Is It Really (divine) Love?

[lakhvir]

WaheguruJi Ka Khalsa. WaheguruJi Ki Fateh.

I wonder, do we say we love God out of sincere longing for Him, or do we love Him for our convenience? When I look deep within the dark receses of my being, in search of Divine solace, I often ask myself whether we have learned to love God for pure reasons that He is God, or do we merely pretend to love Him? When we pray to Him, do we look for that deep connection between the Master and the servant, or do we do so just for wants and needs? If it's the latter in all these three questions, then it can be simply put that we love Him for selfish reasons. Our love is not pure, it is insincere. What if we had it all - joy, success, great health, long life, wealth and peace - would we ever think of God? Would we ever think He even exists? For selfish souls, they would deny God. Let alone pray, they will even not consider His existence. No wonder we do not get everything on a silver platter. No wonder we have unhappiness, failures, illnesses, sufferings, poverty and turmoil in our lives. Without these, we would never have known a God at all. We wouldn't need one.

Rare are those souls that truly love the Divine for who He really is - our Creator. Simple. These souls do not need happiness to be thankful for or unhappiness to be worried about. Neither touches them because all they ever desire is that Divine connection because of the way it really is. They love God for God. And abundant are those souls, too, who love God because they think it is important, otherwise their wishes, hopes, desires and prayers will remain unrealised. They submit because they need something in return. God-loving souls submit to Him because they love Him. Selfish ones submit to Him because they have little or no choice. Any surprise that the latter continue to suffer? No wonder their faith keeps wavering. When they are happy, they seek not God. When they are sad and in turmoil, they send up above a thousand tearful prayers. But those that love God unconditionally, they live in eternal peace within and the joys and sorrows of the world touch them not.

And how does God approach these two distinctly different types of souls? The fact remains that no matter what soul it is, He embraces all alike. None does He not care about. But yes, according to what we do, we gather the wages. Why would God discriminate on whether one loves Him conditionally or unconditionally? After all, He is unlike us. We are imperfect but He is the Eternal Truth - the Perfect One. So does the selfish soul attain union with Him? Yes, if that soul, some day, realises it's real self and acknowledge its selfish nature, and then grow out of it and find its place in the category of those souls that love Him for just Him, not for what we want from Him.

Every soul must look deep within, regularly. At every stage of our spiritual growth, we must guage ourselves on whether we have refined our beings or slipped down. Failure to do so will only fill the truth-abiding soul with pride, while the selfish one will continue to lose out on God's complete essence and will remain discontent all his life. Each soul is here on this mortal plane to uphold the highest principles of Truth and if each one of us realises that, we will then be guided by only by that what is True. When we live on Truth, we will become true and by becoming true, we will learn to love the True One. Any other kind of love for God, if it not hinged on Truth, is a selfish one. Those that love Him for who God really is are truthful souls. They live on truth and are guided by it. Selfish souls are false and false are their ways. Feeble is their connection to God, and that is why they easily get troubled by the world. They feed on filth and fear the world, and fear not God. No big wonder why they cannot find peace within. Only those that fear God (out of genuine love for Him) can be fearless in this world. No kind of suffering, illness, turmoil or trouble can shake them. They remain steadfast in their faith and peaceful within. Woe unto those souls that fear the sinful mortal world and its false ways for such souls will ever be bound to suffering. What can touch that being who fears none, instills fear in none and fears only the One God? The world shatters before such a soul that finds its strength only from true love of the Divine. Those souls shatter in this world that knows not how to love God for God.

These are the thoughts running through my mind as at this hour. Why the inclination to put it into words? Perhaps God wants me to know that this is the truth and is actually revealing it to me through my own hands so that I may not deny that 'I didn't know'. We know everything, because He has implanted the answers within us, only we don't look for them. We want short-cuts and offer endlessly tiring prayers asking God to deliver us from our predicaments and bless us with bounties, whether spiritual or material. The prayers do get answered, anyway, but the seeker will ever remain unfulfilled as his challenges don't cease. In unfulfilment, we continue to suffer, in fulfilment we find inner peace. The day we have nothing to ask of God but Him alone and of His Love, that day our souls get liberated from the shackles of selfish desires, wishes, dreams, hopes and prayers.

If we find ourselves in the group of selfish souls, we need not shiver in fear . . . if we choose to come out of it. It could be a blessing in disguise to just realise and acknowledge our selfish nature. God does not instill fear in anyone, nor does He fear anyone. Our task in this world is to become just like Him - fearless of the world. To reach that state, work needs done - refining our beings by eradicating our sinful inclinations and adopting the ways of Truth. It is Truth, and nothing else, that liberates us in the end. Truth does set us free but first we need to learn to appreciate what Truth is. Truth is God. If we are to genuinely love God, we must love Truth. You cannot love God and yet befriend filth and sin. Having this realisation means the Grace of God is upon us and that our way towards Him will be clear in this world, into the next.

WaheguruJi Ka Khalsa. WaheguruJi Ki Fateh.