When a child is born he is in maitri bhavana; it means a great feeling of friendship, love, compassion. A newborn knows no hatred; it knows only love. Love is intrinsic; hatred, anger, jealousy, possessions and envy he will learn later on. Society will teach him how to hate.
When the child is born he is simple love; he has not known anything else. In the mother’s womb he has not come across any enemy. He has lived in deep love for nine months, surrounded by love, nourished by love. He knows nobody who is inimical to him. He knows only the mother, he knows her love. This love he brings with himself; this is the original face. Then there will be trouble, with many other experiences. He will start distrusting people. A newborn child is simply born with trust.
Children are trusting, but by and by there will be experiences in which they will be deceived, in which they will get into trouble, in which they will be opposed, in which they will become afraid. By and by they will learn all the tricks of the world. That’s what has happened to everybody, more or less.
Maitri bhavana is creating the situation at the time of your birth: it is a de-hypnosis. It is an effort to drop hatred, anger, jealousy, envy, and come back to the world as you had come in the first place.
If you go on doing this meditation, first you start loving yourself ^ because you are closest to you than anybody else. Then you spread your love, friendship, compassion, your blessings, to people you love friends, lovers. Then, by and by, you spread these to more people that you don’t love so much, then people to whom you are indifferent ^ then by and by to people you hate.
Slowly you are de-hypnotizing yourself. Slowly you are again creating a womb of love around yourself. – The Time of India
