The Divine Life ideal offers a panacea for all the social and political ills of the modern world. The three fundamentals of Divine Life—Serve, Love, Give are the pillars upon which an individual can stand and uplift himself and the brotherhood of man can be built. Thus the life in this world can become more fearless and happy as well as purposeful.

If one tries to observe people, one may see there three types of persons extroverts, introverts and ambiverts. Extroverts are persons whose mind always goes outwards. They become slaves of their senses. They are after money, pleasure and passion, position and power, honour and acclaim. They are bound with the conditions and circumstances and the circumference of life. Naturally, their pursuit is of the outer and they forget the purpose and destination of human life.

Introverts are those persons who are reflective and contemplative and long to study their inner realm, the inner universe hidden within. Goethe called it as Man’s inner universe. They renounce pleasure and position, keeping themselves aloof away from acclaim and honour. The charm of the world is such that one may find only a few who are introverts. Ambivert is a person who does not cut himself from the outer, but lives in the ‘inner’ and makes the outer a vehicle of the inner. He dedicates his life in selfless service of humanity and places his life as an offering at the altar of the Great Creator of the universe the Lord. Such a person realises the sanctity of service, seeking nothing for himself, keeping ablaze the Divinity within. They are the embodiments of humility and compassion and love pure and simple at heart. But without becoming introvert it is not possible for anyone to become ambivert. And such a person is called sadhaka in its real perspective. In fact, man is an inborn sadhaka, but fails to recognise the same due to misconceptions, misunderstandings, arrogance and vanity.

Holistic View

There is a common tendency to isolate spiritual principles from politics, especially in these days of great intellectual power. Dreamers and visionaries are often brushed aside as people with their heads in the clouds, out of touch with stark realities. In so many ways man has become wedded to the doctrine of self-salvation, self-achievement and self-dependence that in the resultant excitement of great material achievements he is in danger of forgetting the eternal truths upon which this entire universe exists and its future heritage depends.

The bad habit of complaining against others, the conditions and slackness in sincere attempts, and a lack of love for himself and humanity and man becomes a prey of vanity which subsists on false values. Man generally thinks falsely that he is unblemished and superior to others and that others are blemished and inferior. The inevitable consequence is that he gets a perverted vision and loses the capacity for seeing and accepting Truth. If a man develops an attitude of selfishness, he is liable to poison every good sight and tie. But, if his attitude becomes one of helpfulness and understanding, he shall beautify every tie foes will turn into friends, problems will have their solutions and man will have his salvation. Unfortunately, man thinks his gain in the loss of others, his progress in another’s downfall and his happiness in another’s unhappiness. It is a tremendous mistake and a dangerous trend born out of indiscrimination and selfishness.

The inspired visions of saints, mystics and leaders in the religious education, social, economic and artistic scene of every country have truly reflected the true aspirations of the people. From these visions was born the practical reality of everything which is recognised to be good in their way of life. And of course, everything that is discordant or bad is the outward result of individual and collective negative or evil thinking or beliefs.

One of the greatest saints of the present day Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj has placed before the world the ‘Divine Life’ gospel for the uplift of the individual and attainment of divinity in the end which can be summed up in six succinct words, Serve, Love. Give, Purify, Meditate, Realise.

The physical frame of a man owes much to the world because it is made of the same five elements of which this world is composed. One has, therefore, to serve one and all without any distinction whatsoever and without any expectation of return or reward so that he may clear out his debt towards the world. One must properly understand that the acquired wealth and power are not his own but are the ‘trust’ of the poor and weak. In the right use of things lies the key which consists in the service of others. Service and sacrifice, hence, are the acme of duty and dutifulness. When a duty is performed as a duty for duty’s sake, it becomes the source of salvation and not the bondage of attachment. But he should not have the idea of doership. Hence the service and performance of duty with a feeling of responsibility and pure heart without expectations, which is prompted by an inner sense of fellowship and unity, reduces attachment and destroys the sense of doership and thus liberates the man.

Love is light, life, eternity. There is nothing else to achieve in this world but love. In love consists the perfection of human life. All impurities are rooted in the craving for the pleasure of the senses, but love is not there. Love is the nature of the beloved and the life of the lover. One must know that faith and Love go together, because in the sense of unity resides Love and in the ending of desire is the dawn of Love. Man has sincerely to understand that the outer form of action warranted by a given situation generally makes little difference to the Love and sympathy in one’s inner attitude. The man has to learn a great lesson that he has to love even a sinner, while hating the sin. A man, who is an inborn sadhaka, must learn the lesson of forgiveness even without asking for the same from the person who has done something wrong. Thus only the impurities of man’s mind can be washed off. Of course, it requires great moral strength to seek forgiveness for one’s own past wrong actions. Only one who is truly repentant and who has realised that any satisfaction of the senses derived from evil propensities is bound to reap a harvest of evil and sorrow.

Man should not be confounded with a seeming contradiction between forgiveness and justice. Man’s sense of justice is distorted, on account of the limitations of his ego, his reactions are perverted. Strictly speaking, in one sense, man can do justice only to himself because he can understand his own mind and not of others. As a man and as a sadhaka one should, therefore, refrain from judging others; and also one should be forgiving others in so far one feels wronged by others. When the mind is devoid of hate, a long step is taken by man towards recovery. Love is the tremendous curative force for an individual and for the society. So the great Master emphasised greatly this love factor and preached in practice Love all, hate none. God is in all, do not hurt Him.

The urge to give happiness to others helps man to destroy his own craving for pleasure. The desire for pleasure is the cause of frustration; giving and sharing what you have and serving others with compassion consumes the craving for pleasure. He warned an aspirant that generosity motivated by attachment, and renunciation caused by anger are fruitless. The truth is that the supreme giver is ours, but all the things He gives are His. Therefore, man should learn the lesson of giving and giving with happiness all the good that he possesses and not think that by giving he will lose. In fact he will gain something which is Divine and Eternal.

If the three mottos above Serve, Love and Give are properly understood and practised by man in his day-to-day life, he will find that his heart has become purified and he is living in a higher stage and better society. In fact, in the renunciation of one’s rights and protection of rights of the others lies the secret of attainment. His mind becomes purified and then alone he is in a position to meditate and realise.

This is the gospel of Divine life which is the need of the hour, and if we follow this, we shall be serving this world in a better way on its upward march. Then alone can there be ‘Ramarajya’.

Let us march on this path with confidence and faith, with sincerity and strength, with devotion and dedication. May God and Gurudev bless you!