Children should be taught love from infancy. The common fear is that teaching love will lead man into the labyrinths of sex. But this fear is groundless. Teaching sex can lead man to love, but teaching love will never drag him into sexuality. The truth is at odds with the general belief. The energy of sex is transformed into love.
A man is able to spread love to those around him in direct proportion to the love that grows within him. Those who are empty of love are filled with sex. And sex-minded they remain. The less a man loves, the more he hates; the less love there is in a man’s life, the more spiteful his life will be. And those who are devoid of love are filled with jealousy to the same degree. The less a man loves, the more strife he will know. People are worried and unhappy in direct proportion to the lack of love in their lives. And the more a man is engulfed by worry, jealousy, vanity, lies and the like, the more his energies will weaken, will become frail and feeble; he will be tense all the time. And the only outlet for this crude, crass, low and debased group of emotions is sex.
Love transforms energies. Love is fluid, creative, flowing; it fulfills. And the gratification of love is much deeper and much more valuable than that obtained through sex. One who knows that contentment will never look for any substitute, just as the man who acquires jewels will never search for stones. But a man full of hate can never find contentment. He is always restless; he destroys everything in his path. And destruction never brings happiness; only creation can shower a man with a feeling of gratification. A man full of jealousy is belligerent and competitive, but being like this never brings contentment. An aggressive man only encroaches upon others.
Bliss can only be attained by giving, never by taking. Grabbing and hoarding everything in sight will never bring peace of mind, but it can be had by giving, by beneficial distribution. An ambitious man hops from one post to another; he is never at peace – but those who are not after power but are in pursuit of love, those who distribute love anywhere and everywhere, live in exalted bliss. As full of love as a man is, such is the depth of the contentment, of the deep satisfaction, of the joy, of the sense of achievement he will find in his heart of hearts. Such an enlightened man will not bother with sex; he will not even have to try not to look in its direction. Because the contentment and bliss to be found in sex are perpetually available to him from love.
The next motto: grow to the fullness of love. We should adore love; we should bestow love; we should live in love. But to love other men alone is not the name of the game; to be devoted to love is to replenish one’s whole personality with love. I am speaking of a total education in love. We should be able to pick up a stone as if we were lifting a friend; we should be able to shake hands with an enemy as if we were holding the hand of a friend. Some men handle material things with loving care, while some give other men the kind of treatment that should not even be handed out to non-living things. To a man preoccupied with hate, humans are no better than inanimate objects; but a man full of love even imparts an individuality, a personality, to everything he touches.
The principle is not just to love human beings alone, it is a question of being filled with love.
To say one should love his mother is wrong; it is a misrepresentation. If a father asks his child to love him just because he is his father it is a deception; he is giving a reason for love. Similarly, if a mother tells her child he must love her for the simple reason that she is his mother, it is an imposition. The love that has the strings of” because” and” therefore” attached to it is misnamed. Love should be motiveless; it should not be bogged down with reasons. The mother says,” I looked after you; I brought you up, therefore love me.” She is giving a reason. And there, love ends. If a child is forced, he may unwillingly show some affection because she is his mother, but the aim of teaching love is not to force the child to express love for some reason but to create an environment in which the child will be full of love.
It must be brought home to you that a child’s growth, his whole personality, his entire future, depends on this joy at being loving to anybody or anything he meets – be it a stone, a human being, a flower, an animal, whatever. The point is not just to love an animal or a flower or his mother or someone else, the whole point is for the child to be full of love. This depends not only on his future but the future of mankind. The tremendous possibilities for the flowering of joy and of happiness in a man’s life depend on how much love there is inside him. A loving man can also be freed from sexuality. But we do not bestow love; we have no zeal for love.