The word "love" has been used in modern society until it has lost its spiritual potency. It has been covered with the mire of earthly fancies and illusions, being connected almost exclusively with the procreative act and to certain emotional attachments, concepts far from the definitions that we find in theosophical literature the world over. Those who have an inkling of its true meaning need to make the effort to restore it to its original splendor. True love is the redeeming quality hidden in the heart of each of us, awaiting the day when it is allowed free expression. As we explore the impersonal nature of spiritual love, we find in its very depths the common ground that unites us all as truly human beings.
Love is a wonderful, magical thing; but we somehow miss the point and retreat into systems of thought that serve no ultimate purpose except the aggrandizement of the personal self. If we listen to tapes or attend meetings, we become aware of the importance of love in New Age philosophies. Degrees of understanding and interpretation vary, ranging from the sexually oriented through a whole spectrum of emotions towards a vaguely mystical awareness of some greater power, usually personified. Surely these are paths of love, though often at a level where love and sensuality are confused. A great many New Age movements advocate practice of the sexual act to achieve a kind of spiritual awakening; and the trend of modern "spiritual" groups to revel in imagery and sound, bright colors and strong perfumes, while in themselves harmless, brings the danger of mistaking shadow for substance. If we become infatuated with sensual sounds and sights, with flowery words that bewitch the mind and soul of the listener, we will never pierce the veil and find the silence that is our true guide.
At the very core of our being is the desire for solidarity with all that lives, so that sometimes our alienation seems too much to bear. Humanity cries out for harmony, and it is there if we look deeply enough for it. H. P. Blavatsky writes of "that spark of divine love for Light and Harmony, that no "Hate" can wholly smother," and this is the great hope that humanity carries with it.(1) This spark of divine love is a thousand times more rich in potentiality than the hate that seems to be predominant in the world today. If we have a clear picture of where we came from and whither we are returning, we can then see evil in its true light, as a temporary manifestation fabricated from the human mind. As an old saying in the East has it, there is "no evil in the void."
Society judges by appearances and finds it difficult to see the soul of things. Humanity regards the great truths of nature askance and is afraid of the unknown, even if that unknown contains secrets that are beautiful beyond words. We do not look inwards; we float on the surface instead of diving deep within. In our day-to-day lives we can have no conception of the wonders that lie waiting behind the veil of time. We are afraid to take chances and make that leap over the chasm that seems to separate the material life from the spiritual one. It takes courage to realize that this gulf is an illusion and that there is no difference except in degree of understanding. We make our own barriers, and we can break them down.
The spark of divine love will one day become a flame, and each of us has the power to speed that process on. Individually and collectively we can become channels for the love that lies at the heart of all things. Such real "channeling" demands a life of purity and discipline — but not discipline performed with heavy heart or reluctantly. Only joy can carry us through the terrible trials we face on our journey. In some spiritual literature there has been a misleading emphasis on struggle rather than on the bliss that one feels as the tyrannical lower self gradually dissolves. We need to find that spark of divine love, and a faith in the divine — not blind faith, but a firmer reliance on the efficacy of the spiritual self as a result of enlightened study and meditation. This kind of faith brings us to the quintessential experience of love.At a certain point in our evolution we realize that love is by far the most important thing for us to cultivate. We see clearly the shallowness of mere conceptual teaching, while at the same time the sufferings of humanity may burn into our very souls. The world groans under the weight of its misery, and our immediate task is to ease that pain. We look forward to the day whenhuman and purely individual personal feelings — blood-ties and friendship, patriotism and race predilection — all will give away, to become blended into one universal feeling, the only true and holy, the only unselfish and Eternal one — Love, an Immense Love for humanity — as a Whole! — The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, p. 32
But it is not by blindly following words in a book that we can become the benefactors of humanity, and to work for others without love often ends in disappointment. Virtue needs to be developed for the right motives, and we must constantly look into our motives and periodically renew our ideals so they remain in tune with the harmony we feel at the center of our being.
In this light we can see that morality enforced from without has no value:
Not only is all "goodness" that results from the compulsion of physical force, threats, or bribes (whether of a physical or so-called "spiritual" nature) absolutely useless to the person who exhibits it, its hypocrisy tending to poison the moral atmosphere of the world, but the desire to be "good" or "pure," to be efficacious must be spontaneous. It must be a self-impulse from within, a real preference for something higher, not an abstention from vice because of fear of the law: not a chastity enforced by the dread of Public Opinion; not a benevolence exercised through love of praise or dread of consequences in a hypothetical Future Life.(2)
In trying to escape these constraints, many unfortunately lack the "preference for something higher" and leap straight into the fire of passion that eats away at the very fabric of civilization and prevents mankind from experiencing states of being higher and infinitely more satisfying.
In the final analysis even love itself has to give way to something higher. But the path of love leads to these dizzy heights, because love is the harmony that lies at the heart of all things. It is intimately connected with compassion and is an essential practice for all those who admire the teachings of the great Masters. Jesus, Gautama Buddha, and countless others have emphasized the importance of loving kindness in daily thought and practice: it is the only effective way to break down divisions and realize oneness. The love of collective humanity should become our increasing inspiration and guideline to constant practice. Universal brotherhood of humanity regardless of race, creed, sex, caste, and color represents the actualization of this practice; brotherhood based upon cold political reasoning can never last. As Blavatsky says in The Voice of the Silence (pp. 69-70):
Compassion is no attribute. It is the LAW of laws — eternal Harmony, Alaya's SELF; a shoreless universal essence, the light of everlasting Right, and fitness of all things, the law of love eternal.
The more thou dost become at one with it, thy being melted in its BEING, the more thy Soul unites with that which IS, the more thou wilt become Compassion Absolute.
(From Sunrise magazine, June/July 1994. Copyright © 1994 by Theosophical University Press)
FOOTNOTES:
1. "The Fall of Ideals," H. P. Blavatsky: Collected Writings, 12: 50. (return to text)
2. "The Elixir of Life," Five Years of Theosophy, p. 17. (return to text)