What is 'Love' ?

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

 

>From "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran:

 

Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.

 

And he raised his head and looked upon the people,

and there fell a stillness upon them.

And with a great voice he said:

 

When love beckons to you, follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams as

the north wind lays waste the garden.

 

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.

Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses

your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them

in their clinging to the earth.

 

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that

you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

 

All these things shall love do unto you that

you may know the secrets of your heart, and

in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

 

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace

and love's pleasure,

Then it is better for you to cover your nakedness

and pass out of love's threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh,

but not all of your laughter, and weep,

but not all of your tears.

 

Love gives naught but itself and

takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love.

 

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart,"

but rather, "I am in the heart of God."

And think not that you can direct the course of love,

for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

 

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires,

let these be your desires:

 

To melt and be like a running brook that

sings its melody to the night.

 

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and

give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

 

And then to sleep with a prayer

for the beloved in your heart and

a song of praise upon your lips.

 

 

Jaya Sri Radhey!

[Guest guest]

Jaya Sri Radhey! Namaste.

 

"sarvathA dhvaMsa rahitaM satyapi dhvaMsa kAraNe,

yad bhAva bandhanaM yUnoH sa premA parikIrtitaH"

 

Even all the causes for perishing and forsaking

do not cause its perishment at any time;

this firm emotional bondage between the

lovers is glorified as sacred love.

 

- Gauranga Mahaprabhu

 

----------

 

Absence is to love what wind is to fire -

it extinguishes the small, it kindles the great.

 

----

 

I looked for my soul

But my soul I could not see.

I looked for my God

But my God eluded me.

I looked for a friend

And then I found all three.

 

- Thomas Blake

 

Jaya Sri Radhey!

[Guest guest]

Out of The Blessings of Love by Mother Teresa:

 

Souls of prayer are souls of deep silence. We cannot place ourselves

directly in the presence of God without forcing ourselves to an

inner

and outer silence. Therefore, we have to get used to the silence of

the spirit, of the eyes, and of the tongue.

 

Those who are unwanted and unloved...those who walk through the

world

with no one to care for them. Do we go out to meet those? Do we know

them? Do we try to find them? Do we help them?

 

God has created us for great things: to love and offer love, to

experience tenderness toward others, as He did, and to know how to

offer Jesus to others. People are not hungry for us; they are hungry

for God.

 

"In Him we live and move and have our being." Consider that you are

in God, surrounded and encomnpassed by God, swimming in God.

 

 

 

, pyari_h <no_reply> wrote:

> Jaya Sri Radhey! Namaste.

>

> "sarvathA dhvaMsa rahitaM satyapi dhvaMsa kAraNe,

> yad bhAva bandhanaM yUnoH sa premA parikIrtitaH"

[Guest guest]

"To merit the madness of love, man must abound in sanity;

to merit the bonds of the Friend, he must be full of spirit.

Blessed the neck that is caught in His noose,

happy the head that falleth on

the dust in the pathway of His love."

 

(Baha'u'llah: Seven Valleys and Four Valleys, Page: 9)

 

"Glory to Thee, O my God!

But for the tribulations which are sustained in Thy path,

how could Thy true lovers be recognized;

and were it not for the trials which are borne for love of Thee,

how could the station of such as yearn for Thee be revealed?

 

Thy might beareth Me witness!

The companions of all who adore Thee are the tears they shed,

and the comforters of such as seek Thee are the groans they utter,

and the food of them who haste to meet Thee

is the fragments of their broken hearts.

 

(Baha'u'llah: Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, Page: 95)

 

Peace and love,

 

(contributed by Suzanne)

 

Jaya Sri Radhey!

[Guest guest]

Love

 

Anyone who has experienced spiritual consciousness has spoken of

coming in contact with divine love.

 

The scriptures of various religions speak repeatedly about God as

love.

 

God is love, our soul being of the same essence as that of God is

love, and the way back to God is through love.

 

It is hard for us at our level to understand this, because we as

human beings think of love in a limited and narrow sense.

We think of love as a feeling between two people.

