The Dance of Love

When we first learn to dance as children, our father sometimes puts our small feet on top of his. We then can easily twirl and twirl. Dancing becomes more difficult when we are required to stand on our own two feet. Our focus is intense, yet we stumble frequently. Repetition of the movements to the music begins to bring us into harmony with our partner. Little by little our movements become one as we dance. Our focus shifts away from ourselves to our partner and then to the music.

In much the same way in our spiritual life, the dance of love is unfolding. We are learning to move with Master. We shift our focus from the world to our inner self, then to him, and finally to the music. We are here to become conscious, to dance with our partner. The Master-partner comes to teach us the dance of love – the dance that dissolves us into the One. Maharaj Sawan Singh, explains in Philosophy of the Masters, Vol. II:

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.

But what do we know of love? What do we know of God? We often think of love as the karmic love which binds us to other people. Even this limited love, based upon duty and obligation, is intensely attractive. This love can make life worthwhile, at least for some time. The people we love are always with us in our mind, coming and going through our thoughts, sometimes anxiously, sometimes sweetly, sometimes bitterly, sometimes sadly. But how enchanting it is to begin to become aware that Master is also with us, never to leave. Sometimes, when the noise of the mind stops, in that peaceful quiet, we can remember his presence.

We may not know real love yet, but we can look to the Masters as examples of how to practise the dance of love. One element is following the teacher’s lead. Maharaj Charan Singh advises us to live in the Lord’s will, accept his commands and be receptive to his grace. It is a beautiful balance between action and acceptance, because in order to exist here, we must do our part.

We are inclined to obsess about fixing what we see as the cause of our feelings of disappointment. Our mind wants to blame others when our life is not what we expected. But Masters give us the example of acceptance. Hazur says in Legacy of Love, “The fact is, we do not see things as they are. Rather, we see things as we are.” With Master’s grace we begin to see things as they are, begin to become lovers, and start to taste devotion. The Master is full of laughter and humour. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, so why not follow his lead?

The Master’s love is the key to it all. We can win our way back to conscious contact with God through our Master’s love for us and our love for him. He grants us love that we convert into effort, which he then slowly, slowly converts into devotion. Without his love, we would never think of bhajan and simran; we could never make an effort.

We do not see the reasons for others’ actions or the outcome of those actions. They are hidden from us as surely as the karmic reasons for our actions and their real outcome. The mind’s job is to justify karma, to make us believe we are the doer. However, when we seriously go into training with the Master, who administers our karmas, we truly begin to notice we are practising the steps of the dance of love. Every moment, every step, we are becoming love. How joyous to accept the occurrences of life and give all of the worry to our Master. Master gives us a different focus. Our job is to do bhajan and simran and leave all else to him.

Leaving all else to Master is difficult. How do we leave all else? Love is conscious and so we must become conscious. No roaming around in our mind. Love transcends time and space. How can we do that? The only time we can be conscious is now. If our attention is in the future or the past, we cannot be with Master now. We can only be conscious here. We will miss the opportunity to be with Master if our attention is elsewhere.

When the soul goes beyond mind and maya, the result is that we become saturated by Master’s love. If we do not want to suffer, meditate! If we want an easier time here, meditate! If we want to experience love, meditate! If we want to become love, meditate! Meditation is the real dance.