Life is Nothing but an Exchange of Love and Devotion
The wonderful news that the Saints convey to this world is that there is only one God.
Even though the various religions use different concepts and different names, there is only one God.
What great news in this world full of division and strife – one and the same divine essence that is available to everyone and that is present within every single being.
And what’s more, the source of that divine essence is an inexhaustible source of love, and it wants nothing else than to bring everything back to its source. Everything that has been created – no exceptions.
Everybody – good or bad, saint or sinner – every being – angels, humans, animals, plants, and even immovable matter such as rocks and stones. At some stage in everyone’s lifespan, everybody will return to their source, evolve to where he or she came from, to their true home. And this is due to the attraction of love from the Lord, from the Shabd.
This means that if we feel unhappy here in this world – unhappy because we feel that we have been separated from the Creator – there is no need to be unhappy.
We’re here only for a short while. And of course, we knew it all along, but we tend to forget.
We forget because the busy events of life take over. Family, friends, work, possessions. We´re busy trying to get them or we´re busy worrying about losing them. Worrying, thinking. A busy, busy mind in a busy, busy world.
And while we’re so busy, we lose sight of the most important and best news that we can possibly get. And this is why the Saints keep giving us wake-up calls. They make us aware of our situation, of the temporary nature of this life and this world, and they tell us:
- Turn your attention inward –inward, to that drop of the Shabd.
- Turn your attention towards the force of divine love that is calling us to return to our source.
The entire creation is the result of love
The reason that we came into this world was love, and the reason that we will return to our source, our true home, is also love. It’s the force of love that has brought this entire creation into life and it´s the force that keeps it alive. And when it’s time for our world to come to an end, that same force of love draws us home. In fact there is nothing else but love, however strange this may sound in this world that has so many disasters, wars, and mishaps. Nothing but love, grace, compassion. Compassion for our confusion.
Great Master says:
God is love, and love was in the beginning. The entire creation is the result of love. We have been sent down into this world through love, and the cause of our return will also be love.
Even though we may not see it, our entire life is nothing but an exchange of love and devotion. This gigantic magnet of the divine, this magnetic force that is pulling us – it is nothing else than the power of love – love that flows from Him to us – and … love that flows from us to Him.
That flow of love from Him to us, that flow is always there. However, to experience it, we have to make ourselves receptive to it. We need to clean our cup and put it right-side-up. Clean it, cleanse our heart’s chamber, and make ourselves receptive, by turning our attention inwards.
In other words: live our lives as good human beings and meditate. Or, as some of the ancient Greek philosophers have already said: live a virtuous life – a life of virtues such as purity, humility and kindness. And in addition, spend as much time as you can in deep contemplation. Contemplation on the force of love that is attracting us back to our source.
At the same time, don’t keep that love that you receive just for yourself. Return it, Let it flow back to Him. After all, It’s His love that you’re returning. So return it to the force that gave it to you. Let it flow throughout his creation. Let it flow. Let it blossom.
And how can we let it flow? By giving. The more we share the love that we receive, the more it flows: to other human beings, to animals, to plants. It’s all His creation, all ensouled by the Shabd – the divine, ceaseless flow of love.
Listen to the following words by Soami Ji:
You were always part and parcel of me
Whenever I saw you in pain, compassion moved me to come and help you.
I devised a step-by-step method of Shabd practice by which you would reach your true home.
So now, abandon this creation of the drop, go back and rejoice in the realm of the Ocean.
Dear surat, it is time you listened to my advice –
By listening constantly to the Shabd melody, you will reach my country, my home.
Compassion with our situation, with us as lost souls – lost souls swimming in circles in this bowl.
The fact that we´re lost, that's what moves the Masters. And so they come, out of compassion, and they use the magnet of love to draw us back home, to re-unite us with our divine source.
We already said how close by this source is, right here, within ourselves. And to reach it, as Hazur once said: Just lean within.
Just lean within, and use those five words. that priceless jewel that we received at our initiation, and that is always with us. Always!
Those five words that we can use to knock on his door, and keep knocking and knocking until he opens that door. So that we can enjoy the warmth and comfort of our true home and merge in the ocean of divine essence.
