Of love and God

Love is a symptom of spirituality. It is the God inside us manifesting Himself, ever so briefly, in an external object - living or otherwise. That manifestation, and our identifying it, is a call from the inside to look inward. To pursue the Paramatma. The object itself is not really important. However that fleeting symptom of spiritual possibility remains etched in our memory as something desirable. That memory becomes an emotion and manifests itself as a feeling every time we come across that object. 

Nothing wrong in identifying that symptom with that object that gave rise to it. The problem is we forget that the object was a trigger. The purpose of that trigger was to seek the source inside us that responded to that trigger. The source inside, or the Paramatma, has just given us a signal as to the purpose of our life. And that is to pursue that symptom and find its source - the Paramatma Himself.

Love, therefore, is a clear clarion call to be spiritual, to seek the God within. Those who recognise it for what it is, can experience it in every moment and in everything. Those who identify it with the external object that triggered, can only love that object and the memory of what it caused. If they are lucky enough, the symptom gets triggered regularly and that could cause them to be content and expand their sphere of love beyond that object. However if they fail to turn inward despite multiple triggers, then thats an opportunity lost.

What of the object of our love itself? It could be a member of opposite sex at a younger age or a parent or a child. The ability of the object to trigger that symptom of spirituality is proof enough that everything on this earth is an aspect of that spirituality and, inturn, God Himself. Anyone who has ever felt that trigger for the briefest of times is a chosen one. God has just tapped them and prodded them towards Himself. Choosing the object over the Paramatma who briefly, and exclusively, manifested himself to us through that object is when we are trapped. That trigger for symptom of spirituality becomes an object of attachment and desire. It is meant to be an obsession, yes, but an obsession to seek the God.

This life is full of signals from God asking us to look inward, seek the Paramatma. There is no other purpose, it seems to be telling us. All those signals and symptoms are lost in the phantasmagoria of what we call the world. However, for every entrapment that is dragging us away from the Paramatma, there is a signal that is goading us towards Him. That's the game. A game of constantly making a choice between the entrapment and the spiritual signal. We can choose either. Nothing right or wrong about it. Its just that each has its own karmic consequences. Following Dharma is choosing the spiritual signal over the worldly entrapment. There is absolutely no need to judge the choice. It is just a choice. Adharma is not wrong, it is just a choice to choose the world over God. We will continue get chances in life after life until we choose Dharma. Thats the game and thats the way to get out of it. There will be unlimited lifelines. There is a good reason why they say God is kind.

Finally, it is highly possible that the culture that we call Sanatana Dharma, is designed to encourage us to tap those signals. The 33 million Gods are possibly 33 million ways in which the symptom of spirituality can be triggered in us. Th erotica that looks so out of place in temples, for example, is nothing but a reminder that at the root of sexual desire is the desperate yearning for the Paramatma. When seen in the material world, it appears as a need for communion. When seen in a spiritual context, it is the desire for the God inside. Thats the reason the erotica stays outside temple while the God stays deep inside.

What a beautiful culture to be born into !