Love – The Inner Voice

Romantic love is the limited point of reference from which most of us attempt to understand divine love, the law of God.

It is this physical love that leads us to believe we understand what love is, but actually we haven’t a clue about real love and truth. Spiritual love is very different from physical love, and it is through our meditation that we begin to understand this difference. This is the time when we listen for the voice of God and seek his divine love within.

Maharaj Charan Singh tells us in Quest for Light that simran and bhajan are the only things that will ultimately put us in touch with the voice of the Lord that is ringing within us. Therefore the best part of our day should be when we meditate, when we communicate with God, calling his name and listening for his reply. It is a state of oneness that we are trying to achieve, in which we merge our love in him. The Masters talk of the drop merging back into the ocean of love: losing one’s identity and becoming another being. But why would we want to lose our identity?

This idea is touched on in the movie Avatar, in which a trained marine soldier gets to learn and experience what it is like to be able to connect, feel and communicate with every creature: plant or animal, bird or beast, as though he were interacting with human beings. This experience changes him to such an extent that he wants to leave his old identity and body behind. As his values, views and understanding change, he finds that his old identity has no more significance or importance to him.

This is the crux of our meditation: to lose our identity, to transform ourselves into the divine and merge back into the ocean of his love. This is the ultimate experience of love and joy that the Masters speak about. They tell us that happiness and bliss are within us, but inour ignorance we look for happiness outside ourselves, in fleeting worldly pleasures.

If we lose something inside our home, we will never find it if we look for it outside. Similarly, we must look inside ourselves for the answers we seek. Having searched everywhere and not found God anywhere outside, we finally realize that the place to look for him is in the darkness within, in the inner stillness – through meditation.

If we would only put into practice what the Master teaches us, we would find the answers; we would discover the truth within through our own inner enquiry. For it is only when we turn within and look for the Lord there, that we will begin to experience what true love is.

Love is more than a feeling or an attitude; it is more than a bond in a relationship. It is the nectar of the universe: one Sound, one Word, one Logos, one Shabd, one God – Oneness, the ultimate union.

In Adventure of Faith the author offers this advice:

Preserve your heart’s capacity to love, for you know not whether God will one day ask you for your undivided heart.

Our Master has taught us how to meditate: how to listen, look and commune in the stillness within our own selves. Through meditation we learn to trust our own intuition and to experience without any doubts, not only the inner voice of God, but also the light and love of Oneness.

It is through unshakeable faith that we will reach the stage where we are willing to give up this entire physical creation, simply leave it all behind for those great mines of bliss and happiness within.

Maharaj Charan Singh has told us that this is a path of love, and love only. In Quest for Light he tells us how to develop that love, saying:

The more you are attached to Shabd, the nearer you will be to the Master and the stronger shall be your love for him. The more you will love the Master, the more will the love of God grow in your heart.…

The best way to develop love for the Master is to devote your time to simran and bhajan. The more time you spend in the spiritual exercises with faith, love and humility, the greater will be your love for the Master and God.

Within the mind’s eye
 My love doth ever lie.
Each moment to my gaze
 His glory is ablaze.
Whoso with His splendour is stricken so,
 Forgetful of himself doth verily grow.
_{Sarmad, as quoted in Discourses on Sant Mat, Vol. I}