Love One Another

When all is said and done, the Masters’ message, in a nutshell, is the same as that which Christ taught:

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another: as I have loved you.
_{Bible: St John 13:34}

Is it any wonder that loving one another is such an important and essential prerequisite to living? But how do we live this in our everyday life? How can we, in fact, know that we are loving one another?

The Book of Mirdad provides us with some helpful clues and insights into what love is, and how we are to love:

And what is it to love but for the lover to absorb forever the beloved so that the twain be one?

And whom, or what, is one to love? Is one to choose a certain leaf upon the Tree of Life and pour upon it all one’s heart? What of the branch that bears the leaf? What of the stem that holds the branch? What of the bark that shields the stem? What of the roots that feed the bark, the stem, the branches and the leaves? What of the soil embosoming the roots? What of the sun, and sea, and air that fertilize the soil? … The love that singles out a fraction of the whole foredooms itself to grief.

We can learn from this that our love is only for a minute part and not the whole. In fact our love is often no more than attachment. Now, perhaps we can understand why we often have grief in our relationships. How often have we seen our love turn to hate, or been victims of this type of love?

Mirdad shares several gems on love in this book, such as: “You do not know the joy of love so long as there is hatred in your hearts.” In effect, he tells us that if we have the capacity to hate, we cannot have the capacity to love, and if we have the capacity to love we cannot have the capacity to hate. They are mutually exclusive.

Great Master tells us in The Dawn of Light: “Love is the richest of all treasures. Without it there is nothing, and with it there is everything.”

Because we cannot escape from the fact that the love we know and experience is far removed from what the Masters speak of, how then does one cultivate this type of love? Let’s take different aspects of our lifestyle and see how we can practise this love in our everyday lives.

If we love the whole creation and not fractions or selected parts of it, how can we inflict pain and suffering upon other creatures by mercilessly slaughtering them merely to please our palates for a few moments? Can we ever love God if we eat animals, birds and fish? With compassion for the rest of creation, we will develop love for all of creation.

We all know of the effects of alcohol and drugs and the actions performed under their influence. As aspiring lovers of the Lord, we should constantly be in control of our thoughts, words and actions to ensure that all our actions are congruent with those of a lover of God.

The actions of lovers of the Lord must be moral, ethical, fair, compassionate, forgiving and humble. This responsibility extends from earning our own honest living to the entire spectrum of good conduct and ethical behaviour – being kind, respectful and not speaking ill of others or hurting them. If we love all of creation, as we should, we can see the importance of this lifestyle.

All the above behavioural traits are important and are a prerequisite for the journey to union with the Lord. But, have we wondered why we exist separately from him? What gives us our individuality and separateness? If we haven’t merged with the Lord and become one with him, what are we?

Unfortunately, most of us don’t know the answer to this question, which has plagued humanity since creation began. However, the Master tells us that until we merge with the Lord, we are nothing but the mind or the ego. Some may think we are this body and at a material level, this may seem so. But when we die and leave this body, or raise our consciousness above this material level, it will become apparent that we are not this body at all but rather a form of energy or life force.

Owing to the dominance of the mind over the soul, we think we are the mind and are still unaware of the soul. Only when we become aware of the soul, can we say we are self-realized. The only way to realize the soul is to remove the coverings of the mind. When the soul regains its dominance over the mind, it escapes its clutches and rises beyond the region of mind. By shedding the mind, the ego and I-ness are also shed, thereby losing the identity we have, and we – as we presently know ourselves – cease to exist. Then, all that remains is for the soul to merge with the Lord himself. This is God-realization.

The Masters teach us that the only way to achieve this is through meditation. Great Master said:

Meditation means dying a living death in the prime of life. It means staying awake, eating sparingly – in short, restraining the mind’s cravings and bringing it under control. All this is no child’s play. It is only possible when love for the Satguru takes possession of your heart, driving out all other attachments.
_{As quoted in Heaven on Earth}

We have been given the gift of initiation, and our commitment is to do our daily spiritual practice, through which our consciousness will gradually begin to rise. When this happens we begin to further our own enlightenment – ultimately developing love for the whole creation. As this love grows it gradually displaces the conditional love and attachments we have for minute parts of creation.

As a result of our meditation we develop our spiritual faculties to see and hear all the worlds that lie within us. Our consciousness will become fully awakened and we will be able to see everything beyond the physical. Then, when we look at a person, we will see their true self, their soul manifesting as light. Then we’ll know what the Masters see when they look at us.

Once, when Baba Ji was asked what he sees when he looks at us, his response was that he only saw potential. Imagine overlooking all our flaws and weaknesses – seeing only our potential to be that pure light, our potential to achieve our goal of losing our false identity and becoming one with him.

Maulana Rum said:

The current of love from the one God is flowing through the entire universe. What do you think when you look at the face of a man? Look at him carefully. He is not a man, but a current of the Essence of God (Love), which permeates him.
_{As quoted in Glimpses of the Great Master}

When we develop our spiritual faculties, we see only the positives and we don’t see any weaknesses or flaws, as we see in both ourselves and others now. Let’s ignore what we can see with these eyes and let’s focus on our potential. Let’s focus on our meditation, which will enable us to realize our potential.

We have often asked the Masters for a final message. There can be none better than that of Hazur who said:

I can only say a few words; I have nothing more to give in advice – the books are full of the teachings – but I can only suggest that satsangis and everybody should try to love one another. The more you are nearer to one another, the more you will be nearer and dearer to me. The more we are nearer and dearer to one another, the more we are nearer and dearer to the Lord. So this we should always try to keep in our minds. … So I can only ask you again, as Christ also taught you, ‘Love one another.’
_{As quoted in Heaven on Earth}