The one quality of the soul, the one quality that can move mountains and transform lives, is love. Love takes so many forms and is redefined at every new experience. The chemistry of love is more like alchemy; it magically transforms the mundane into gold, in terms of how valuable it is to relationships – be they human, with beloved pets, soul to soul, or in the ultimate relationship with the Divine. To understand my own relationship with love I need to discover what that is. What dimension am I operating on most of the time?
There are three dimensions of love:
1.Human – where the attraction is physical, or based on attributes, personality, talents or because of a unique relationship. It is an emotional feeling we sometimes find hard to explain.
2.Spiritual – this is very different to human love. I may not love every human manifestation but, the foundation of Rajyoga meditation is the understanding that we are not just human, but also beings – the being is the soul, occupying the body. With that awareness I can generate love for every soul, that light energy, the consciousness.
3.Divine love – in the same way as I understand the self to be consciousness, light, spiritual energy, then I can also become aware of God, the Supreme Soul as light, a point of eternal light, the source of all virtues and the ocean of love. God is not a human being.
All of these types of love are important and needed, but the ultimate force of love is of the relationship with the Divine, with God. The love of God intensifies when a relationship between I, the soul, and the Supreme Soul is developed and strengthened. It is worth making the effort to deepen the relationship with God for many reasons, but the main one is to be fulfilled. A soul who is fulfilled with the love of the Divine, need search no more – they are complete. The love of the Divine is too powerful, too wonderful – why would I chase after any other kind of love? To develop this relationship, it is crucial to practise being soul conscious, maintaining the awareness of who I really am; it is the only way to connect to that powerful, benevolent, beautiful Supreme Soul.
It is when I start to connect with love and work out what my relationship is with love, that I start to really connect with myself. As I become aware of a feeling of emptiness, or of the myriad desires I spend time contemplating, or the multiple acts of selfishness I engage in daily, I realise how all this is blocking me from receiving the current of love from the Divine. These are the things I need to change. How can I change something like selfishness? It can only be removed by experiencing fulfilment. That fulfilment may feel temporarily real when experienced through human love, but it will not last. True fulfilment, that endures, can only be experienced when I, in the awareness of I, the soul, connect through thought in meditation with the Supreme Soul. I not only step away from other desires, or selfishness, but I also no longer feel the emptiness that used to fuel my search for love. I am fulfilled, and that is when the magic, the alchemy, the chemistry of love, begins to transform me and the life I am living.
Eric Le Reste is a journalist and producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and coordinates the activities of Brahma Kumaris centres in Canada.