Buddha Poornima Celebrations - 2024
“If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.”
The Buddha
SSSIO will celebrate Buddha Poornima, the most sacred festival in the Buddhist calendar, with an uplifting program detailed below:
Program Theme: “If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.”
When:
Duration: About 1 hour
Watch it here: sathyasai.org/live and on the SSSIO YouTube channel.
This timeless and universal teaching of the Buddha is a lesson for all those who question why they should love others, the ‘what’s in it for me’ question that plagues so many people today. When spiritual wisdom is lacking, loving another is conditional or superficial, being prompted by ego, attachment, or possessiveness.
In Buddhist teachings, the above quote points to the importance of love and compassion for oneself. It implies self-acceptance and self-worth that manifests as compassion and non-violence toward all. The Buddha’s teaching underscores that true, unconditional love for another is based on the very essence of the one who loves.
It is said that one cannot give what one does not have, and if one is not yet full of love – a love that consumes one’s heart, mind, and intellect – one cannot manifest it unconditionally in every thought, word, and deed, like the sun that by its very nature showers its rays on all without discrimination, whether animate or inanimate.
In a discourse given on July 27, 1996, Sri Sathya Sai Baba spoke of four types of love: Swartha-Prema, selfish love that is confined to a few; Samanjasa-Prema, love that extends to a wider group but is limited; Parartha-Prema, love that extends everywhere but is absent at times; and finally, Atma-Prema, divine love that it is always present, eternal, imperishable and embraces all.
The true purpose of one’s sadhana, spiritual practices, is to turn inward to identify with the Atma within, thus giving up the ignorance of identification with the body and mind. Once the realization unfolds that we are the Atma, not different from God, then we see no separation in all creation, just oneness in love. At that time, we live as Swami taught, “God is Love, Live in Love.”