Awakening of Divine Love: Anasuya, Sita and the Robe That Never Grows Old
In the morning satsanga of September 26, 2026, Swami Jyotirmayananda taught that God is the one true match, that husband and wife are meant to awaken divine love in each other, and read Anasuya's gift to Sita as the clothing of divine virtues.
After the Hare Rama mantra, Swamiji read a poem, "Awakening of Divine Love." The gentle smile of a blossoming flower, a breath of divine fragrance, the whisper of a soft breeze, a shining dewdrop communing with the golden sun: "All these awaken divine love in me." Clouds rumble in the sky, soft rain sweeps over the green forest, lightning plays hide and seek. Beloved God is shining for the eyes of everyone, and the poem ends in dancing, floating, melting and merging with the beloved divine.
The One True Match
From the poem Swamiji drew the theme of the morning: find your spiritual match in God. "Worldly love is amorous." Turn the mind away from the worldly love that leads to countless troubles, he said, and have only one match. "God is supreme beloved. There's no other match."
Four Qualities to Cultivate
Swamiji then named four qualities for the seeker to develop. The first is patience in challenging situations: adversity shows how much patience you have. The second is dharma, righteousness: how firmly you can stay on the path of righteousness. The third is an attitude of friendliness toward the entire universe. The fourth is to be an inspiration to your life partner.
A wife, he explained, must see her husband progressing; in that lies her love. A husband's love for his wife should not be only for the sake of children, but for awakening in her a spiritual love for God. If God is the source of your love and you awaken it, then every relative who enters your life, and every child, becomes a divine soul. Loving your children then means awakening spiritual inspiration in them and letting them grow by developing divine qualities.
When these four begin to develop, Swamiji said, you are moving away from romantic love. Otherwise each relationship creates great troubles. Adversity becomes the test: "Adversity gives you the test of your divine love." The ability to face adversity joyously is itself a sign of a developing love of God.
Three Worlds Within Every Individual
Calling this "a very profound episode," Swamiji recalled the words of the sage at the very beginning, who brings out the glory of Brahman: "Brahman alone is." He then described three experiences. Bhur loka is the practical world, how you handle life through the mind and senses. Between it and the highest lies your sentimental world, the world of feeling. Swar loka is the world of intellect. "All the three are blended in every individual."
You can live in a wonderful house, he observed, but physical prosperity does not give deep fulfillment. You enter the beautiful house, and the mind recalls which relatives did not help to build it; the house itself reminds you of the troubles people have given. That illusion must be cut down. Sentimental happiness is not permanent either: one day you are happy with a relative who has brought you gifts, another day you hear some gossip, and the happiness is shaken.
This, Swamiji explained, is the meaning of Anasuya's name. Asuya is the mind that is constantly looking for the mistakes of others and keeping a record of them. Even the intellect, when it is not purified, can become a terrible enemy, turning every situation into a misunderstanding. And between these levels lies the world of your will: what kind of will have you created to pursue your path? When all of these are brought together, the yogas become integral yoga.
Anasuya and the Three Gods
Swamiji said he would not go into the details of the Anasuya episode, which fills a large volume, but gave its essence. Brahma, Vishnu and Siva came to test Anasuya, arriving as mendicants to receive alms under a condition that, Swamiji said, is not to be taken literally. Its meaning is to be without body identity: "Shake off your body identity." All three became babies and blended together, each recognizing unity with the others, and later the three became one personality, Dattatreya, the son of Atri and Anasuya.
Dattatreya is known for his 24 gurus, which Swamiji called an allegorical term. When you see the world expressing the glory of God, the world becomes your guru. A tree shakes in the wind but does not break. "The whole world is giving you lessons." In short: "Everything is Guru."
The Robe That Never Grows Old
In the Ramayana, Anasuya then gives Sita divine ornaments and a kind of clothing that never has to be taken away, and that keeps one ever young. What does that clothing imply? "All divine virtues. You are dressed by all divine virtues." Adorned in this way, Sita appears most beautiful and gracious.
Anasuya's teaching, Swamiji continued, concerns the devoted wife. The husband sees the divine goddess in the wife, and the wife sees Brahman in the husband. Then you are not discouraged on finding negative qualities in your partner; they give you a greater opportunity to exercise your love. No matter what troubles a child has, "But mother's love never goes." It is a love that does not dwell on defects, but seeks how to cure them. A skilled doctor, he said, is pleased to find the true nature of his patient's disease. However much the patient shouts, the doctor thinks, this one really needs my help; let me test my skill.
Anasuya gives an example: if the husband is a thief, the wife who loves him does not turn away. She helps him, and all she does is only to awaken divine love, so that the husband begins to understand her love and receive her guidance. "Each one received the guidance from the other." The match of husband and wife is not a search for each other's defects but an awakening of graciousness in each other.
True Beauty
How can one be truly beautiful and gracious? By developing divine qualities, Swamiji said: humility, profound love, and graciousness toward everyone. "Your face will be more and more beautiful." But when the face is filled with pride, anger and stress, the same face becomes very ugly, even terrifying. Otherwise it shines with divine beauty.
Your body, he concluded, is itself a robe, put on in every embodiment and ultimately thrown off. Put on instead the robe that never becomes old. The satsanga closed with the prayer sarve bhavantu sukhinah, that all may be happy, and a prayer for the grace of God to shower over all.
Terms in This Satsanga
- dharma: righteousness; one of the four qualities, firmness on the righteous path.
- asuya: the fault-finding mind that keeps a record of others' mistakes; Anasuya is one free of it.
- Bhur loka / Swar loka: here, the practical world of the senses and the world of intellect.
- integral yoga: the yogas brought together in one life.
- Dattatreya: the son of Atri and Anasuya, in whom Brahma, Vishnu and Siva become one personality.
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