round and said, “Beggar, I do not beg of Vou are a beggar yourself, and how can you give me.mytking P I 1 no fool to think of taking anything from a beggar like you. 3 away, do not follow me.” There is well brought out the stinction between mere beggars and the real lovers of God. ) worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other ward is equally degenerate. Love knows no reward.
3ve is always for love’s sake. The Bhakta loves because ) cannot help loving. When you see beautiful scenery id fall in love with it, you do not demand anything . the way of favour from the scenery; nor does the scenery 3mand anything from you. Yet the vision thereof brings 3u to a blissful state of the mind, it tones down all the friction i your soul, it makes you calm, almost raises you, for the time eing, beyond your mortal nature, and places you in a condi- lon of quite divine ecstasy; this nature of real love is the first Dgle of our triangle. Ask not anything in return for your 3ve; let your position be always that of the giver; give your uve unto God, but do not ask anything in return even from lira.
The second angle of the triangle of love is that love knows 10 fear. Those that love God through fear are the lowest of mman beings, quite undeveloped as men. They worship God rom fear of punishment. He is a great Being to them, with a vhip in one hand and the sceptre in the other; if they do not )bey Him they are afraid they will be whipped. It is a degra- iation to worship God through fear of punishment; such wor- ship is, if worship at all, the crudest form of the worship of love. So long as there is any fear in the heart, how can there be love also? Love conquers naturally all fear. Think of a young mother in the street, and if a dog barks at her she is frightened; she flies into the nearest house. Suppose the same mother is in the street with her child; and a lion springs upon the child.
m Where then will the mother’s place hk course at the mouth of the lion. Love does conquer a Fear comes from the selfish idea of cutting one’s self Hiie universe.
The smaller and the more selfish I make m the more is my fear. If a man thinks he is a little nothu. will surely come upon him. And the less, you thii.k self as an insignificant person, the less feai- will there. So long as there is the least spark of fear in you th n no love there. Love and fear are incompatible; (io, r- to be feared by those who love Him. The commai. lo not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. ' lover of God laughs at. How can there be any hits the religion of love? The more you take the im’ rd, the better for you, in whatever way you may <re only repeating His name because you love Hir.
The third angle of the love-triangle is thar i. ' rival, for in it is always embodied the lo\i-i ^. • True love never comes until the object of our i. us our highest ideal. It may be that in inuu) love is misdirected and misplace'l, but to the pej-. ■ * the thing he loves is always his own highest l it i. see his ideal in the vilest of being.s, and anotln i ^?
of beings; nevertheless, in every case it is the a > can be truly and intensely loved. The highe.si iiienl. '. ' is called God. Ignorant or wise, saint or Mnner,nian nr educated or uneducated, cultivated or uncultivated, t - *, • ’ human being the highest ideal is God The^ynt^u-■ the highest ideals of beauty, of subliriiity, and of po\N t. j us the completest conception of the loving and lovao.- These ideals exist, in some shape or other, in ev»"r’ naturally; they form a part and parcel of all r 64 All tbe active manifestations of human nature are struggles of those ideals to become realised in practical life. All the various movements that we see around us in society are caused by the various ideals in various souls trying to come out and become concretised; what is inside presses on to come out- side. This perennially dominant influence of the ideal is the one force, the one motive power, that may be seen to be con- stantly working in the midst of mankind. It may be after hundreds of births, after struggling through thousands of years, that man finds out that it is vain to try to make the inner ideal mould completely the external conditions and square well with them; after realising this he no more tries to project his own ideal on the outside world, but worships the ideal it- self as ideal, from the highest standpoint of love. This ideally perfect ideal embraces all lower ideals. Every one admits the truth of the saying that a lover sees Helen’s beauty on an Ethiop’s brow. The man who is standing aside as a looker-on sees that love is here misplaced, but the lover sees his Helen all the same, and does not see the Ethiop at all. Helen or Ethiop, the objects of our love are really the centres round wh'ich our ideals become crystallised. What is it that the world com- monly worships? Not certainly this all-embracing ideally per- feet ideal of the supreme devotee and lover. That ideal which men and women commonly worship is what is in them- selves; every person projects his or her own ideal on the out- side world and kneels before it. That is why we find that men who are cruel and bloodthirsty conceive of a bloodthirsty God, because they can only love their own highe.st ideal. That is why good men have a very high ideal of GoH; and their ideal is indeed so very different from that of others.
