IV. LOVE
Love is the world in which the Divine Spirit lives.
The greatest world known to sages of all times, the world of which Christ
speaks, is the world of Love.
And when we say that God is Love, we understand that Love is the essence
from which all things proceed.
All worlds, through all eternity, have come forth and shall come forth
from the source of Love.
Everything in the world lives in Love and by Love.
Everything that we see - stellar systems, suns, planets - all are manifestations
of Love.
The entire cosmos in its completeness, the whole physical world is Love,
manifested and materialized.
This is the great "body of God".
Outside of Love, we do not know God. Love is connected with all living
beings. There is not a living being - there is no living matter - that
is not influenced in one way or another by Love, that is not closely connected
with it.
God, who is Love, is not only outside us, in the universe, but within us
also.
He is the living bond between all that is "without" and "within".
Love enfolds all within itself. Love in itself is infinite, and everything
outside it is finite.
Therefore, we say: Only Love is eternal. From it flows all life. Love brings
the fullness of life.
Good, which is a fruit of Love, is contained within it.
Wisdom is also contained within Love, because it represents the forms through
which God's Love is manifested.
Truth is included within Love, too. It is the purest image of Love.
Righteousness is also included within Love.
Therefore, the absolute Divine Love implies absolute Righteousness.
Where there is no righteousness, there is no love.
The physical aspect of Love is Righteousness.
In order that Love be manifested on earth, there must necessarily be Righteousness.
Love is long suffering and charitable, but absolute Love requires absolute
Righteousness.
Only he who is enlightened with Righteousness is capable of receiving divine
Love.
Christ is Love, manifested in Righteousness, which shines forth within
those who love Him.
Love is only for the great, strong souls.
Enormous energy is hidden within the man in whom Love dwells.
Remember: Love is not for the sick. Love is only for healthy people.
The sick and the dead do not love. Only the living, who are filled with
the Divine Spirit - they are the ones whose hearts pulsate with Love.
Do not be deluded: the sick, the spiritually dead, are not illuminated
by Love.
And when you hear someone say: "I am a man of cold reason, I cannot
love, I have no time to spend on such trifles," know that that man
is foolish.
The wisest, the greatest thing in the world is Love.
The wisest Being, of whom it is said that He is Love, loves. He Who has
created the worlds, Who has made everything, Who has filled everything
with life, Who has made all sacrifices - He loves, and this pygmy with
his "cold reason" has no time to love!
Christ descended to earth to proclaim Love, and the persons of "cold
reason" cannot love!
Journey through the heavens, the whole universe, tour through all worlds,
and all will tell you that God is Love.
And if you ask an angel: "Does God love us?", he will answer
you: "Better ask me to give up all my consciousness, everything that
I have acquired throughout all ages, than oblige me to answer your question
- whether God loves you!"
Indeed, God cannot be untrue to Himself. If we accept that God could be
untrue to Himself, we admit that there exists some exterior force that
could limit Him. And that is unthinkable. Love is unchanging. It always
illuminates us.
Remember the words of the Scripture: "For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in Him should
not perish, but have eternal life."
This means: that because God loved the world, He sacrificed His most beautiful,
most elevated, His "only begotten Son," in order to uplift those
souls who believe in Love.
And truly, one can believe in but one thing: in Love. Any other belief
is false.
Love stands above nationality. Love stands above any religion. Love itself
creates the religions.
There are no religions in the divine world. There exists only Love. The
atmosphere of the divine world is Love. Therein everything breathes Love.
Religions appear because Love cannot manifest itself on earth.
If you wish to do the will of God, by all means, replace religion with
Love.
Then everyone who loves you will be priests and ministers in your temple.
The greatest thing in the world is to come to know God as Love.
The beauty of our life is in our connection with God, who is Love.
Love contains within itself all conditions, all possibilities, all methods
by which the human soul might develop to its fullness.
Only love can awaken within the soul its hidden potentialities.Science
and art cannot be the stimuli for the awakening of the human soul. This
is temporary knowledge.
The only true work in the world is the science of Love. It is the great
object of learning for the soul.
When man becomes conscious of love as a great and mighty power, his soul
and spirit awaken, and he enters into actual connection with the physical,
the spiritual, and divine worlds. Only through love can man understand
the relationship that exists between these worlds, as well as the meaning
of life.
Do not forget one thing: in the life of a man there are only ten good opportunities
to come in contact with love. Every ten years there is a possibility for
that mighty power to start working. The remaining part of man's life is
assigned to learning.
If man succeeds in grasping one of those possibilities - one of the rays
of the great sun illuminating the entire cosmos - then everything that
is lofty and noble in his soul will begin to bloom, bear fruit and ripen.
The fruits of the soul ripen only under the rays of that sun.
When the first ray of Love shines out for you, you will experience within
your soul such indescribable bliss, such light, such a mighty impulse in
your mind, and such a striving of your will, that all obstacles of the
world will begin to melt before you.
A few moments of existence within the divine Love are infinitely more precious
than a thousand years of ordinary human life spent in great pleasures and
enjoyments.
In loving, we seek God. We have to love God in order to receive and experience
Him.
In receiving Him, we experience His wisdom.
It is written in the Scripture: "Thou shall Love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself."
This is the only law that manifests itself in three worlds.
Loving God, you are in the divine world.
Loving yourself, your soul, you are in the spiritual world.
Loving your neighbor, you are in the physical world.
If man adheres to this law, there will be no power in the world that can
resist him, no thought that will not be subject to him and that will not
help him to attain his ideal.
