Get Back To The Source

Excerpts from Gurudev’s discourse on the Narada Bhakti Sutras

Body and mind work on completely opposite laws. To build the body, you need to put in effort. Effort is the language of the body whereas effortlessness, letting go, relaxing, is the law of the mind. If you want to remember something, the harder you try, the longer it will take. But when you relax, you will remember easily. The mind needs no effort to develop. But that does not mean being lazy and just sleeping. If you want to learn how to play the guitar or sitar or to learn karate, you need to put in effort. But if you want to appreciate something, if you are in love with something, if you like something, it does not need any effort. If you make an effort to love somebody, or like something, that effort itself will prove to be counter-productive.

So, there is nothing that you must love, you must like. It is impossible. No ‘must’ or ‘should’ applies when it comes to your feelings. ‘You must feel this way’ is an erroneous concept.