Guiding Light: WWW – Worship Without Wavering, Part 1

Love is a universal demand of everyone. One may have great knowledge, a very strong physique, lots of wealth, power, prestige etc. Yet without love, life is empty. On the other hand, even if one is the poorest in terms of external possessions, if one’s heart is filled with love, there is no one richer than such a person. What we truly want in life is not objects & people, but love. Poojya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda said – “To love and to be loved is the greatest privilege of life.”

Not knowing one’s own nature to be Love & Happiness, one’s heart is constantly craving for love and the mind feels a sense of separateness and loneliness, even amidst people. Especially the temporary nature of life, breaking up of close relationships, the inability of any relationship to make one completely secure and satisfied and the inevitability of death are some of the reasons that makes one insecure. This insecurity is the cause of all anxieties, fears, worries & sorrows. It leads to selfishness, cruelty, anger and violence in relationships because each one wants to get maximum for oneself. One feels this is the way to become secure. One will be loved more and more if one has more and more possessions, beauty, power, prestige etc. Instead of giving love actively, one is chasing the external objects. Alas! In the pursuit of all this one distances oneself more and more from others, gets trapped in the shell of isolation and feels lonely in life.

How can one come out of loneliness and become truly independent and a constant source of giving love to everyone? This is possible when we realize that the sense of separateness makes us insecure. In deep sleep, under chloroform or in meditation we don’t feel insecure and lonely because the dividing entity – the Ego is dormant. Ego creates the divisions of individual, world and God. To end the ego alone is the permanent solution to end the imaginary divisions and sense of separateness. How to end this ego?

To discover the fusion-in-love is the way to end the ego. Hence, Love is the way to end the ego. Love is the way to Love. No other methods are necessary. Where true love is, the ego cannot be.

Story: Saints tell us a moving story of a group of moths. From a distance they kept watching the flame of the candle and they wondered, “What is there in this flame that keeps drawing us? What is it that fascinates us beyond measure?” One by one the moths went to investigate – what was the nature of the flame? The first one went near the flame and returned to say – “The nature of the flame is brightness. It is the blinding brightness that attracts us.” The leader moth said- you don’t know the nature of the flame yet. The second moth returned to say – “The nature of the flame is brightness and heat. The warmth attracts us.” The Leader was not satisfied. When the turn of the third moth came, he straightaway entered into the flame. The leader said – “He alone knows the nature of flame who has become one with it.”
Until the lover and the beloved become one, one cannot have True Love.

Poojya Gurudev said – “Love is the identification with the beloved; when the two become one.”

Mother’s love for the child, a patriot’s love for the nation, a devotee’s love for the Lord etc. are examples where true love is experienced. Such love is the means to dissolve the ego and become secure in life. Even if one discovers one such relationship where one can truly love without expectations & love for the sake of love, one can get a glimpse of the fulfillment & security of unconditional love. Yet even if one finds such a relationship, human love has limitations. Relationships being temporary, one does feel insecure at other times. It cannot be unconditional as long as the ego exists. Hence Swami Vivekananda said – “Finite can never truly love the finite. Infinite alone can truly love the finite.” Hence Love of Infinite and Infinite Love alone can satisfy us by ending our sense of separation and making us aware of our oneness with the Infinite. This is called Divine Love. Human love becomes sentimental and leads to attachment without Divine Love. Divine Love is the love directed to the Divine. Divine Love is unconditional. We are not judged, analyzed, evaluated by the Divine. Divine Love alone makes us secure & fearless because we can experience that every moment, the Divine Lord is with us at all times, taking care of us, nourishing us, protecting us, leading and guiding us with Infinite love and compassion.

In the next article we shall explore – What is Divine Love or Bhakti? How to invoke Bhakti? Who is Bhagavan? What is our relationship with Bhagavan? Who is a Bhakta?… ”

Swami Swatmananda is a renunciate monk, a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda serving at Chinmaya Mission Mumbai. @ChinmayaShivam is his handle