The Flames of Love

I was warned about the flames of love...
This love is merciless; it ravages your heart.
From its heat you become wild and mad.
So mysterious is its energy that when it seizes you,
You become impassioned and run about frenzied.
People sense in you the sparks of love,
But they cannot see the raging fire within.
This love is tantalizing. It wholly possesses you;
It does not fill your heart and mind alone.
How it courses through every cell of your being!
It is brighter than lightning;
It is more deafening than thunder;
It pours over you more intensely than a cloudburst.
You can fantasize endlessly about love.
But remember: you can never bend it to your will.
It is independent, very free, very free.
Having known all its intricacies and madness,
I still dived into the flames of love.
I cannot say what has happened to me,
except
I am not the same,
I am not the same,
I am not the same.

From Page 4, Ashes at My Guru's Feet by Gurumayi Chidvilasananda

My own beloved meditation master Gurumayi has put into words, Her experience of Divine Love. It inspires me, it evokes awe and yearning within me. I have to share it with you all. May you feel the pulsation of your soul, dear reader.

This is the state spoken of and written about from time immemorial by the mystics and sages of various traditions, who spent their lives searching for the experience of God. These age-old researchers of the Divine state have time and again confirmed that the ultimate state of the Divine is a state of supreme love, a level of bliss which can electrify and intoxicate the body, the mind and all the inner states so highly that one transforms and remains fixed in that higher vibration. One carries on with one's life and duties and relationships as usual but exists from an optimal place where a person is in conscious union with the entire universe - a true superbeing would'nt you think?.

The wise ones have also said that beyond the shadow of a doubt, this state exists within us all.

In a way everything we do consciously or subconsciously, we do to reach that state of unadulterated, pure love. It is the root of all our desires, our wants, our needs, our longing. Nevertheless, those who have achieved this state have constantly maintained that the source has to be found within. No matter how much one may seek outside one'self, one will only meet exhaustion. The Self is said to be closer to you than you know, closer than your own breath..

We may not know it as yet, but we are getting closer to it with every uplifting action we undertake. To make a positive difference, to bring joy to others, to forgive..all these are signs of an open heart. If someone is addicted to something which then allows that person, a momentary state of bliss, it is still the soul crying out to reach that perfect state of bliss, of love, the state of the Self. However addictions will only serve to wear out the physical body, the mind, the emotions and in doing so the means to achieve that state of love is diminished. You need to keep your body healthy, as far as possible. We cannot abandon the world either, we have to embrace it, add to it in the way we live our lives.

We all want to be loved unconditionally and selflessly but are we able to love with that fervour as well? To do so would mean to overcome our fears, past memories of hurt, of suffering and most importantly to build the courage to love ourselves. I believe that only in being able to love ourselves, are we able to love others - a well can only offer the water it has contained in itself.

Whether it is our professions or our relationships or whatever else we may be involved with in our lives, eventually the purpose is love for others and for ourselves. At the dense physical and emotional levels, it is a mundane love, limited and conditional, a pale reflection of the higher state. Still we remain content with the watered down version because quite often, that itself is pretty overwhelming to us all. However those who seek for God or that ultimate state of divine love and would not get lost in the outer boundaries when the goal of all love lies in the source of all things, the Self.

It is said and I believe that without the experience of the Divine, a discussion is pointless. Once you experience the slightest glimpse, you change forever, there is no doubt about it. Unless one has the firm desire to seek for something above and beyond what his perceptions or self-made boundaries have allowed him thus far, Divine love is a mere figure of speech.

May we find the goal of all our desires,
may we find contentment in our lives,
may we offer the world the highest within us,
may we realise Love, may we realise God,
within ourselves and within each other.