Just turn back and look at last year, how many days did you spend worrying about some thing insignificant? How many days did you spend thinking about something which is obsolete now? Our energy is getting dissipated in the form of fears and desires. And it is the desire which makes you weak.
There is a story King Akbar. He was doing a mass prayer on the open grounds. And there was a fakir(saint) who passed by. The king asked God, “Give me more wealth, Give me more prosperity,” etc. And as he was about to finish, the fakir(saint) who was moving around, passed that way, he just stood and watched him for a couple of minutes and he moved away. And Akbar got up and said, “Oh, wait, wait, what is it that you want? Because I will give you whatever you want. You ask me.” You know, this used to be the tradition in those days. Kings allowed people to ask them whatever desire they had.
So this fakir said “I don’t take anything from a beggar. You yourself were begging, five minutes ago to God to give you more wealth and prosperity! You are still a beggar being an emperor. I don’t need to take anything from you. I’ll take it from whomever you are asking.”
It put Akbar into shame. He realized something very beautiful and said to himself, “I have been a beggar all my life.”
Whatever thing you desire, in front of those people, you become meek, weak, powerless. Love is not that. Love is dedication, is offering, not asking for. Love cannot be experienced in the process of asking, “Give me more. What can you give me? What joy can you give me?” In this run of asking, snatching, there can’t be Divine love. There can’t be fulfillment.
This story is an excerpt from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s commentary on Narada Bhakti Sutras
