Love Is a Human Virtue

Words of the Master

Humanity simply means love for the Lord and his creation. Its other name is sympathy or compassion, fellow-feeling or heart-felt attraction. Its proof is that one’s heart melts like wax on seeing the suffering of another. The other man’s suffering appears to him as his own. He heartens him, feels sympathy for and is attracted to him, and takes steps to remove his sufferings.

A man should feel for others and consider their sufferings as his own. Sheikh Sa’adi says that if there are no feelings of kindness, mercy or love, then there is no difference in such a man and the figure of a man on the wall. Both are useless.

If there is no mercy or gratitude in a man,
What is the difference between him and a figure on a wall?

Kabir Sahib also says that the man who has no love is like a graveyard while living. He is like the bellows of the ironsmith which breathes even though lifeless.

The heart without love is like a graveyard;
Just like the bellows of an ironsmith
Which breathes though lifeless.

The fire of love being kindled, other virtues and gifts come of themselves.… God is Love and the world lives by Love. It is, therefore, the duty of a human being to love.
_{Maharaj Sawan Singh, Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. III}