Do the following experiment for just a day or two: Use that great power that is your inherent power—the power called love. Learn to express yourself in such a way that you don’t hurt, injure, or harm others. Learn to give. Often you hurt others merely for the sake of your own selfish ego. Yoga science makes the true meaning of love clear when it describes the practice of ahimsa (not harming, hurting, or injuring others). If you learn to practice ahimsa, then you are practicing love in your daily life, and the practice of love does not mean being selfish. How many times a day do you have the desire to give the wealth and bounty you have to others—even to those who are related to you? The ability to give to outsiders develops later on. Ahimsa should be practiced first with those close to you, and when you have learned to enjoy giving, a time will come when you can give without any reservation.

All the great men and women who have lived on this earth have been selfless and desireless; they lived to serve and help others. They knew that the only way to freedom is to learn to give. This is the law of life. So you should continue to do the experiment with yourself, and every time you do, you will find that you are growing and growing. Eventually your growth will lead you to a state and a height in which you are free from all desires that are selfish. The desire to help others, to serve others, to serve the nation and humanity— these are great desires. When all your small desires are swallowed by the great desires, then your life will be like that of a saint, and you will find that you have become entirely different.

A good person really lives. One who is not healthy or helpful for himself cannot be healthy and helpful to others. One who suffers from himself cannot love others, and cannot perform actions that are selfless. These people create a whirlpool for themselves; they cannot cross the mire of delusion that arises in their own mind or go beyond. They cannot rise. But in all the great cultures of the world there have been extraordinary men who can be examples for you. Sometimes they were crucified, killed, rebuked, or stoned, but always it was for the sake of others —never for themselves. Petty men die for themselves and for their own petty desires; great men die because they want to serve humanity. Both die, but there is a difference in their dying and their living.

Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from Art of Joyful Living by Swami Rama, published in 1989, Himalayan Institute India, pp. 40-41