A Deepening Love
Spiritual love is indescribable. What can we say about this deep and subtle experience? When we truly love, we do not exist. Recall those moments when we were carried away by a loving feeling. So sublime, such a delight! Did we really know where we were, or what time it was, or even who we were? Perhaps not. We were lost in the feeling of love and the image of our beloved. “We” didn’t matter because a power immeasurably finer than ourselves had taken over.
When we’re in love, we feel more secure. Why? Because love is strong – consider a woman in labour, how strong she is to deliver her beloved child. Because love is free and generous – consider a man who daily sacrifices his personal desires to provide for his family. Because love is true and honest – consider a loving man who opens his heart to his wife to reveal his innermost fears and hopes.
All of us have roles in life: some are students, some workers, and some parents. With each role comes a purpose: a student needs to learn, a worker must be productive, and a parent must nurture and provide. But what are we besides those roles? When we are just a person, what is our purpose?
Our purpose is to love. Everyone, everywhere, aims to love; it is our origin and destination. Everyone has love, yet our love is incomplete until we pursue a deeper love, a spiritual love. As all the Masters teach, there is nothing more precious, more rare, more natural. Love is our divine essence, turning the ordinary into the transcendent.
Worldly love may turn into its opposite. We love our house, then it becomes old and broken down and we want to sell it. We love our spouse, then he or she is disagreeable and we want to break up. Ordinary love can become hateful, but spiritual love, experienced through the divine sound of the Shabd, is unconditional. It is independent of circumstances. No matter what, where, or when, Shabd is Shabd.
Spiritual love is unitive and natural and everlasting; it is not dualistic. We meditate in order to experience that divine love, not only in the moment of meditation, but in every minute of the day. Every time we take our attention off every day ordinary pursuits and refocus it on meditation with sincere dedicated effort, for that moment we literally do not exist. In that transcendent moment we have let go of the ruminations that bedevil us and turn to our attention to the beloved Master. His love has prevailed over our mind and we have placed our trust in him. We live for this union in order to experience and exist in that deeper love he radiates.