Tag: Love

Subtle degrees by Rumi

Subtle degrees
of domination and servitude
are what you know as love

but love is different
it arrives complete
just there
like the moon in the window

like the sun
of neither east nor west
nor of anyplace

when that sun arrives
east and west arrive

desire only that
of which you have no hope
seek only that
of which you have no clue

love is the sea of not-being
and there intellect drowns

this is not the Oxus River
or some little creek
this is the shoreless sea;
here swimming ends
always in drowning

a journey to the sea
is horses and fodder
and contrivance
but at land’s end
the footsteps vanish

you lift up your robe
so as not to wet the hem;
come! drown in this sea
a thousand times

the moon passes over the
ocean of non-being

droplets of spray tear loose
and fall back
on the cresting waves

a million galaxies
are a little scum
on that shoreless sea

An unhealthy relationship is loving something that is incapable of loving you back. That is always a sign that it is not a connection with your Higher Self:  Watching TV, computer games, wine – these are simple examples.

Susan Pearce, OM-Less?: An Irreverent Guide to Knowing Grace (p. 53)

The Maitreyi Yajnavalkya dialogue includes a discussion of…

The Maitreyi-Yajnavalkya dialogue includes a discussion of love and the essence of whom one loves, suggesting that love is a connection of the soul and the universal self (related to an individual):

Lo, verily, not for love of a husband is a husband dear, but for the love of the soul a husband is dear.
Not for the love of the wife is a wife dear, but for love of the soul a wife is dear.
— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.2–4

Variant translation:

Truly, it is not due to the love of a husband
that a husband becomes dear,
but due to the love of God
that a husband becomes dear.

Truly, it is not due to the love of a wife
that a wife becomes dear,
but due to the love of God
that a wife becomes dear.

Truly, it is not due to the love of all things
that all things become dear,
but due to the love of God
that all things become dear.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind…

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kya Karega Pyar Woh – क्या करेगा प्यार वह

क्या करेगा प्यार वह भगवान को?
Kya karega pyar woh bhagwan ko?
What love can he give to God?

क्या करेगा प्यार वह ईमान को ?
Kya kareha pyar woh eemaan ko?
What love can he give to Religion?

जन्म लेकर गोद में इन्सान की
Janm lekar godh mein insaan ki
Being born in the lap of a human

प्यार कर पाया न जो इन्सान को ।
Pyar kar paaya na jo insaan ko
He who cannot love the human kind

-Gopal Das Neeraj

कबिरा प्याला प्रेम का अंतर लिया लगाय |…

कबिरा प्याला प्रेम का अंतर लिया लगाय |
रोम रोम में रमी रहे और अमल क्या खाय ||

Kabira pyaala prem ka, antar liya lagaye
Rom rom mein rami rahe, aur amal kya khaye

Kabir, the cup of love, I’ve ingested, assimilated
It’s in every hairstrand, nothing’s more intoxicating

There can be no love without free will

The fundamental need within every living being is to find pleasure. The ultimate pleasure is the pleasure of loving and of being loved. If we do not have that, then all the other sensory pleasures will never satisfy the heart. And the perfect love is the eternal love between the soul and God. But in order for love to be real and satisfying, the supreme absolute has created every living being with free will.

If we do not have free will, then we are like robots. A robot can do incredible things but cannot have relationships, it cannot love. So this is a necessity for love to be true and satisfying—that there be free will. The quality of God is that He is swarat, fully independent. So as His parts and parcels, we also have our minute independence. In order to freely love we must have the freedom not to love. If someone puts a gun on your head and says, “Do what I say, please me according to my desire,” you would probably do it; but will you be really happy doing it? And will that person be really happy forcing you to do it? Not really! But if you had your free will—to reject that person or to want to please that person—that satisfies the heart of both, because there is love.

So God has created everything and everyone in such a way that there can be perfect love. Thus he has given us the free will not to love Him, the free will to accept Him or to reject Him. That is His love.

Radhanath Swami

We must develop and maintain the capacity to…

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Martin Luther King

Love and transformation

You don’t measure love in time. You measure love in transformation. Sometimes the longest connections yield very little growth, while the briefest encounters change everything. The heart doesn’t wear a watch – it is timeless. It doesn’t care how long you know someone. It doesn’t care if you had a 40 year anniversary if there is no juice in the connection. What the heart cares about is resonance. Resonance that opens it, resonance that enlivens it, resonance that calls it home. And when it finds it, the transformation begins.

Jeff Brown