Love is something that is so prevalent in our life, so needed in our life and so strong. In fact, we go through life trying to find it. We’re very concerned about: will somebody love me or not? We dress a certain way to attract love. We may wear perfumes, fix our hair a certain ways, go to the gym, build our muscles, talk cool, act cool, drive nice cars, whatever, trying to make it so somebody will be attracted to me, love me. Certain fashions come and everybody does it because it increases the chances, you see, tattoos, whatever.
I remember one time I saw a guy and he had chicken bones in his ears. I thought, “Wow, who’s going ever to get up with this guy?” No, He’s reduced his chances a lot. And later I saw him with someone who had a chicken bone through her nose, so I was like “Oh, I understand… The chicken bone cult.”
Everybody’s looking. Now, why is it? Why is it so important for us? I remember there was a friend of mine who had a son, 14 years old. It was in Los Angeles. He was a cool guy, had many girlfriends… you know, one of those kinds of people. So, one day he and his friends go down to the beach on Sunday and met some gang members from the opposite gang (Los Angeles – many gangs; he was in a gang). They began a big fight. He got stabbed in the back, immediately paralyzed from the waist down. Now the rest of his life he’ll be in a wheel chair. And his main concern was: “Who’s going to love me now? Who is going to love me now?” Old people: when our bodies get old, the same kind of dilemma – who’s going to love me now? It’s so necessary.
Now, scientists are always experimenting with everything and very often at the expense of another living entity. So, they took baby monkeys away from the mother just after birth, put them in a cage alone. They gave them the correct food, temperature – everything was conducive to their physical needs. They even put another monkey in the cage with them. But this mother monkey was made out of wood. These little baby monkeys went up to this wooden monkey, clung onto this monkey and cried. And eventually they all went crazy. You see, we need love. We need it.
Remember who we are. We are spirit soul, not the material body. And the soul enters into many, many different kinds of bodies. Wherever there’s life, there’s a person inside that body. Maybe in a tree: in a living tree there’s a person living in the tree, that’s the life of the tree. Fish, insects, reptiles, animals.. – if it’s a living entity, then there’s a person inside like you and I.
See, this is important to understand, all this is important.
So, the soul has many inherent characteristics like water has the inherent characteristic of wetness. Right now there’s water in this glass. I haven’t touched it but I know it’s wet, because all water is wet. You cannot separate wetness from water. You cannot separate heat and light from fire. So, in the same way the soul has many inherent characteristics. The soul has many needs. There is a natural condition of the soul. One of those natural characteristics which is a requirement for the soul is love. Without exception. Doesn’t the dog want love, too?
Some of you may have house plants. You may be one of those people who really take care of their plants. Can’t you tell when your plants are happy? When you give them a lot of attention. You neglect your plant and the plant won’t grow so well. See? Why? Because the person inside that plant body needs love, too. You’re not going to change that.
That’s why we’re all in the same position: we want love, we need love. We all know inherently that the most important thing in my life is love. If I have love, everything else is basically secondary. But if I have everything else and no love, all the other stuff doesn’t help. I have no money, I have no anything but I have love, life is ok. But I have money, fame, etc., etc., and I commit suicide.
A friend of mine is an artist. She was telling me about this famous artist in London. He’s won all kinds of awards, written books. He is somebody in the art world. And so, he had just won some big prestigious award and he invited her to his house. He was so depressed and he told her, “You know, I have got this award. Most people couldn’t dream of ever achieving it, but I have got nobody to share it with.” You see, loneliness. Loneliness is a big problem.