=1 "A great discovery"
 |
 |
|
A great discovery
Until a generation ago no zoo had succeeded in keeping an orphaned baby ape alive. Everything was tried – hygienic surroundings, the best food, constant temperature and humidity – but they all died. Then some zoo director had a bright idea. He persuaded a woman to take a baby ape and raise it as her own baby – to pet it, talk to it, bathe it, fondle it, kiss it – in a word, to love it and show it that love. And it succeeded. Since that tremendous discovery apes are a common sight in almost any zoo. Only love could keep a baby ape in its body.
Everyone of us would like to feel that he is loved – by God or the universe or his fellow men, and generally our mistake has been about the nature of love. Love is not something one takes or gives. Love is a window in our consciousness, or if you like, our heart, a window into the heart of the universe or of God. Love is simply the absence of an obstacle, of the shell around our heart.
A heart is the wrong place for a shell, for armour, or a tough outer skin. We wear a shell around that most sensitive of our eyes, the heart, and then of course we can't see love any more.
I hope that you may be loved. No, that is not right. I hope you may open yourself and live in love.
To a goatherd who asked Sri Ramakrishna “How can I love God, whom I don't see?” Sri Ramakrishna replied, “Don't you love your goats? Love your goats with your whole power, and you will discover Him.”
So let us say to the materialist: “Love mattter with the whole power of your heart, more than yourself, and you will discover His smiling eyes behind that material mask.”