Miscellaneous - Religion   

Unconditional love

CHENNAI: We must have unconditional love for God. We must surrender at His feet in order to attain moksha. We must acknowledge His superiority and Lordship over everything. Bharata says of Lord Rama that Rama will always be everyone's God, and that the rest of the people are there only to serve Him. If we have this attitude towards Lord Narayana, attachment to Him will automatically follow, said K.B. Devarajan in a discourse.

Rama, Sita and Lakshmana visit the hermitage of Sage Atri and seek his blessings. While the two men are seated outside the hermitage with the sage himself, Sita goes into the hut to get the blessing of Anasuya, wife of the sage.

Anasuya tells Sita that She is a lucky woman to have wed Rama. She says that women love their husbands, even when the latter are not good-looking, not honourable, and not blessed with good qualities. Whatever the negative qualities of their husbands, women make excuses for them and continue to have regard for them and serve them. That being the case, is Sita not lucky that unlike other women She will have no need to make excuses to love Rama, who is blessed with not only good looks but also all good qualities? There can be no justification for not honouring Rama.

Hearing Anasuya's words, Sita begins to cry. She says everyone thinks that She is attached to Her husband, because He is good and good-looking. But Sita says She will love Him, even if He were ugly, even if He were wicked. But She has no opportunity to prove that She loves Him unconditionally, because Rama is always good.

Goodness and He can never be separated. So Sita is unable to show that She will love Him even if He were bad. There is no question of Rama being bad. He simply cannot be.

Sita's love for Rama is an example of unconditional love, in which the person who loves another needs to find no reason for the love. He or she simply loves. That is all. That is the kind of love we should bear for the Lord. Our love should not be one that expects rewards. Other things should not take precedence over love.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Cartoonscape
The Hindu Crossword 9848
Solution to puzzle 9847
Unconditional love
dated May 21, 1960: Soviet Premier's charge
dated May 21, 1960: All-weather ports
dated May 21, 1960: Stormy debate ahead
Weather

Copyright © 2010, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu