Preference between children and Lord

Que)

Oh Swami! I have one question, why not we do duties to our children?
At the same time we shall have all our devotion to the Lord only?

Swami: Your suggestion is quite sounding very well to the ears,
But you will find the reality only when you analyse the concept.
One thing we should remember, we should not bring down the sky
To our level since we are standing on the ground and since
We are unable to fly to the height of the sky, let us agree the truth.
It is true that the sky is the goal and it is true that we are on the ground.
This will make us to start our journey, one day or the other you will reach sky.
You have to be in the constant effort, God will give you many human rebirths
Till you reach the goal, but one condition, you should not stop at any stage.
When you are doing the duty it is love expressed in action, it is proven love.
It is far greater than the love through words and through mind and therefore
You love is ninety nine percent on your children and one percent on Lord.
The Lord is not at all equal even to your children and just you have thrown
One paisa on the face of the Lord treating Him as a beggar for your love.
At the same time you are posing that all your love is on the Lord.
It is just the reverse in practice and everything is only the mind and words.
The proven love consists of sacrifice of five items to the Lord.
The first three items are by the expression of love through words, mind, and brain.
Through words people sing devotional songs and the emotional devotion flows
Through the mind, through the brain scholars discuss the nature of the Lord.
These three constitute the theoretical phase, which has a value of one paisa only.
It is just like sacrificing drinking water supplied by the municipality freely.
Similarly, these three are already supplied to you by the Lord freely without any
Effort or strain by you, Indians are very famous in sacrificing these three items.
The fantastic fun is that people sacrifice these three items to the Lord and
Ask some practical fruit for the sacrifice of these three theoretical items!
The other two items are practical and their value is ninety-nine paise.
Those two items are sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work
In this sacrifice of these two items only lies the entire real sacrifice.
This alone is the proven love, don't argue that this is impossible for you.
You are doing the sacrifice of these two items sincerely to your children.
Therefore you are having real proven love on your children only.
The sacrifice of the first three items is not done in the case of your children.
That means the sacrifice of these first three items is false dramatic love.
The word duty, which you just uttered, constitutes the last two items only,
Which are the sacrifice of work and sacrifice of fruit of work.
Therefore what is the meaning of your statement that resulted finally?
You will sacrifice the false love to the Lord and the real love to your children.
You designate the false love as the real whole love, which is dedication of mind.
Now you say that you have dedicated your entire mind to the Lord only!
Fantastic! And you say that you are simply doing duty to your children!
Which is nothing but the real love! How clever you are! You can fool
Any human being in this world but not the Lord, who is omniscient.
Let us stick to the truth only at least before the Lord.
Let us accept frankly our inability to sacrifice all the five items.
Let us pray the Lord to help us in reaching the sky and let us accept
That we are on the ground only, no need of any false prestige before the Lord.
The Lord is always pleased when we accept and speak the truth before Him
The first three items constitute the drinking water supplied to you freely.
Do not ask any practical fruit for the sacrifice of those three items.
Even in a commercial hotel, they do not charge for the supply of water.
The other two items constitute the actual plate of meals, which represent
The real sacrifice, since these two items are from your hard work only.
For the sacrifice of these two items you can ask for the practical fruit.
But remember that the Lord will pay the exact fare of your plate of meals.
Here also don't be over ambitious, you supply a plate of meals and ask
For one lakh of rupees! Ask for the equivalent justified normal rate.
It shall be paid to you if you ask the justified rate for your meals.
If you ask too much, the Lord will look at you with a hatred look
And will pay you the exact fare only, don't have poor impression
In His heart, next time even if you offer the plate of meals, He will refuse.
You have lost the chance of minimum business also with the Lord.
Remember one thing that when you provide plate of meals to the Lord,
You have to supply drinking water also, though it does not cost anything.
When the eater requires some water during eating food, will you say
"What is there in the water which has no value? Eat this sweet."
Similarly some people do the sacrifice of work and fruit of work sincerely.
They feel that they have purchased the Lord by their sacrifice.
They never love, they never sing devotional songs, and they never discuss
The divine nature of the Lord, because they neglect the valueless water.
I told you not to give simply water to the guest and avoid the meals.
In this context only I criticised the donation of water, don't extend this
When you offer the plate of the meals to the guest and simply give him food
Without the drinking water, that will be utter foolishness of you.
Feeding the guest is complete only when the meals are given with water.
After all, ninety-nine paise cannot constitute the full one rupee.
In fact, I pity such people because they donate ninety-nine paise
But become lazy to donate that one paisa from their pocket.
The one paisa left over in the pocket cannot be used at all for any purchase.
Gita said that one has to reach and please the Lord by crossing the duties.
"Sarva dharman parityajya", here the word dharma means the duty.
The duty constitutes the real love, if what you said is acceptable and correct
Shankara could have stayed with his mother doing his duty by serving her
And he could have said that all his real love is only the Lord and that
He is doing just his duty as her son; Love is the basis of the duty,
Where the duty lies, there only the real love lies, it is the real proof.