The Way of Love (A Booklet on The Real Meaning of Love, The Essence of True Spirituality)

The main portion of this booklet is a transcription of Srila Narayana Maharja’s discourse at the renowned Custard Factory in Birmingham. England. There, his audience included the city’s Lord Mayor and representitives of the world’s leading religions.

Srila Maharaja is a resident of Mathura-Vrndavana, India. For the last sixty years he has been teaching bhakti-yoga, the natural activity of the immortal soul. Although now in his eighties, he has been traveling around the word twice yearly since 1996. He teaches all those who are fortunate to attend his programs and festivals how to practice the yoga of love. A compassionate seeker of the spiritual welfare of all, he teaches his audiences:

“To make your life successful, happy and peaceful, try to give all of our love and affection to God, Krsna. Show that love to all living beings, and try to engage your entire being in helping them. One who comes to others with love has nothing to take but everything to give. We want to be completely selfless in our dealings.We have the example of tree that offers its bark, roots, fruits, leaves, wood and shade to others with no expectation of remuneration.”

The process to realize that selfless love is given by Srila Maharaja in this booklet.

The purpose of this booklet is to present the words of those who have realize the sacred truths revealed in ancient Indian scriptures called the Vedas. The word Veda literally means “the final conclusion on all topics related to the transcendental world and all topics related to this world, both ordinary and extraordinary.”

The Vedas were complied thousands of years ago by self-realized saints whose hearts were melting with affection for the suffering souls in this world. Such saints are blessed with pure understanding of the Supreme Truth and the ultimate purpose of life.

The Way of Love is a transcription of a discourse given by such a self-realized personality, the revered Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja, whose life is unconditionally dedicated to the ultimate happiness of others.

In this Preface, we would like to share with you the words of another great saint, Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami ,Maharaja, famous throughout the worls as Srila Prabhupada, who is intimately related with Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja as an instructing guru and a dear friend. Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja regards Srial Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja as a main inspiration for his regularly traveling the surface of the globe and teaching the way of love. Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja writes:

“The basic principal of the living condition is that we have general propensity to love someone. No one can live without loving someone else. This propensity is present in every living being. Even an animal like a tiger has this loving propensity at least in a dormant stage, and it is certainly present in the human beings. The missing point, however, is where to repose our love so that everyone can become happy. At the present moment the human society teaches one to love his country or family or his personal self, but there is no information about where to repose the loving propensity so that everyone can become happy.

“In the primary stage a child loves his parents, then his brothers and sisters, and as he daily grows up he begins to love his family, society, community, country, nation or even the whole human society. But the loving propensity is not satisfied even by loving all human society. That loving propensity remains imperfectly fulfilled until we know who is the supreme beloved. Our loving propensity expands just as a vibration of light or air expands, but we do not know where it ends.”

Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja continues to explain the problem we face-not knowing how to love. He explains the science of loving every living being perfectly by the process of loving the Supreme Being, know in the Vedas as Krsna.

“We have failed to create peace and harmony in human society, even by such great attempts as the United Nations, because we do not know the right method. The method is very simple.

“If we learn how to love Krsna, then it is very easy to immediately and simultaneously love every living being. It is like pouring water on the root of a tree or supplying food to one’s stomach. The method f pouring water on the root of a tree or supplying foodstuffs to the stomach is universally scientific and practical, as every one of us has experienced. Everyone knows well that when we eat something, or in other words, when we put foodstuffs in the stomach, the energy created by such action is immediately distributed throughout the whole body.

Similarly, when we pour water on the root, the energy thus created is immediately distributed throughout the entirety of even the largest tree. It is not possible to water the tree part by part, nor is it possible to feed the different parts of the body separately.”

“The root cause of our dissatisfaction is that our dormant loving propensity has not been fulfilled despite our great advancement in the materialistic way of life. We are watering all parts of the tree, but missing the tree’s root. We are trying to keep our body fit by all means, but we are neglecting to supply foodstuffs of the stomach.

“Missing the Supreme Self means missing one’s self also. Self-realization and realization of the Supreme Soul, known as Lord Sri Krsna, the all-attractive reservoir of love, go together simultaneously. For example, seeing oneself in the morning means seeing the sunrise also; without seeing the sunshine no one can see himself. Relation of the soul, established in relation with the Supreme Soul, are factual relations. The bodily relation is the cause of freedom. This relation of the soul to the soul can be established by the via medium of the relation with the Supersoul. Seeing in the darkness is not seeing. But seeing by the light of the sun means to the see the sun and everything else that was unseen in the darkness.”

As is true with all Vedic literature, this booklet is meant to teach us how to “turn the one switch that will immediately brighten everything, everywhere.” All the histories told herein actually took place. Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja has taken them from them from the parts of the Vedas known as the Puranans and Upanisads.

The names of all the personalities herein are in the ancient Sanskrit language. Following the tradition of our spiritual preceptors we use standard diacritical markings to indicate the pronunciation of Sanskrit words. Pronounce a like a in father, I like ea in neat, u like oo in root, r like ri in rip, m and n like ng in hung, s and s like sh in shy, and c like ch in chap.