Our Father’s Love

If there is one thing all of us experience while visiting the Dera or being in the Master’s presence, it is the love of the Master. We often arrive after a long journey, tired, and needy. We sit before him, scattered and worn by the world, and he understands. We know how unworthy we are to be in his radiant presence. He sees all of our faults and he loves us anyway. We realize how little devotion we have, how far we have drifted from the Master, and he draws us to him. Helpless, we abandon the ragged and lowly self and allow him to fill us.

And then – nothing else matters. Nothing was ever of any consequence. How could we have forgotten this love? In an instant we are transported from a sad and weary pilgrim to a joyous child, lifted and secure in his love. It is our solace, it is our strength. And it is ours, completely, unconditionally, ours. He loves us exactly as we are. Immensely.

It is not we who love. It is he who loves us. And we are helplessly attracted to that love. The wonderful awareness of this love is rightfully ours. The saints tell us it is our heritage – that his love is always within. In fact, it is what we are made of. We are particles of divine love.

As often has been said: Never forget that the feeble echoes of love you have for the Lord are but a dim reflection of the immeasurable love God has for you.

In Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. II, Maharaj Sawan Singh speaks of love:

God is love, and love was in the beginning. The entire creation is the result of love. We have been sent down into this world through love, and the cause of our return will also be love. The path of love is the real ideal. Whosoever is following this path is following the True Path.

Great Master continues:

Love is noble and pure. It purifies us and ennobles our life. It is the very essence of simplicity and purity. It is also the sustaining power of this world. Without it the world would be desolate and our life would be aimless. Love is the sustainer of life. Without it a man would be useless. It acts like a binding or uniting force, to keep everyone attached to each other. It induces us to work and to be active. It stimulates our intellect and energy of mind. It is the essence of true purity. It is the spiritual light that brightens our soul. It is the Straight Path that takes one to the Lord. All Saints and poets sing its praises. The story of love is indescribable. Nobody can really describe it, since it can only be experienced.

So this power, this quality of love moves and sustains the human spirit. It is the fundamental quality of our essence, our soul. When we are devoid of it, life is dark and meaningless. When we are immersed in it, nothing can make us happier.

Great Master continues to explain that love is a universal attraction:

Love is born out of human emotions. The sweet fragrance of love permeates the orchard of life. Whenever there is a current of love in the mind, the heart is spontaneously attracted by it. This current or force is working throughout the entire universe.

Great Master tells us that love for another human being can lead us to love for God. He suggests that even our desire to find a partner, a special loved one, is really a reflection of our yearning to find the Beloved and can lead us toward divine love.

If you have physical love which is not subject to any selfish or ulterior motive, then such a love is welcome, because it is the means of creating in you, love for God.

Sufi saints, as quoted in Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. II, have also described physical or worldly love as a first step toward spiritual love. The Sufi saints say:

Love, whether it is material or spiritual, should be in every heart, because in the mirror of material love there is the reflection of spiritual love. The light of worldly love illuminates the path of love divine.

Baba Ji tells us that the Lord is lovingly waiting for us. Once, on an exceptionally cold evening in the Dera he said that, the Lord loves his children. When you know someone is waiting lovingly for you when you get home, how does that make you feel? When they greet you and give you a hug, and bring you a cup of hot coffee, doesn’t that feel nice? Well, multiply that a million, billion times.

In his endearing way, Baba Ji was trying to describe what awaits us within. What words can he use to impress on our limited intellect? A million, billion times more comforting than the sweetest love we know.

This love is ours. It comes from the Father, the one who created and sustains us. And it is communicated to us through the form of the Master. When we are irresistibly drawn to the Master, it is the love of the Father pulling us. After the long journey to the Dera or to see him anywhere, we arrive travel-weary and woefully unworthy; then our minds fall silent and our hearts fill with joy and yearning in his presence: it is our Father’s love awakened in us by the Master.

Knowledge says that the world is scattered in all the six directions – north, south, east, west, above and below – and that there is no path leading beyond this. Love says, “There is a path and I have been on it many times.”

A lover may be full of troubles, but in his mind there is always a surging wave of joy for the Beloved.

The intellectuals of the world spend their lives in groping in the dark, which is full of worldly worries.

The human intellect says that there is nothing beyond this body, this physical life. It is followed by death and nothing else. The path of love is full of thorns of troubles and one should not tread that path under any circumstances.

But love says, “Thorns there may be, but there are also life-giving flowers on this path. In love, one goes beyond this body, because then only can one find the life eternal. Therefore, do not be afraid of the thorns of this apparent death.”
_{Shams Tabriz, as quoted in Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. I}