 

At lower levels of understanding, people often confuse it with

feelings of romance or physical love.

 

But that love is but a dim reflection of a reflection of a reflection

of a much higher love, a divine love.

 

God is divine love. God is the power of love itself.

It is an all-embracing, fulfilling, satisfying, and intoxicating love

that pulls close to its heart all that exists.

 

We are all swimming in God's love but do not know it.

 

The ocean of spiritual consciousness is an ocean of Love.

 

Returning to the imagery of the ocean, picture yourself taking a dip

in the ocean. The waters surround us completely. We are enveloped in

its cool, refreshing waters.

 

It does not matter who we are-whether we are man or woman, American

or Chinese, dark-skinned or light-skinned, Christian, Muslim, Hindu,

or Jew, the water embraces us equally.

 

Each of us receives the refreshing embrace of the water and we come

out feeling soothed.

 

Similarly, the ocean of God is around us all the time, just as the

ocean is around all who enter it.

 

God's love embraces each of us equally.

It is an unconditional love that does not see our outer differences.

 

In fact, it is so loving, it embraces us whether we are saints or

sinners.

God's love is there for all, no matter what we have done.

 

Unconditional love accepts everyone.

 

When we bathe in the ocean of spiritual consciousness, we are tapping

into the state of divine love.

We will experience what it is like to be loved wholly and completely

for who we are.

We will feel the oneness with the power of love and it will

intoxicate and permeate our very being.

 

Living in such a state means that we no longer feel a lack of love in

our outer life.

 

All the people in the world on whom we pin our hopes and desires may

leave us, but it will not cause us to feel unloved.

Instead, we feel the love of God within us at all times and it is

more fulfilling than any outer love.

 

We may lose the love of everyone in the world, but we are sustained

by a much higher and more permanent love-the divine love of God

embracing us from within.

 

We not only experience love ourselves, but we will expand in our own

capacity to love others.

Whereas now the list of people we love may be short, including only

our spouse, partner, family members, and close friends, the list will

grow to encompass every person in creation and even every living

thing in creation.

 

We will tap into our innate ability to love all.

 

If we look at the people humanity has traditionally honored through

the ages, it has been people who had the ability to show love to all.

 

We find that Christ who began with twelve disciples, now, two

thousand years later, has millions of people who follow his

teachings.

 

The ability to love all, saints and sinners alike, and to embrace all-

even those on whom others would throw stones, has left such a

compelling impact on people, that he is still revered.

 

Buddha was called the compassionate one, and also embraced saints and

sinners alike.

He was the champion of even the smallest creature,advocating that we

do not harm any living creature.

 

We have a beautiful story in which Buddha was out in the forest with

his cousin.

His cousin shot down a bird. Buddha rushed to the bird to comfort it

and help it heal.

The cousin demanded that Buddha give him the bird, but Buddha

refused.

The cousin felt that the bird was rightfully his since he shot it

down.

 

The dispute became so heated that the cousin wanted to take

the case to be judged.

In the hearing in front of the judge, the judge asked the cousin why

he felt the bird was his.

 

"Because I was the one who shot it," replied the cousin.

 

When Buddha was asked why he should own the bird, he replied,

 

"Because I was the one who took care of it and gave it back its

life."

 

The judge ruled that Buddha had the right understanding.

 

Such was Buddha's love for all living creatures that he could not

bear any pain being inflicted on even the younger brothers or sisters

of God.

Buddha's teachings of love were so noteworthy, that two thousand five

hundred years after he lived, there are millions of people who follow

and revere Lord Buddha.

 

We have many other examples of saints who were so full of love and

compassion that we honor and revere them.

 

There is St. Francis of Assisi, Rabia Basri, and even in modern

times, we see how Mother Teresa was honored for her love and care for

the lepers, the homeless, the sick, and the downtrodden people.

 

When we attain spiritual consciousness, we too will be imbued with a

divine love that not only nourishes us but also fills us so

completely that it overflows from us to touch the lives of all we

meet.

 

Source: Sat Sandesh, June 2000

Raising Your Spiritual Consciousness

by Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj

 

 

Jaya Sri Radhey!