66 The God of Lo?e is Hie own Proof.
What is the ideal of the lover who has quite passed beyond the idea of selfishness, of bartering and bargaining, and who knows no fear? Even to the great God such a man will say — “ I will give you ray all, and I do not want anything from you; indeed there is nothing that I can call my own.” When a man has acquired this conviction, his ideal becomes one of perfect love, one of the perfect fearlessness of love. The highest ideal of such a person has no narrow- ness of particularity about it; it is love universal, love without limits and bounds, love itself, absolute love. This grand ideal of the religion of love is worshipped and loved absolutely as such without the aid of any symbols or suggestions. This is the highest form of Para-bhakti, the worship of such an all-comprehending ideal as the ideal; all the other forms of Bhakti are only stages on the way to reach it. All our failures and all our successes in following the reli- gion of love are on the road to the realisation of that one ideal. Object after object is taken up, and the inner ideal is succes- sively projected on it all; and all such external objects are found inadequate as exponents of the ever-expanding inner ideal, and are naturally rejected one after another. At last the aspirant begins to think that it is vain to try to realise the ideal in external objects, that all external objects are as nothing when compared with the ideal itself; and, in course of time, he acquires the power of realising the highest and the moat generalised abstract ideal entirely as an abstraction that is to him quite alive and real. When the devotee has reached this point, he is no more impelled to ask whether God can be demonstrated or not, whether he is oranipoteut and omniscient, or not. To him He is only the God of Love; 9 He is the highest ideal of love and that is suf&oient for all his purposes; He, as love, is self-evident; it requires no proofs to demonstrate the existence of the beloved to the lover. The magistrate-gods of other forms of religion may require a good deal of proof to prove them, but the Bhakta does not and cannot think of such gods at all. To him God exists entirely as Love. “None, 0 beloved, loves the husband for the hus- band’s sake, but it is for the sake of the Self who is in the hus- band that the husband is loved; none, 0 beloved, loves the wife for the wife’s sake, but it is for the sake of the Self who is in the wife that the wife is loved.” It is said by some that selfish- ness is the only motive power in regard to all human acti- vities. That also is love lowered by being particularised. When I think of myself as comprehending the universal, there can surely be no selfishness in me; but when I, by mistake, think that I am a little something, my love becomes particularised and narrowed. The mistake consists in making the sphere of love narrow and contracted. All things in the universe are of divine origin and deserve to be loved; it has, however, to be borne in mind that the love of the whole includes the love of the parts. This whole is the God of the BhaktaSj and all the other Gods, Fathers in Heaven, or Rulers, or Creators, and all theories and doctrines and books have no purpose and no meaning for them, seeing that they have through their supreme love and devotion risen above those things altogether. When the heart is purified and cleaned and filled to the brim with Ihe divine nectar of love, all other ideas of God become simply ' puerile, and are rejected as being inadequate or unworthy. Such is indeed the power of Para-Bhahti or Supreme Love; and the perfected Bhakta no more goes to see God in temples and churcjies; he knows nowhere to go where he will not find Him.
67 finds Him in the temple as well as out of the temple; he finds Him in the saint’s saintliness as well as in the wicked man’s wickedness, because he has Him already seated in glory in his own heart, as the one almighty, inextinguishable Light of Love which is ever shining and eternally present.
Human Kepresentations of the Divine Ideal of Love.
It is impossible to express the nature of this supremo and absolute ideal of love in human language. Even the flight of human imagination is incapable of comprehending in all its infinite perfection and beauty. Nevertheless, the fol- lowers of the religion of love in its higher as well ir* r forms have all along and in all countries had to use th*’ quate human language to comprehend and to define their ' wn ideal of love. Nay more; human love itself, in all it*- varsed forms, has been made to typify this inexpressible divim- lnt.« Man can think of divine things only in his own human war: to us the Absolute cau be expressed only in our relative lan- guage. The whole universe is to us a writing of the infinite in the language of the finite. Therefore Bhaktas make use of all the common terms associated with the common love of humanity in relatj^ to God and His worship of love. Some of the great writers on Para-bhakti have tried to understand and experience this divine love in so many different ways. The lowest form in which this love is apprehended is what they call the peaceful; the Santa (^ra). When a man worships Ooi without the fire of love in him, without its madness in his brain, when his love is just the calm commonplace love, a little higher than mere forms and ceremonies and symbols, but unf at all characterised by the madness of iutwseiy l.no, it ■s said tobe«<f«te. We see some pooplu n’ tho '-.v/W «?))(' like to move on slowly, and others who come and go like the whirlwind. The Sdnta^Bhakta is calm, peaceful, gentle. The next higher type is that of Dosya servantship; if.
