what it is, he threw it away
out of contempt, and when he realized the value of that little mass, he fell head
over heels in love with it. So similarly if we really understand who is God, if we
appreciate the personality of God, we will definitely have faith in Him. And if
we have faith, we will fall in love with Him.
The problem right now is we don't have faith in God.