Posted on: 09 Feb 2005
Love is Prema. It is based on truth and knowledge. Blind love is Moha, and is based on falsehood and ignorance. If you teach your son to help him pass the examination, it is love. If inspite of your teaching, he does not learn, and if you still want him to pass the examination by false means, it is blind love. Tukaram preached the Bhagavatam to his wife everyday. But, his wife was attached to the household duties. Hence, she did not deserve salvation. The divine aeroplane came only for Tukaram because he deserved it. But, Tukaram offered a place in the aeroplane to his wife who did not deserve it. This is Moha. In spite of Tukaram offering her a seat, she did not reach the aeroplane on time because she was engrossed in house hold duties. Tukaram did not wait for his wife. Had he waited for his wife, he would have become undeserving due to his excessive Moha and the aeroplane might have left even without him. By the grace of Lord, Tukaram realised the truth and got into the aeroplane. Tukaram preached the Bhagavatam to all the devotees and his wife was also present among those devotees. Had he preached only to his wife, it would again have been Moha.
Shankara preached to all the people by wandering all over the world. Moha is responsible for bringing down anyone from the highest state to the lowest state. Hanuman and Shankaracharya—both were incarnations of Lord Shiva. Hanuman was trapped in the Moha of his mother due to which he fought with Lord Rama for the sake of His mother. So, He fell from the state of Shiva to Jeeva. Therefore, He was always in the state of Jeeva (soul) and always said to the Lord, “Daso’ham” i.e. I am Your servant. But Shankaracharya left his mother for the sake of Lord and did not have any Moha. Therefore He was in His original state of Shiva and said “Shivo’ham” [I am Shiva]. Please remember that Hanuman only acted in the role of an ignorant Jeeva to preach to us this message through His example and He was not really trapped by Moha. We should only take the message of His role. Therefore even Shiva becomes Jeeva due to Moha. When Shiva crosses Moha, He remains as original Shiva.
The essence of sadhana is only to destroy this Moha towards the worldly bonds and to have Moha only for the Lord. This should be proved in practice and need not be expressed through words or feelings. If the true knowledge is absent, practice will never come. If the true knowledge is attained, you will certainly attain it in practice if not today, after sometime. Therefore, true knowledge and its propagation is the most important program of the Lord. He who participates in this program will become very near and dear to Lord. The only duty of a Sanyasi is the propagation of the divine knowledge and therefore the Sanyasi is the nearest and dearest to God as told in the Gita (Jnani sacha mampriyah, Jnani tvatmaiva…). Sanyasa does not mean shaving the head and wearing saffron clothes. Sanyasa means the propagation of divine knowledge to uplift all the people in the world.