comes when a man thinks he is the servant, of the Lord. The attachment of the faithful servant unto the master is his ideal. The next is what is known as Vdtsalya ».e., loving Qt)d not as our Father but as our Child. This may look pecu- liar, but it is a discipline to enable us to detach all ideas of power from the concept of Grod. The idea of power brings with it awe. There should be no awe in love. The ideas of reverence and obedience are necessary for the formation of character, but when character is formed, when the lover has tasted the calm peaceful love, and tasted also a little of its in- tense madness, then he need talk no more of ethics and disci- pline. To conceive God as mighty, majestic and glorious, as the Lord of the Universe, or as the God of Gt)ds, the lover says he does not care. It is to avoid this association with God of the fear-creating sense of power that he worships Gnd as his own child. The mother and the father are not moved by awe in relation to the child; they cannot have any reverence for the child. They cannot think of asking any favour from the child. The child’s position is always that of the receiver, and out of love for the child the parents will give up their bodies a hundred times over. A thousand lives they will sacrifice for that one child of theirs, and therefore God is loved as a child. This idea of loving God as a child comes into existence and g^WB naturally among those religious sects which believe in the incarnation of God. To the Mahomedans it is impossible to have this idea of God as a child; they will shrink from it with a kind of horror. But the Christian and the Hindu can realise it easily, because they have the baby Jesus and the baby 69 Krishna. The women in India often look upon themselves as Krishna’s mothers; Christian mothers also may take up the idea that they are all Christ’s mothers, and it will brings to the West the knowledge of God’s Divine Motherhood which they so much need. The superstitions of awe and reverence in re- lation to God are deeply rooted in the heart of our hearts, and it takes long years entirely to sink in love our ideas of rever- ence and veneration, of awe and majesty and glory with regard to God.
The next type of love is Sakhya (G^), friendship. “ Thou art our beloved friend.” Just as a man opens his heart to his friend, and knows that the friend will never chide him for his faults, but will always try to help him, just as there is the idea of equality between him and his friend, so equal love flows in and out between the worshipper and his friendly God. Thus God becomes our friend, the friend who is near, the friend to whom we may freely tell all the tales of our lives; the inner- most secrets of our hearts we may place before him with the greatest assurance of safety and support; He is the frieud whom the devotee accepts as an equal; God is viewed here as our playmate. We may well say that we are all playing in this universe. Justus children play their games, just as the most glorious kings and emperors play their own games, so is the Beloved Lord Himself in sport with this universe. Fe is per- fect; He does not want anything. Why should he create? Activity is always with us for the fulfilment of a certain want, and want always presupposes imperfection. God is perfect; He has no wants. Why should He go -n with this work of an ever active creation? What put po o hns He in view P The stories about God creating this worM ior some end or other that we imagine, are good as stories, Imt not otiierwise. It iw 70 all really in sport; the universe is His play going on. The whole universe must after all be a big piece of pleasing fun to Him. If you are poor enjoy that as a fun; if you are rich enjoy the fun of being rich; if dangers come, it is also good fun; if happiness comes there is more good fun. The world is just a play -ground, and we are here having good fun, having a game, and God is with us playing all the while, and we are with Him playing. God is our eternal playmate. How beautifully He is playing! The play is finished, the cycle comes to an end. There is rest for a shorter or longer time, again all come out and play. It is only when you forget that it is all play, and that you are also helping in the play, it is only then that misery and sorrows come; then the heart becomes heavy, then the world weighs upon you with tremendous power; but as soon as you give up the serious idea of reality as the characteristic of the changing incidents of the three minutes of life, and know it to be but a stage on which we are playing, helping Him to play, at once misery ceases for you. He plays in every atom; He is playing when He is building up earths, and suns, and moons; He is playing with the human heart, with animals, with plants. We are his chessmen; He puts the chessmen on the board, and shakes them up. He arranges us first in one way and then in another, and we are consciously or unconsciously helping in His play. And Oh bliss! we are His playmates!
