These messages are meant to be contemplated upon. A casual reading may impart some benefit or some inspiration. However, each message is meant to shed light on the deepest aspects of our inner selves - on life. Hence, contemplation, sometimes, word to word, line to line, can transform our understanding on the subtlest levels and awaken an entirely new perspective on life. Through this new awareness, we can re-orient ourselves, our thoughts and emotions, and our actions towards a more purposeful and fulfilling life.
This message on love is of particular significance. In the constant evolution of spiritual revelation that is the true legacy of India and its great seers, this new exposition on love, in a significant way, unifies the streams of the Jnana (Knowledge), Bhakti (Devotion), and Yoga traditions. It significantly expands the understanding of love and resets its order in our cultural zeitgeist. Therein lies its newness for the world. And while it may be a novel revelation for humanity at this time, as Truth, it always was.
Be love. Be loved. Spread love.
Love is life.
This sutra (a string of Truth) is the quintessential meaning of love. It is the thread that brings colour to the fabric of life.
What is love? We have come to understand or feel it primarily as an emotional connection between two or more people. We may have experienced feelings of oneness with others but we have also limited our expression of love to a select few.
But love is not a tool for possession, as some in human relations expect. Love is not a means of creating an impression, as some leaders attempt to do. It cannot be conditioned. It cannot be compulsive. Love goes far beyond that.
The journey to understanding and knowing love begins with the declaration that ‘I am love’. Love is the most basic expression of life and life is the very representation of love. That which gives momentum to life is love. That which evolves life is also love.
Love is the basic dimension of the whole creation. That which wills the creation is love. It is the boundless reservoir of love that bequeaths the creation. Love decrees, so the creation manifests. As life is sparked, love ensues. So the creation comes from love and exists for love to blossom. Our very birth is to know love, to be love, to receive love, and to spread love. Life’s highest purpose is love so Love is the basic dimension of the whole creation. That which wills the creation is love. It is the boundless reservoir of love that bequeaths the creation. Love decrees, so the creation manifests. As life is sparked, love ensues. So the creation comes from love and exists for love to blossom. Our very birth is to know love, to be love, to receive love, and to spread love. Life’s highest purpose is love so love is life.
Be love.
Love is the very foundation of life. It is the very origin - the most basic expression of existence. Love was before us, and it will survive us. It transcends all experiences, no matter how blissful, and yet it is at the core of all experiences. Without love, even bliss would be stale. Without love, life would be utterly dry.
The entire existence is bound together with love. One who is centered or one-pointed in love can feel or perceive the entire existence. If there is a God, we know God only through love.
And if this God is the oneness, then love is the ladder to that oneness. If Grace descends on us, it is only because love has ascended within us. Love flows, so blessings bestow. Love expands, so compassion includes. Love accepts, so mercy forgives. Love surrenders, so bliss penetrates. Love peaks, so devotion integrates.
So set on your quest for love, become thirsty for love, quench this longing also with love, and arrive unto knowing with love. If one has to enter the unified stream of consciousness which is life itself - if one has to experience the state of existence which is whole, then one has to climb the ladder of love. Love is the only force that completes the unified aspect of living, so be love - love is life.
Be loved.
While we may become aware of our deeper purpose to be love and to love, our experience of life is designed to receive love. Without receiving love, our vessel will always falter. So blessed are they who are fortunate enough to receive the bounty of love from life.
From the beginning, it is the mother’s love which enables our quest for understanding of the world without and within. It is the blessing of love from the father that enables our journey to survive and prosper.
Our relationships with family and community, if they are of a nurturing and loving quality, are a tremendous support that move us in the direction of fulfillment of life. And love can be the most important ingredient that creates an affirming and open workplace culture. More needs to be done to facilitate the cultivation of love in our work environments.
And when humans fail to give love, as they often do, nature can always be relied upon to receive unconditional love. A walk in a garden or forest or by the sea can feel very nurturing because it is filling our vessel with love. Animals are also adept at instantly reciprocating love. Love is enshrined in all of nature - all we have to do is attune ourselves to receive it.
