Answer By HH Radhantha Swami

Can you love your mother and simultaneously torture and kill your younger brother; does she accept that as love? What kind of love is that? Beginning of love that to do what your beloved wants you to do.

Unconditional love is very high pure platform, how do we get to that platform. We have to begin honestly from where we are, we show love to someone by doing what they want us to do, if I say I love you and punch you on the face, and I say that’s my love, will you believe in that kind of love? If you say I love you mother, and for my younger brother I smash him on his face, this is how I love you mother, will your mother accept that kind of love. No we must understand god what god wants before we could love god. Beginning of developing love for god is to understand the knowledge of what god wants us to do and obey that. 

"Obedience is the beginning of love". Therefore there must be rules and and regulations so that we can monitor and orchestrate our life in such a way that we are doing what god wants. Right now our inclinations are to do which are harmful for us and

harmful for others and so they are displeasing to the object of love. Therefore rules and regulations are absolutely necessary. In your college are there rules and regulations? If you go to college tomorrow not wearing any clothes, what will your teacher do to you? They will say “put on your clothes you fool”. And you will say “No I am coming here to study unconditionally”, is that perfection of study unconditional. How to come to that stage, unconditional love comes when your inclinations are perfectly harmony with gods will. To come to that stage you have to discipline your self to live and speak according to gods will.

So when we are trained in this way, then it becomes our nature to do the will of god. Then unconditional love begins to develop, but to come to that point there must be rules, regulations and obedience. And any one, any spiritual system doesn’t teach that is cheating you, that the every Scripture, every real saint throughout history have told us. There are so many teachers who say it does not matter what you do, Aim not concerned with what you do, you just take this mantra and you just believe in me and you will be saved. You will become god, where is that spoken by any avatar or by any Scriptures, in the old and new testimonies there are commandments, in the various Vedic Scriptures there are laws to follow that is real mercy. Srila Prabhupad when he came to America, he was teaching us no illicit sex, no gambling, no intoxication, no meat eating. And there were all these yogis and gurus from India were saying you can do anything, it does not matter what you eat, it does not matter who’s your boyfriend or girlfriend is, it does not matter what activity you do, just you take this mantra, give me some money. You will become liberated, you will become god. Srila Prabhupad if he had said that he would have hundreds, millions of disciples. But Srila Prabhupad was representing the highest truth, he wasn’t trying to give people a little bit of piety in the name of spirituality. He wanted to show the path of perfection. He said, “if I do not teach you these rules and regulations I am cheating you”. So those who are actually sincere discipline their life to live morally and ethically, so that they can make more spiritual advancement. That is necessary.