We have got the propensity to love. Love means somebody else. Love cannot be done or love cannot be executed only one, personally. There must be another one. I love somebody; somebody loves me. So as soon as there is question of love, there must be lover, there must be beloved, and the transaction, then love. Prema. Premā pum-artho mahān (Caitanya-manjusa). So we have got this loving propensity, to love somebody, to love my family. First of all, love begins from family—father, mother, brother, sister. Then you extend your love to your society, to your community, then to your nation. Or you can extend to the international. You can expand. But where is the end? You can expand yourself, but unless you come to the point of loving the Supreme Person, you cannot have tranquility or peace of mind. That is the secret. Just like watering the tree. You can water, pour water on the leaves, on the branches, on the twigs, on the flowers, each and every one very particularly. But if you forget to water on the root, then everything is spoiled. Time is spoiled.
This is the śāstra's direction: yathā taror mūla-niṣecanena tṛpyanti tat-skandha-bhujopaśākhāḥ (SB 4.31.14). Very practical example. Just like watering, pouring water on the root of the tree, automatically you please the branches, the twigs, the leaves, the flowers, the fruits and everything. Immediately the watering energy is transformed to every part of the tree. It is practical. There is no argument. And another example is given: prāṇopahārāc ca yathendriyāṇām (SB 4.31.14). You give food to the stomach, and the energy will be distributed to all the parts of your body. If you want to serve separately, two sweetmeats to the two eyes and two sweetmeats to ears, in this way, it will be simply useless waste of time. Simply one sweetmeat, if you put into the stomach, and immediately you will feel some energy which will be enjoyed by your eyes, by your ears, by your nose, your hands, your legs, your hair, everything. This is the process.
So we have manufactured so many types of love except God. This is our defect. As soon as there is the name of God, "Oh, you go to Calcutta. Not here." This is the position. People are so much averse. And our śāstra says that when you forget God or when you are not religious . . . religious means to become devotee of God. That is religion; very simple thing. Religion does not mean the ritualistic ceremonies that, "My religion, the ritualistic is this. In your religion the ritualistic is this." That may be different according to time, according to the men, according to the country, climate. That may be little different. Just like we are eating. Somebody is eating; somebody . . . somebody is eating something; somebody is eating . . . but the eating process and to derive the benefit by eating is the same everywhere. There is no difference. So you may profess any religion. That doesn't matter. You may become Christian, you may become Hindu, you may become Buddhist, you may become Sikh or anyone. There are hundreds and thousands of types of religion. It doesn't matter. But the test is whether you have learned to love God. That is all right. Then it is all right.
That is explained: sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). If you have learned to love God, then it doesn't matter what type of religion you are following. The Bhāgavata is very liberal. It does not said: "If you follow Hindu religion or if you follow this type of religion, then you will understand God." No. Any religion, it doesn't matter. But the test is whether you have advanced in loving God. But if we see that instead of loving God, you are loving something else which is not God . . . of course, God is everything. That is another thing. Without God, there cannot be anything. But still, there is the central point.
It is described in the Bhagavad-gītā that because everything is the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but everything is not God. That is explained, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā (BG 9.4). Kṛṣṇa says that, "I am expanded in My impersonal feature everywhere. But I am not there." It is very simple to understand. Just like the sunshine. The sunshine is expanded all over the universe. But if you are in the sunshine, you cannot say that, "I am in the sun planet." No, that is not. Sun planet is 93,000,000's miles away. But the sunshine is not different from the sun. That is also fact. But still, you cannot say, because the sunshine has entered in your room, you cannot say that, "I am in direct connection with the sun-god or the sun planet." No.
This is called acintya-bhedābheda philosophy: simultaneously, inconceivable, one and different. So everything is God. That is a fact. And still, everything is not God. That is also fact. So we have to understand this philosophy. Everything is God. Without God's energy . . . the same thing, that the whole material world is existing on the sunshine. All scientists know it. But at the same time, the sunshine is different and nondifferent from the sun. Similarly, whatever we are experiencing, that is energy of God. Brahmaṇaḥ śaktiḥ. These are energies of God, sarvedam akhilaṁ jagat (Viṣṇu Purāṇa 1.22.53), the whole creation, cosmic manifestation. But when there is question of love, you have to find out the origin of this energy. That is Kṛṣṇa.