Understanding the Nature of Love
Love is a many-faceted topic. There is love between people, love for nature, love for animals and plants and love for the Divine. What is important in all of these different experiences of love is that you love purely. To know infinite love, you need not live up to anyone’s expectations but only take the time to turn your mind and heart toward the Divine and think of the qualities and characteristics of that divine Beloved.
Taking the time to suspend your mind and dissolve your self-hood into that eternal Self of yourself, you will discover the love of which all human love is only a dim reflection. One of the primary characteristics of cosmic love is abundant compassion for all living beings. That cosmic Self loves everyone and everything and sees everyone and everything as a part of its own Self. That Self has infinite love for living beings, infinite love for you. When you emulate this infinite love, this compassionate attitude of cosmic love in your own approach to life, you gain proximity to the Divine.
One of the primary characteristics of cosmic love is abundant compassion for all living beings.True love, the deepest form of love, the unconditional love, does not define and is not confined. Experiencing this love, you have care for all beings, including your own self, for you too are the child of the Divine. You are the son or the daughter of the divine One. If anyone should want to harm you, diminish you, hurt you, or tell you that you are less than others, do not listen to them. For all are the children of the Divine, including you, and all are important to that beloved Divinity.
The love of the one Beloved, who is the source of all love, is a shower of grace that falls eternally on all living beings. This love rejects no one. All are precious to that divine Beloved. You cannot earn the love of the Divine. It is not for sale. Instead it is freely given to all who take the time to notice it. To the Divine, those who are praised and those who go unnoticed by others, those who are capable of great deeds and those who give in small ways are all the same. All are parts of one interwoven, interconnected whole. There is not more love for one and less for the other.
If you want to know the Infinite, love for all is the best approach.
If you want to know the Infinite, love for all is the best approach. Even for those who do you harm, love and compassion given freely is the best approach. It doesn't mean you must sanctify their actions or that you need to tolerate hurtful actions. Only ignite the kindness, compassion and caring in your own heart. If you care for others and spend your time in acts of kindness to others, even though you yourself may carry a deep burden of pain, your pain will become less. You will see that in loving and caring for others resides the real reward in this life.
If you want to know the Divinity that is the source of all love, do good deeds throughout your day and throughout your life. Make a point, each and every day, to intentionally do at least one act of kindness for another. This way you develop a kind heart. Developing a kind heart is the key step to the development of great compassion. To know great compassion is to know love unconditional. To know love unconditional is to know your supreme Father, your divine Mother, for the very nature of this universe is love, unconditional love.
Maetreyii Ma is a former director of the Spiritual Emergence Network, a founding member of the Kundalinili Research Network, founder and past president of Ananda Seva Mission, and former co-director of the Ananda Seva Yoga Teacher Trainings and Yoga Therapy Trainings.
Dr. Nolan is currently the president of Ananda Guru Kula, a non-profit dedicated to spreading the wisdom teachings of Yoga and a transpersonal psychologist in private practice.
She spends her time giving 'Baba Talks', teaching and making books of these beautiful discourses. She is a wife and mother and currently lives with her husband in their ashram community in the Northern San Francisco Bay area.