True Love Stands The Test Of Time

TRUE LOVE STANDS THE TEST OF TIME

DEFINITION OF LOVE

We all hear, speak, and read about love a lot. However, no material mind can ever understand what love is. Love is that which can’t be put into words, neither can it be described, nor can it be understood by reading. The great sage Narad Muni was asked to define love. However, even He replied,


“Anirvachaniyam Premas-swaroopa cha” (Narad Bhakti Sutra)
(“I cannot describe or define love; no one can” )

Love is Divine, eternal, and unlimited.

Why can’t love be defined or made to understand? Because, when the person to whom you are explaining about love has never experienced it, then how on earth will he ever understand? Moreover, the heart that experiences love can never speak and the tongue that speaks never experiences it. You can only give someone an idea about love. This is what I am going to do here.

LOVE MEANS TO GIVE AND GIVE

The first sign of true love is when not even in thought the lover asks for anything.
He/she is only intent on giving. This is real spiritual worship, the worship through love.

We stop being beggars who ask God-“give me this and that.”

Unfortunately we have known and practice only two kinds of love. Either it is a business where we give and take, or it is pure lust where we take and take. That is why we remain miserable beggars of love.

True love means to give and give where one never tires of giving. It is pure and brilliant like the sun while lust is pitch darkness. Love itself is the eternal, endless sacrifice, surrender, and absolute faith.

On attaining true love you will never want anything from God or God realized Saints. As Mahaprabhu Gaurang says,
“Lord, I do not want wealth, nor friends, nor beauty, nor learning, nor even salvation; let me be born again and again, that I may love Thee and that for love’s sake.”

LOVE IS NOT HYPOCRITICAL

There is a vast difference between the worldly standpoint and the lover’s standpoint.
Keep on loving. If a person is angry, there is no reason why you should be angry; If someone degrades oneself that is no reason why you should degrade yourself. ‘Why should I become angry just because one has made a fool of one’s own self.’ Whatever the world says or does, wherever it goes, it has no influence on the true lovers.

In my description of true love, I am not referring to the images that we commonly associate with love and which we are bombarded with by popular culture. One moment a girl and a boy are seen ready to give their lives for one another and next moment they are fighting and hitting each other. This is not love but materialism.

Nor is true love fickle and hypocritical-one moment falling at the Divine feet of God and Saints, and the next, filled with ego and uttering nasty words against God and Guru. The supreme Lord Krishna says:
“Manushyanam sahasreshu kashchidyatati siddhaye” Gita 7/3
(“Among thousands rarely one truly loves me and strives for perfection.”)

LOVE ALTERS NOT WHEN ALTERATION FINDS

Even when there is every reason for the love to be destroyed it does not. Instead true love keeps on increasing.
“Gunrahitam Kamnarahitam Pratikschanvardhmanam” (Narad Bhakti Sutra).
(“Love is not based on attributes, it is free of all desires, and it constantly increases”)

Whether the Divine beloved is merciful is no longer questioned. He is my love. Whether He is omnipresent and omnipotent, limited or unlimited is no longer questioned. What does it matter? True love is not based on qualities of the Beloved good or bad.

Love means to remain positive, even if God or Guru behaves adversely towards you.

Gaurang Mahaprabhu said:
“You may choose to embrace me to your heart, and love me. Or you may become indifferent or you may choose to be cruel and even kill me. I will be happy in every act of yours. In fact my love will increase far deeper seeing the adverse behavior of the beloved.”

True love questions not, it knows no fear, and never bends to the remover to remove it.

Suppose the beloved master scolds you in front of thousand people for no reason or gives a flower to one person. If you become negative and critical or filled with jealousy then you have become your own Guru’s opponent. It is spiritual transgression and your love is bound to be destroyed.

A true lover on the other hand accepts every word, act and gesture of the master to be Grace. Thus, he/she will start to dance in happiness rather than cry in pain. A true lover knows that both God and Guru will be compelled to love to the same degree as he/she loves them. Lord Krishna says with a challenge:
“Ye yatha mam prapadyante tanstathaiva bhajamyaham” Gita 4/11
(“I devote myself the same way as the devotee devotes himself to me”)

This is not a worldly situation where you keep on loving someone but he/she doesn’t love you in return. Thus, to love is not a joke. True love is something so special that it can only be practiced with the Divine Beloved. And we should love Him not simply with the idea that -“He is the creator, Protector, and the supplier of my demands.”

Instead, we should be thinking that He is my love, my very life itself-this must be the cry of our hearts. My body, mind, and wealth are all yours, do what you want with it and I shall keep on loving you.

PUJNIYE GOPESHWARI DEVI JI.