Story 71 - Transformation of Sensual Love

In India, there was a saint Tulsi Das by name, an ancestor of Swami Rama, who was very fond of his wife; he loved his wife as no man ever loved before. At one time it happened that his wife had to go here father's house which was located in another village, some seven or eight miles distant from the village in which the saint lived. The saint could not bear the separation, and so he left his house and went in search of his wife. It was about eleven o'clock at night when he learnt of her departure, and in his desperation he ran from his own house like a mad man. A river separated the two villages and at the time at night, it was very difficult to cross owing to the very rapid current of the river, and besides, there was nobody available at that hour of the night. On the bank of the river he found a rotten corpse and through his mad love, through his desperation to reach his wife he clasped the corpse tightly and swam across the river, safely reaching the other side. He ran on and on and when he reached the house where his wife was, he found all the doors closed, he could not gain entrance, neither could he arouse any of the servants, nor inmates, for they were all sleeping in some of the innermost rooms. Now what was he to do? You know they say if a river is in the way, love crosses it; if mountains are in the way, love climbs them. So, on the wings of love he had to reach his wife. While puzzling his brain, he found something dangling alongside the house and he thought it was a rope; he thought his wife loved him so dearly that she had placed this rope alongside the house for him to climb up. He was overjoyed. Now, this rope was not a rope but a long snake. He caught hold of the snake and it did not bite him, and by that means he climbed to the upper storey of the house and gained entrance to the room in which his wife was lying. The wife got up and was astonished, and exclaimed, "How did you get here, it is very strange." He shed tears of joy and said, "It was you yourself, O blessed one, who made my passage here so easy. Did you not place a kind of canoe by river for me to cross over, and did you not place that rope upon the wall for me to climb up? He was crazy, love had made him mad. The wife began to shed tears of pity and joy. She was a learned woman, she was a goddess of Divine wisdom, and she then said, "O Divine one! Sweet one! had you really entertained the same intense love for the Reality, the

Divinity, which keeps up and supports and is embodied in this apparent self, in this physique of mine, you would have been God; you would have been the greatest prophet in the world, you would have been the grandest sage on the earth; you would have been the worshipped sire of the whole universe."

When the wife was inculcating the idea of Divinity in him, and was teaching him that she was one with the Divinity, she said, "O dear husband, you love this body of mine; this body is only transitory; it left your house and came to this house; in the same way, body may leave this earth today or tomorrow; this body may become sick to-day and all its beauty be gone in a second. Now see, what is it that gives bloom to my cheeks, what is it that lends lustre to my eyes, what is it that lends glory to my person, what is it that shines through my eyes, what is it that gives this golden colour to my hair, what is it that lends life, light and activity to my senses and my physique? See, that which has fascinated you is not this skin, is not this body of mine. Mark please, see please, what is it? It is the true Self, the Atman which charms and fascinates and bewitches you.

It is the Divinity in me and nothing, else; it is God, nothing else; it is that Divinity, that God within me, nothing else. Feel that Divinity, see that Divinity everywhere. That same Divinity, God, is it not present in the stars, does is not look you in the face, in the moon?"

This saint rose above sensuality, rose above carnal desires, and worldly attachments. This saint as he was originally extraordinarily in love with one wife, he realized that Beloved one, that Divinity everywhere in the world; so much so that this saint, a lover of God, this holy man drunk in Divinity, this pious man was one day walking through the woods, and he approached a man who held hatchet in his hand, and who was about to cut down a beautiful cypress tree. When the blows of the hatchet fell upon the roots of the beautiful cypress tree, there was the saint about to faint away. He ran up to the man and cried. 'These blows of yours hurt me, they are piercing my bosom; please refrain from doing this." "How is that, saint," asked the man. The saint said, "O sir, this cypress, this beautiful tree is my beloved one; in it I see my true Divinity, in it I see God."

Now, Divinity, God became his bird, his wife, his husband, his child, his father, his mother, his sister, and everything to him. All his energy, all his love was thrown at the feet of Divinity, was given to Divinity, the Truth, and thus the saint said to the man, "I see my beloved one there, I cannot bear blows on my beloved Divinity,"

One day a man was about to kill a stag or deer, and the holy saint was observing this. He came up and threw his body at the feet of the man who was about to kill the stag. "How is this saint," asked man. He exclaimed, "O, please spare the deer, behold my beloved one penetrating those beautiful eyes. Oh! Kill this body of mine, sacrifice this body in the name of Divinity, in the name of God, sacrifice my body I perish not, but spare, O, spare the beloved one."

All the attractiveness you see in this world is nothing else but the true Divinity; the same which appears to you in the body of a beloved one, puts on a different dress in trees, in mountains and hills. Realize this please, this is how you can rise above all worldly passions and desires. This is the way to make spiritual use of worldly desires and make use of them for their own sake. You are making spiritual wrecks of yourself, you are becoming sinners. But if you are raising these worldly desires, by using them properly then these same acts become virtuous.

MORAL: Intense love, even though it be sensual if diverted into proper channel, can be transformed into Love for Divinity and thus be a means of Realization.

Vol. 3 (127-130)