Abandon this creation of the drop, Soami Ji said. Abandon this creation, go back and rejoice in the realm of the Ocean.
A drop is only a drop as long as it believes it's a drop
We are only separated from the divine essence as long as we believe that we are separate. As soon as we drop our belief in the drop, and plop, gone is the drop. It’s like popping a soap bubble. Gone, and life was but a dream.
As soon as you drop the idea that we are separate from our source, from that divine ocean, instantly you realize your oneness. Instantly, by raising the veil of the mind that believes in our separate existence as a drop. Separate from the reality of the divine ocean.
And we are constantly reminded of the illusion of our separate existence. In books, in satsangs, in meditation. Or sometimes we realize it when we’re walking in nature and see and feel one with the wonderful beauty of the creation. Or when something happens to us.
Here’s an example, something from a recent newspaper. Usually when you’re reading the newspaper, you skim through the various headings and skip a lot of the text because you’ve already heard it so many times: senseless wars, rise or decline of Covid, success or failure of political bigshots, and so it goes on. And often when you do read something, it doesn’t absorb and you don’t remember a word of what you just read. Or sometimes you’re already on the next page and something within you says: what did I just read on the previous page? Was it really what I think it was?
And this was the case this time. What was the headline? “The ego is just an illusion.”
What? The ego is just an illusion. Did it really say that, in an ordinary, regular newspaper? So you go back and start reading.
In this case the article was about a successful lawyer whose life had been fully taken up to fight and win his court cases. He owed his success to thoroughly preparing his cases, working 16 to 18 hours a day, and to his aggressive approach by putting in all his stamina and energy into winning the cases.
Well … things changed. He was diagnosed with a tumour in his brain and had to undergo an operation.
The surgeon who was going to perform the operation told the man’s wife about the seriousness of the operation and said that it could very well be that she would be seeing changes in her husband’s behaviour. Whereas he previously had a quite aggressive approach, one of the things he advised was that she should keep a close check on their bank account. It could happen that her husband would want to give everything away. Well, as it happened, after the operation, the man could talk about nothing else but love. He said:
Everything is love and everything is one. The ego is only an illusion, and if that ego goes, we merge in the ocean of divine essence and love. The divine is everywhere, and most of all, I am grateful to be blessed with this realization.
Since then he has only felt compassion and took up pro bono cases, and helped people who were in dire need of help.
As this example shows, as soon as the veil is removed – in this case the tumour – gone is the separateness of the drop. And all that is left is that divine ocean.
The ocean merges into the drop
Now here's another gem, you know how we often talk about the drop that merges into the ocean. But what did Kabir say? He actually turned it around and said: the ocean merges in the drop.
Ponder for a moment on that imagery: the ocean is merging in the drop.
The ocean that fills our cup so that it’s overflowing, overflowing with love and compassion.
The Creator, out of love and compassion, lets that ocean – the Shabd – merge into our drop. It’s merging into us, it’s overflowing within us, from within. The divine ocean of love and compassion, flowing right here, into us, for our benefit.
It’s not our doing that we found this path and this Master. We were found, we were called. That's how incredibly lucky we are! The divine essence is pulling us home. Isn't this a golden age?
Think of the final question and answer in that treasure chest of Die to Live, in which Hazur answers a question about the hope of the coming of a golden age: “Isn't this the golden age in which we are on the path, meditate, and do our best to return to the Father in order to lose our separate identity. Isn't this a golden age?”
In losing that identity, the drop drops its belief that it´s a separate drop. It merges into the ocean. Actually, it was the ocean that flooded the drop – it filled the cup with so much love that it just melted and ceased to exist.
Just like the moth which cannot help but being attracted by the flame – all it feels is that attraction, to the extent that it forgets about itself. All there is, is the light of the flame, and it becomes the flame, it becomes the light, it merges and becomes one with the source of light that attracted it.
How can we accomplish this? How can we merge into the flame and become the light?
“Dear surat”, Soami Ji continued: “It's time you listened to my advice. By listening constantly to the Shabd melody, you will reach my country, my home.”
What reassurance! You will reach my country. You will reach my home.