"Love itself is the actual form of God."

[Guest guest]

"Love itself is the actual form of God." "Letters from Sri

Ramanasramam" by Suri NagammaThis dialogue is one of my favorite

dialogues with Sri Ramana Maharshi.Here is the dialogue in context:Q:

Swami, it is good to love God, is it not?Then why not follow the path

of love?Maharshi: "Who said you couldn't follow it? You can do so.But

when you talk of love,there is duality,is there not?-the person who

loves and the entity called God who is loved? The individual is not

separate from God. Hence love means one has love towards one's own

Self."Q: That is why I am asking you whether God could be worshipped

through the path of love.Maharshi:"That is exactly what I have been

saying. Love itself is the actual form of God. If by saying, `I do

not love this, I do not love that', you reject all things, that which

remains is the real form of the Self. That is pure bliss. Call it pure

bliss, God, Self, or what you will. That is devotion, that is

realization and that is everything.If you thus reject everything,

what remains is the Self alone. That is real love. One who knows the

secret of that lovefinds the world itself full of universal love.The

experience of not forgetting consciousness, alone,is the state of

devotion which is the relationship of unfading real love, because the

real knowledge of Self,which shines as the undivided supreme bliss

itself, surges up as the nature of love. Only if one knows the truth

of love, which is the real nature of Self, will the strong entangled

knot of life be untied.Only if one attains the height of love will

liberation be attained.Such is the heart of all religions. The

experience of Self is only love, which is seeing only love, hearing

only love, feeling only love, tasting only loveand smelling only

love,which is bliss."