20. The work that gets done when the supreme bhakti pervades life is not different from bhakti and jnana.
Karma, bhakti and jnana together make a single beautiful form. And from it springs naturally, wonderful service
full of love and full of knowledge. One loves one's mother; but this love should
express itself in action. Love is
constantly striving, and expressing itself in the form of service. The outer form of love is service.
Love adorns
itself with innumerable acts of service and comes out dancing. Where there is love, knowledge comes and joins
it. When I am to serve a person, I should know what service would please him. Or else, it would be disservice or
wrong service. Love must have knowledge of that which it would serve.
To spread through action the power of
love, knowledge is needed. But at the root of this knowledge, there must be love.
Without it, knowledge would
be useless. An act performed through love is very different from an ordinary act. As the son comes
home tired
from the field, the mother looks at him with natural love and says. "You are tired, my
child." Look, how much
power there is in this small action! Weave all the actions of your life with the warp
and woof of bhakti and jnana.
This is what is called purushottama - yoga. |