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This is one word that is much used or abused in all the cultures or societies.
Any serious person would know that what goes around with the name Love
is not so. Yet aren't we all conditioned without our conscious participation.
So whether we like it or not we have certain notions about it. Though I
personally do no like to divide the life into secular & spiritual, it would be a
good starting point to our examining Love. Some may even object to such a
cold blooded dissection for they would say that Love is a matter of Heart.
We are not being anything of this kind and fully realise that it is the kernel
of Spiritual life.
Love is God goes the famous saying of the Gospel yet we can safely assume
that even this definition of Love had nothing to do with sex. Why was one
supposed to sublimate this sexual energy and convert it to a passionate affair
with the Lord. It would do no good to dismiss it as a fad of Puritans. There
could be many reasons that sincere seekers would know but for the present
let me confine myself to the topic.
I cannot claim to know any more than this great adept but would say that to
go beyond the self by conscious effort seems illogical. All efforts strengthen
the ego or self. To see clearly the tricks and trap of this egocentric activity
could at least slow it down and it is in these magical moments that we can
have an insight into Love. One of the safest way is to reject what it is not
whatever our gut feeling be. The negative approach or Neti, Neti meaning
not this, not this may be a safe approach.
We require energy for everything that we do. Love is the purest form of that
energy or the very source the very Heart. In fact Heart is one of the names of
God as told by Maharshi Ramana.
Love is intelligence.
It would be safe to say that we don't have one but three minds. G. I Gurdjieff
calls man a three storied creature. Corresponding to these three centers
which we could for our conveniences call the Lower, Middle & Upper, we
would have three intelligences. They would be the Body, Emotions &
(higher) Mind. Love belongs to our higher emotional center and a
prerequisite for which is the working of Intelligence.
We notice our pleasure turns to pain, joy turns to sorrow and love turns to
hate. We get angry with that which we dearly love. So the range of emotions
is in duality. In fact each emotion contains its opposite albeit potentially.
Now Love does not belong to our field of normal emotions which are
dualistic in nature. This Love has no opposite. It is unconditional and pure.
Action that comes out of this Love is the right action. God carries out the
action of creation, sustenance and destruction out of Love. Such an action is
always right action and promotes harmony or is the right musical not in the
cosmic symphony.
In the Sankhya tradition which is the basis of Yoga phylosophy, Mahat or
cosmic Mind or Intelligence is the first manifestation of the primordial
consciousness called avyakta or un-manifest. This first born energy is Love.
Now this is the purest manifestation of cosmic Love. But if we are to believe
in the theory of progressive manifestation or involution down through
various spheres we will find that this force in our cosmos acting through
man would not be in its purest.Therefore any act that contributes to greater
harmony and unconditional reaching out is Love. Or the energy available to
us uncontaminated by our ego or selfish pursuits or narrow beliefs is Love.