If we have managed to fulfill our worldly aspirations with love, received from all those around us, we start seeking and often arrive at the threshold of our life mentor. For they will also seek us when they perceive our sincere seeking. This final meeting with our life mentor has the potential of overflowing our vessel with their unconditional love and overwhelming us with the blessings of life.
But if we are not loved, then there is no purpose to life. It is only because we have received love, that we have been able to enhance our perception and understanding of life. Love is the bridge between intelligence and understanding. Living together, moving together, working together, happens only because of love. Togetherness is love. The very process of life is facilitated by love, so be loved - love is life.
Spread love.
Once we know that love is what we are seeking in everything, and we are able to receive the love that we seek, if it culminates in us, then we become the declarers of love. It is very natural to then spread love. This becomes our highest purpose. For then, love empowers kindness. Kindness further culminates in compassion. And compassion born out of deep love is the completion of life.
There was a time when love was the basic impetus of all life. The culture of that time ensured that love was enshrined in all human activities and aspirations. The basic teaching was the cultivation of love within - as the sutra above states. Until one was brimming with love, they would not pursue any relation or meaningful human endeavour.
Hence, conjugal relations developed only when two people were truly in love - the kind that was impossible to ‘fall out of’. Love, within a human being, was an enduring and self-sustaining quality that survived all worldly relationships and activities. So it had the power to be unconditional.
A child was consciously conceived with the seed of love. A child was born into that same loving atmosphere. A child’s purpose was established to live a loving life. A child was initiated to the spiritual path by their own loving parents.
A child’s home was their ashram where they learned to love. A child grew up to value love beyond everything else. They were nurtured in love. They were encouraged to meet their educators and teachers with love - to learn with love. They approached their own relationships and life’s work with love.
By the end of their life, they were so full of love, that they only knew how to spread love unconditionally. Their vessel was full of love. Having reached the peak of life within, they could but only declare that love is life. One of the greatest beings to exemplify this life of love was Jesus of Nazareth. Born of the seed of love, he only knew love, was nurtured in love, acted in love, and showering love over all humanity, with his last breath, exclaimed that love is life.
For the last few millenniums, this has been slipping from our consciousness. Over the last hundred years, we have become completely ignorant of this. Our life motto has instead become success is life.
Now, we are born into a family and society that has already set its aspirations for us, but not our purpose to love. We play with abundant toys but with a scarcity of love around us. We are educated to achieve great material success that is often devoid of love. We are distracted from love by our technology.
We fail to receive love from our fellow humans, and we fail to find the time to receive it from nature. In the process, humans are suffering, and nature is suffering even more. That is the tragedy of the modern human.
We only work for wealth. We only acquire wealth for power. We only acquire power for fame. And as the end draws nearer, we start realizing the vacuum of love within. But success cannot buy love.
Then, ironically, we are told that we will find love in an ashram where we can learn to become spiritual. But it is too late by then. Death, as a messenger of life, comes to remind us of the value of love, only to our regret as our vessel goes away dry. Worse, as the world we valued so much forgets us, as our footprints are washed away as fast as the retreating wave, we feel an utter emptiness inside. So unless we know love, receive love, and spread love, this is to be our fate.
Time has once again come for love to take its rightful place as the root purpose of all life - from birth to death and every single moment in between. From that continual awareness of love from beginning to end, all human endeavours can become beautiful again. From that bounty of loving exchanges among all of life, a different exuberance can arise on our planet as we spread love - love is life.
These messages originate from Himalayan Yogi and Mystic Sri Maharshi. This message is interpreted, reflected upon and disseminated by me. If there is any wisdom in this matter, it is entirely credited to the universal intelligence, and if there are any faults herein, they are entirely mine. For more information about Sri Maharshi, please visit www.srimaharshi.org.
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