ADVENTURES IN ADVAITA VEDANTA...

Adventures in Advaita Vedanta, the philosophy and science of spirit. We are one you and I; are you curious why?..


Love Is All You Need

Hari OM

Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!

The virtues of living have been our focus this past few weeks. We come now to the big one. The single, most-abiding and enduring virtue of all.

LOVE.


This is the most divine of the virtues. It is the diadem in the crown of virtues.

Love mends the broken, heals the wounds, embraces the aches, soothes the pains. Love quells the fears, makes sacrifices, inspires and serves.

Love conquers hatred. Love forgives.

Love seeks not for itself, it doesn't barter this for that.  There is no selfishness in Love. Love is goodness, honour and peace. It strengthens and ennobles the character. It takes interest in others without expectation of self-benefit.

We are talking here of Love with the capital 'ell', Supreme and Universal. Unattached, non-expectant, undemanding. It is the Love which enables a view of  नारायनभाव/Naaraayanabhava - seeing the Lord in all and knowing all to be a manifestation of the Lord. Love like this purifies and redeems.  It brings divinity into daily living.

This is not the base and common, acquisitive and jealous 'love'; the word has been misused, mistreated. We hear 'love' and assume much of it only to be disappointed.  Why are we so often thus?  It is because in our depths, in the core of our beings, we know and understand what True Love is and it far outreaches and out-performs that of the needy, the controlling, the clinging, the lewd and the lustful.

Love has no 'use-by' date; it does not get bored neither does it seek beyond itself for answers.

How to nurture this universal virtue within our personality?  We all have it.  It has become dormant is all.  What is required is an adjustment of focus. By reading this, there is already a little light. Read more on the subject of pure Love. Read the scriptures and seek to employ saadhana chatushtaya. Seek satsanga (meeting and discussion) with the teachers and leaders who live the example. Find a way to serve them and your fellow beings. Start small, local. Within your immediate social circle, even. Where you find a spark of distrust or a flash of anger or a hint of hatred within you, stamp it out with remembrance of the Lord and replace it with the Love He provides. If you cannot speak softly in that moment, refrain from speech at all.  If you cannot extend full Love to those whom you meet each day, how will you ever manage Universal Love?


Feel the world as if it were your own body. Feel the body as a temple of God/Universal Love.  Allow it to unite you with all who share this world, be they other races, other creeds; animal, vegetable, mineral. Unite with all. Universal Love is One-ness. Pure Love is the ultimate leveller. It brings equality and equanimity. Ramdas, Hafiz, Kabir, Tukuram, Hildegarde, St Thomas, John of God…. All great souls have tasted this bliss.  What others have achieved, you can also.


 Little by little build your Love muscle!!!