There is one more human representation of the divine ideal of love. It is known as Madhura (*I5^)~8weet, and is the highest of all such representations. It is indeed based on the highest manifestation of love in this world, and this love is also the strongest known to man. What love shakes the whole nature of man, what love runs through every atom of his being, makes him mad, makes him forget his own nature, transforms 71 Mm, makes him either a God or a demon as the love bei». ^ man and woman? In this sweet representation of divine m God is our husband. We are all women; there are no men i this world; there is but the One Man, and that is He, our ft loved. All that love which man gives to woman, or woman man, has here to be given up to the Lord All the different of love which we see in the world, and with which we are m or less playing merely, have God as the one goal; only unfort, nately man does not know the infinite ocean intowhn r f r mighty river of love is constantly flowing; and so. ^ often tries to direct it to little dolls of human Ixdnor- ]:. v mendous love for the child that is in human nanu t i-s s ^ ^ the little doll of a child; if you bestow it blindly ui.'f rxr ly on the child, you will suffer in consequema*. h.■ such suffering will come the awakening by winch >. * to find out that the love which is in you, if it c • human being, will sooner or later bring pain and result. Our love must therefore be given to thf ^ who never dies and never changes, to Hini m tin- > love there is neither ebb nor flow. Love must g* t ■ * destination, it must go unto Him who is real ■. ' ’ ocean of love. All rivers flow into (he oceac: 'r ■ of water coming down from the mountain “^ide course after reaching a brook or a nver. > h,. v at last even that drop somehnw does find ' - - God is the one goal of uH our pa.ssiou'' and w '.
want to be angry, be angi y with Him ( nai*. chide your Friend. \Yh(nn else can you * man will not patient!y pat up with your aingtu ^ > re-action. If you.u«' ■•argry v\uh me lain'^roc because I cannot I i.itioi'.tly put up with }our; 72 the Beloved, “ Why do You not come to me; why do You leave me thus alone Where is there any enjoyment but in Him P What -enjoyment can there be in little clods of earth? It is the crystallised essence of infinite enjoyment that we have to seek, and that is in God. Let all our passions and emotions go up unto Him. They are meant for Him, for if they miss their mark and go lower, they become vile; and when they go straight to the mark, the Lord, even the lowest of them becomes trans- figured; all the energies of the human body and mind, howso- ever they may express themselves, have the Lord as their one goal, as their Ekdyana. All loves and all passions of the human heart must go to God. He is the Beloved; whom else can this heart love? He is the most beautiful, the most sub- lime, He is beauty itself; sublimity itself. Who in this universe is more beautiful than He? Who in this universe is more fit to become the husband than He? Who in this universe is fitter to be loved than He? So let Him be the husband, let Him be the Beloved. ^ Often it so happens that divine lovers who sing of this divine love accept the language of human love in all its^ aspects as adequate to describe it. Fools do not understand this; they never will. They look at it only with the physical eye. They do not understand the mad throes of this spiritual love. How can they? “ One kiss of Thy lips, 0 Beloved! He that has been kissed by Thee, his thirst for Thee goes on increasing for ever, all his sorrows vanish, and he forgets all things except Thee.” Aspire after that kiss of the Beloved, that touch of His lips which makes the Bhakta mad, which makes of man a god. To him, who has been blessed with such a kiss, the whole of nature changes, worlds vanish, suns and moons dSe out and the universe itself melts away into that one infinite ocean of love. That is the perfection of the madness im jitey tW mm paisli^ 0 iti love wifcb owa beloved tnaii, end 01^ 'hoibaBd, ^jbjeotg to saeb love; tbe e^yb^dl oM^fttote ^le ooiirse of |i6P love the more ie her love tending tc gisovr id etrength. Haman language eannot deeOnbo;how lgf»j|iho0^ wae m the groves of Brinda, how madly he wae loved» how i^ihe sound of his-voiee all rushed on,t to meet him, ttwi evei^ Idessed forgetting everything, forgetting thin world and its ties, its duties, its j<^ and its sorrows. Man, oh man, you ^>e^ of divine love and at the same time^ are able to at> te^ to aU the vanities of this world— are ^jon skoerol Where Eama is, there is no room for any desire-^whapo ^ lirom there is no room for Rama; these never oo^xisfc^f'ji^ light; miid^da^efls they are never together.”
C!onolusion.
Wh^ this hipest idml of love is reached philosophy I thrown awnf j who will: then^are fm? It? Freedom, Salvatiofi thrown awiqr j wlOspMfes toheOome iim whO i* the lovef l do not Wifi wealth, uorfrMdi^^^v^ dom; let me be botm l^fafoWiil 10^" \Love.’' Bo Thou ever oomo iugar,*^ oayatho H «id..|aolr.#4h«W«^ tbot ii in n*. in tbo r<ai«i*» «< *®”‘ h«|iM to.pprOo^aod, n become absolutely merged in tbi to We all begin with love for ourselves, ‘ tttoiff toime of the little self make even love seldsh; however, oomee the lull blaze of light in which this little ie ‘have become one with the one Infinite.
Man hioteelf is so transfigured in the presence of this Light of 'liova* Hk heart is cleansed of all impurities and vain desires of which it was more or less full before; and be realises at iMtthe be»uti<nl and inspiring truth that Love, Lover aud ♦he Beloved are one»