Obedience: heart-fragrance Preface

In our philosophy, love, devotion and surrender play a most significant role. When I say love, I mean divine love. When I speak of devotion, I am referring to divine devotion and not to human attachment. And the surrender I speak of is not human surrender to a superior power, which is done out of fear, but divine surrender, which is offered out of pure love and devotion.

I wanted our journey to start with love and then continue. While continuing, I thought that devotion would develop and further down the road surrender would come. But now I see that before love even enters into the picture, there should be something else. That something else is called obedience.

At one time I thought that if you loved someone, then automatically devotion and surrender would come. But now I see that even to love someone is the most difficult thing on earth. Permanent love is extremely difficult, while unconditional love is out of the question. Nobody can love somebody else unconditionally unless he or she is God-realised.

So now I am saying that obedience has to come first. I am starting our philosophy with one more step. If there is cheerful obedience, then love, devotion and surrender will follow.

Sri Chinmoy