However, remember a great truth: only God loves because God is Love. There
is no man who can love of himself.
Man can be only a channel of Love, but he cannot love of himself.
To want someone to love you, means that you want God to love you.
God, desiring to manifest His Love towards you on earth, has to select
a person as an instrument and manifest Himself to you through this person.
It is enough even if only one person on earth loves you.
Love, in its divine sense, is an intelligent manifestation of two exalted
souls at the same level of mind, of heart and of aspirations - two souls
equally noble and spiritually uplifted.
Only two such souls can understand each other.
Love between two such souls is like music. Because only two true virtuosos
can play together.
Often you ask: "Who loves us?" In the presence of the person
who loves you in the divine way, whatever grief you might have, whatever
disappointment you might have gone through, they all disappear at once.
You will feel relieved and enlightened.
Love is recognized by the following feeling: when a person loves someone,
he sympathizes with him, he treats him as he treats himself. If this feeling
is not manifested, indeed, there is no Love.
The feeling of forgiveness comes out of love. Only love forgives.
True Love is stronger than death. He who loves never dies. Love brings
immortality. People die because of lack of love.
If a mother has strong and unfailing love towards her children, death cannot
take them away from her. Nothing can separate two beings whom love has
united - death nor any power on earth. Love forms the most enduring ties
in life. And when two souls are linked in such an enduring union by the
power of love, they form one soul, twice as mighty and bright, with two
consciousnesses. These two souls, when they meet another two souls united
in this same way, come in contact with them and form a still mightier soul.
The four souls then unite with another four and form a still mightier collective
soul. So this divine process of love continues, that alone is able to form
enduring, inseparable unions between souls.
In this way, all souls unite in the divine Love into a whole so mighty,
so enduring that no power in the world can sever its inseparable ties.
Each soul of that whole lives within the other souls and they live in it.
Thus unity in plurality and plurality in unity is realized.
The salvation of man depends entirely on Love. And when Love manifests
itself in man, even though he has fallen, he can at once rise above the
circumstances.
The happiness of man too depends on love. In happiness man feels a broadening
and a completeness, due to the Love that has come to him. Then man hears
the voices of all living beings and feels the pulse of the universal life.
Love is the collective manifestation of all intelligent beings who have
ended their evolution and have become one with God. The love of one of
these beings is the collective love of all.
And if the love of one being is not the collective manifestation of all
intelligent beings, it is not love at all.
Therefore, the supreme, ideal love is manifested in love towards all people
without their suspecting its source. To love men even when they hate you
and wish you evil, to serve them continually, without their knowing it
- that is ideal love, that is serving God. This is one of the fundamental
traits of divine Love - it comes to us regardless of whether we are sinners
or not.
Magic strength is hidden in Love. It is the key which opens everything
that is closed. Love has its own sacred name - the lost magic word that
the cabalistic searched for throughout all ages.
The sacred name of Love - that is the magic key to immortal life. With
it all negative energies are transformed into positive ones. A man can
do anything with it. That is why it is said that everything is possible
through Love.
The only power that can magically reconstruct the entire being of man is
Love. It has to penetrate everywhere within him, penetrate to the smallest
recesses of his soul in order to transform him.
Love must fill the human spirit. It must manifest itself fully, perfectly,
boundlessly within the human soul. It must abide also in the heart of man
as its essence and content. It must act in his mind as a cherished power.
There are four manifestations of Love in man.
Love is aspiration within the heart.
Love is feeling within the soul.
Love is power in the mind.
Love is principle in the spirit.
And that is the whole cycle of development, from beginning to end.
Love as aspiration moves toward the center of the earth. These are the
roots of Love.
Love as emotion moves toward the sun - these are the branches. Love as
power is manifested only in geniuses and in saints. It is manifested in
all who sacrifice themselves for a divine cause.
Self-sacrifice is a manifestation of love as power.
Only a man who has intellect can attain the realization of love as power.
Love as principle is just entering the world.
It embraces everything.
When Love manifests as power, there exist attraction, repulsion and contradictions.
When Love manifests as principle, all contradictions cease.
Man must pass through all phases of love. He has to pass through love as
aspiration - through its roots; through love as emotion - through its branches;
through love as power - through its blossoms, and then enter into love
as principle to taste the divine fruit of Love.
The world will not be transformed until Love permeates it.
Love is a great fire that brings life.
There is not a more terrible power than Love for those who are in disharmony
with it.
The torments of hell will be theirs. The fire of Love, like a great wave,
is coming now into the world.
It will melt everything that cannot endure the high intensity of Love.
When Love is not understood correctly, its sweet juice, by the action of
a certain astral fermentation, is turned into a peculiar type of wine.
People get intoxicated by this wine when the impulse of love appears within
them and they commit thousands of sins and crimes.
But you, who think, recognize this wine of human love, which is formed
subsequently from the sweet juices of Love.
Go fearlessly down to the roots of Love.
Expand yourself among its branches.
Bloom as a flower of Love.
Become the fruit of Love.
And when you enter into the world where Love's fruits ripen, you will sing
the song of him who has completed the great circle of Love - from roots
to fruit.
Listen to that song:
"God is Love,
eternal, boundless,
full of life -
life of the gentle Divine Spirit,
the Spirit of sanctity,
the Spirit of charity,
the Spirit of complete peace and joy for every soul."
And you will hear the response of the loving souls:
"We shall walk on that path of Light,
within which reigns Divine Love."