LOVE IS THE ESSENCE OF LIFE AND PRAYER

There can be no prayer without Love ! It happened that one of the great devotees of India, Ramanuja, was passing through a town.. A man attired in robes generally worn by sages and priests visited Ramanuja.. He considered himself an ascetic, the type that ordinarily is attracted towards religion.. Ramanuja while speaking to his followers revealed that love is the basic energy of life and existence.. Nobody can succeed against love.. The ascetic looking man asked Ramanuja that "I would like to be initiated by you. How I can find God? I would like to be accepted as your disciple.. Ramanuja looked at the man and realised that the man in front of him was against the concept of love.. A man who cannot appreciate love is like a dead rock, completely dried, with no heart.. Ramanuja asked the man, "First tell me a few things: have you ever loved anybody?".. The man was shocked by hearing a person like Ramanuja talking about love? - such ordinary worldly things? He said, "What are you saying? I am a religious man.. I have never loved anybody".. Ramanuja persisted.. He said, "You just close your eyes and think a little.. You may have loved, even if you are against love as a feeling.. You may not have loved in reality, but in your imagination.."The man said, "I am absolutely against love, because love is the whole pattern of maya and illusion, and I want to get out of this world, and love is the cause people cannot get out of it.. No, not even in my imagination have I loved!".. Ramanuja persisted.. He said, "Just look within yourself.. Sometimes in your dreams a love object may have appeared".. The man said, "That's why I don't sleep much !But I am not here to be taught love, I am here to be taught prayer.." Ramanuja became sad, and he said, "I cannot help you, because a man who has not known love, how can he appreciate prayer?".. Because prayer is the most refined form of love, the essential love - as if the body has disappeared, only the spirit of love has remained; as if the lamp is no more there, just the flame; as if the flower has disappeared into the earth, but the fragrance is lingering in the air - that is prayer.. Sex is the body of love, love is the spirit; Similarly, love is the body of prayer, prayer is the spirit.. You can draw concentric circles: first circle sex, second circle love, and the third circle, which is the center, is prayer... !!