“To love an ideal, a Master, a god, a state is easier. . . they can be created in our image according to our hopes, fears, illusions. It is more convenient. . . to have an ideal, a far-off image to love, for between that and ourselves there can be no unpleasant, personal reaction which causes such sorrow in human relationships. Such love is not love but an intellectual creation called love.”
— J. Krishnamurti
While roaming the beautiful jungles and peaks of Mount Kailāsha with his men, King Dashagreeva reached a spot where his vimāna (mode of transport) could go no further. Then, Nandi appeared and said he had reached the playground of Bhagvāna Shankar and no one was allowed inside. Enraged, Dashagreeva insulted Nandi and then tried to lift Mount Kailāsha and carry it back to Lankā.
Bhagvāna Shankar, who was watching all this, playfully pressed his little toe a bit harder into the ground, the weight of which crushed Dashagreeva’s arms. The mighty king’ let out a roar of pain so loud that it terrified the beings in all three worlds.
When Dashagreeva’s repeated attempts to free his arms proved futile, a few of his ministers suggested appealing to Shankar. The desperate king sang praises of Shiva for days until his ego was humbled. The ever-compassionate Shiva eventually lifted his toe and renamed Dashagreeva as Rāvana for his scream (Rāva) that shook all three worlds.
Rāvana’s humility was short-lived and specific to Shiva; his tyrannical behavior towards others grew worse with time.
We see such behavior even today. A few people conduct god-pleasing rituals daily while treating living beings poorly. Others use sycophancy to be in the good books of leaders growing in power. Yet others binge on romantic movies but can’t hold on to a relationship in real life for more than a week.
Such people don’t love the other for love’s sake. They love an ideal—riches, fame, or romance—that they crave from others. When this doesn’t happen, they feel miserable.
What brings happiness, then? The love where we open ourselves to the other, see them for who they are, and subsume our ego in the process. Such love brings out the best in us and makes us keep trying to become better. This improvement is what brings happiness. Don’t love your ideas of gods or people and try to impose those upon the world.
See the world as it is and try to figure out what circumstances made it like that. That’s when you will be able to love living beings. Atheists who are compassionate towards their surroundings are more human than theistic people who exploit theirs.