Coming to the spiritual path is coming to the path of love. Spirituality is not a cold, dry subject to be studied and memorised. It is not a rigid meditation in which we cut ourselves off from people in our family and community or life. Rather, spirituality is immersing ourselves in the love that is our true nature, and our loving connection with all life itself.
Spirituality is an experience of becoming love itself because we come in contact with the divine within us. Thus we merge ourselves into an ocean of love. Since we are in that state of love, we find beauty in everything around us. The world becomes a reflection of God’s beauty. We rejoice in the trees, the flowers, the rivers, and the mountains. We find beauty even in human-made objects. We even find beauty in the lesser creatures of the earth, whether an insect or a reptile. We find beauty in all people and all creatures.
We have many instances of saints through the ages who were so imbued with the love of God that they found beauty in the forsaken people, the impoverished, and the afflicted people of the world. What other power than love could cause St. Francis to embrace a leper or Mother Teresa to love and embrace people of the streets with terminal and infectious ailments? What other power than love would cause Sant Kirpal Singh Ji Maharaj to care for and bury the dead bodies of victims of influenza when even the patients’ relatives refused to touch them for fear of contracting the epidemic disease and dying? Such is the power of love that infuses us with an awareness of the beauty in others.
Being in this state of beauty fills us with intoxication. Why? When we love one person we know the degree of affection and love that passes between the two hearts, but when we fall in love with the whole creation, that love multiplies along with our bliss.
The life of Gautama Buddha serves as an interesting example of what happens when we become imbued with the love of God. Gautama Buddha’s life started out immersed in all beauty. As the son of a king, he had all the princely luxuries of life. He lived in a beautiful palace, had amazing gardens and fountains, the richest food, the finest clothing, and he was wed to a beautiful woman. Yet with all this beauty around him, he found life to be desolate. He felt something was missing from his life, and this started him on his spiritual quest. He left his palace, gave up his kingdom and went in search of enlightenment. The paradox is that after finding enlightenment he once again became aware of beauty, but this time it was the beauty of love emanating from every soul in creation. It was merely an exchange—giving up outer beauty to see the inner beauty latent in all.
If we want to experience the ecstasy of love and the intoxication, we need to mould our life and devote our time in the right direction. How can we be in this state of love and beauty? One, we need to spend time daily in meditation. This is the key that opens the door to the wondrous love and beauty of God’s kingdom. Next, when not in meditation, we need to carry the spiritual contact we received in meditation with us throughout the day. We should remain receptive and open to the spiritual energy of God that is radiating to us at all times. In this way, we will find the world is beautiful. We will find that the springtime breezes and fragrant flowers permeate our souls at all hours of the day and night.
There comes a point in our spiritual endeavours when we shift from being merely a resident of this world to a co-worker of God’s divine plan. When that shift occurs, we are in constant remembrance of the Lord. Living in this state is like being elevated into spiritual regions of light, love, beauty, and heavenly music. Living in this state is transcendent. There may be turmoil and noise all around us. There may be disharmony and difficulties facing us in life, but one who is immersed from within in God’s light and love sees only perfect harmony.
The author is the head of the Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission.
