The Definition of Love

Love is perhaps the most used word in almost every language and also probably the most misunderstood. Human beings have always tended to take love for granted. Diluted and depreciated, it has been demoted to the stuff of corny romantic novels or worse. And yet, love is the single most important ingredient of man’s essence - it is his very source and fabric of his Creator.

But what exactly is love? We are besieged by expressions like “God is love”, “Love is infinite”, “being in love” or “falling in love”, and between these and many other literary and religious cliche’s, the true meaning of love has become obscured.

Thankfully, perfect mystics impart some clarity, by explaining that love is actually a form of energy. It is the very same energy that created the entire universe, and it is this creative power that also sustains the whole creation, including every object and being within it. It is the fundamental or primal energy from which all other forms of energy, such as light, sound and electricity, are derived.

Because of man’s innate tendency to confine all things to his own physical limitations, humanity has equated this creative and sustaining power to the concept of “a being”, even endowing it with a generic name: God. This, of course, has led to the famous expression “God is love and love is God”, which is, in fact, raw truth.

Mystics have further explained that love is also a self-sustaining and self-regenerating energy, which means that it is eternal, or infinite. It has always existed, and will always exist. In its purest form, it is the divine spark which exists only in the absence of duality. It is the energy of singularity; it cannot truly exist until two have merged into one. It is for this reason that the ego, which makes mankind feel separate, acts as the barrier to the experience of pure love.

Since this energy created the entire universe, pure love naturally contains every element of information and knowledge of the creation. Therefore, any being or entity that has fully and truly experienced complete love would also automatically gain complete knowledge of the entire creation, and of this creative power called love itself.

But there is that barrier once again. Man’s physical limitations prevent him from experiencing pure love on his own - the situation necessitates a medium. Man must begin by directing his still imperfect love towards someone who has himself experienced this pure or perfect love. And only then can man learn to fully experience the same perfect love himself.

This perfect love is the hallmark of complete perfection - a characteristic of the highest order of teachers of mysticism. It is for this reason that they are called perfect Masters.

Since pure love is the common essence of the entire creation, a person who has experienced this energy firsthand will recognize its fragrance in all things. All beings, great and small, will be observed to radiate the same perfection of that divine spark. It will become apparent too that this energy actually resides within himself as the very essence of his core - the soul. This is the much sought after self-realization that ultimately leads to God-realization.

Ultimately, no words can ever adequately describe the energy of love, or even do justice to the concept. It is only actual experience that can provide true understanding, and this begins with the search for a perfect living Master who is the embodiment of pure love himself.