GospelofLove

The devotee of God lives in the world, but they are not of this world. They love others but they do not make anyone else their supreme beloved. Their beloved is God. That is spiritual life. Lord Jesus Christ is teaching this in the first and foremost commandment that we should love the Supreme with all of our hearts, all of our minds, with our entire being. That we should we give everything we have in love to the Supreme. And we will not be losers, we will actually gain God, we will gain everything. Such a condition of heart is very rare in this world. Please consider for a moment, have you ever met anyone who was in this condition? Who loves God so completely that they have no other interests in life? That this love motivates them so much that they completely dedicate their life to the service of God, that such a lover of God feels such compassion and sadness for the suffering of all living beings in this world. And this compassion motivates such a pure loving servant of God to always think of ways to try to help the living beings to somehow want to come back home to the loving embrace of the Supreme Person. We may feel very far away from being able to follow Jesus’ first and foremost commandment. We might feel unqualified, but we should never feel hopeless that we cannot begin and try to follow Jesus’ instructions. Depending on the condition of a person’s heart and mind, it may seem very difficult, but by the grace of the Lord everything becomes possible. Today’s sinner can become tomorrow’s saint.

In the famous Song of Solomon, Solomon expresses his longing to be united with His beloved Lord, “Let Him kiss me with kisses of His mouth! More delightful is Your love than wine. Bring me, O King, to Your chambers. O My Lover, here He comes across the mountains, across the hills. My lover is radiant and ruddy; He stands out among thousands. His head is golden, His locks are like palm fronds, black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside running waters. His teeth would seem bathed in milk and are set like jewels. His lips are red blossoms. His arms are rods of gold adorned with chrysolites. His body is a work of ivory covered with sapphires. His legs are columns of marble. His mouth is all sweetness itself; He is all delight. Such is My Lover, and such is My Friend.” These detailed descriptions by Solomon of the personal beauty of the Supreme Person are in agreement with very similar depictions of the Supreme Lord in other scriptures. For us to develop a longing to again be united in love with the Supreme Person, it is important that we regularly hear about Him.

Now if you know you are a part and parcel of God like a drop of water of the ocean is a part and parcel of the ocean, then you can understand that God is also attracted by affection. He is attracted by loving affection, love for Him. And in the same way I am not attracted by those who simply want to use me. They do not really care about me, they do not love me, they do not really have affection towards me. God is also not attracted by such persons who have some ulterior motive, who just want to get something from God. So pure loving service is the only means to attract God. Pure loving devotional service means with no aim to exploit, no ulterior motive, no other purpose than finding happiness in the loving affection towards the person who you are loving, the Supreme Person. I am simply loving You. I do not want anything. I am simply enjoying loving you, and I am very happy that you are allowing me to love you. Automatically, when the heart is loving, when there is affection, then you do some service. So, we are speaking of some action that is motivated by this pure love, this pure affection for God. This is called pure devotional service. It is not that I am wanting God for something but rather, I am simply loving the relationship. That is all. The relationship is the end in itself. The loving relationship is the end in itself. It is not a means to achieve salvation. It is not the means to get rich. It is not the means to have sensual pleasures. It is not the means for any personal gain for myself: to get famous or to get powerful or to get money or to get followers. It is the end in itself. Pure loving service to the Supreme Lord is my life.

Surrender means love. That is the meaning of surrender. Surrender to God does not mean, “Do not shoot. Do not hit me with lightning. I am going to surrender. I am afraid of you. I surrender.” No. That is not surrender. You think God is a thief, in that sense. He is going to come with a gun, and you are in a store, and He is going to hold you up for some money? He is going to steal your surrender, force your surrender? Do you not think God is all-powerful, that He could have done that to all living beings long ago? Do you not think that God has the power to force that kind of surrender? Does God want your fearful surrender of, “Do not hit me”? How many fathers would really enjoy their child groveling up to them, crawling up to them saying, “Please do not hit me. Please do not hit me. I surrender. I surrender. Please do not beat me. I surrender!” Is that really enjoyable to a father? A father does not enjoy his child being afraid of him. A father enjoys his child loving him. That is surrender. Surrender means the heart surrendering, loving. Love is the hardest thing to give. I surrender my love. That is the meaning of surrender.

We each have an eternal relationship with God. The perfection of this personal relationship is gauged by the perfection of the love. The perfection of the love. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ describes that love is the means by which a person can see where he is. In other words, the greater your fear of God, the less your love. The more you are loving God, the less your fear. The more there is fear in the relationship, the less perfect it is. The more love is the core of that relationship, the more perfect your relationship is. “Whoever lives in love, lives in God and God in him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The man who fears is not made perfect in love.“ (1 John 4:16-18)

It is not desirable that we are only taking shelter of God when we are in trouble or destitute. In fact, the devotee is always feeling dependent on God. Just like a child is feeling dependent on the protection by his parents. He always feels dependent. So therefore, Jesus Christ gives the example, you must become like a child again. Not a child with a small material body. But recognizing that you are an eternal child of the Supreme Father. And having that simplicity of experiencing that you have a protector, you have a friend. Feeling that He is in control, and when you give Him your life, you will be safe. And if you help those who you love, or who you care about to also take shelter in the Supreme Lord, then they will actually find security. They will actually find protection and solutions to their situation. Whether it is problems in life or the problem of death, God is the refuge. If you ever experienced a child crying for her mother or her father, then you will get a glimpse of what Jesus Christ was talking about when he said, “We must cry to our Father. We must have such a loving relationship that He is our shelter.” The child does not kind of like his father. The child does not enjoy her father being nearby sometimes, but it is an absolute need of the heart. Crying, crying, “Daddy, daddy.” And when you experience this child, someone's child crying out, “Daddy” or “Mommy”, and they are so screeching, heartbroken and lifeless, and it is so intense it cannot but help break your heart. You will experience your heart melting. It is breaking your heart.

What is the most important is this personal relationship with the Supreme Lord. And every one of us we are going to take this relationship with us wherever we go. That relationship with God is going to be with you when you wake up in the morning, when you are sleeping at night. It is going to be with you when you leave this body. That is going to be there. It is an eternal relationship. The relationships of this world are not eternal. They can support my eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord. Or they may cause me to more and more forget my eternal relationship with God. Ultimately, real religion means, that which I deal with alone. No one is going to be able to help me at the time of death if my relationship with that person is one of a temporary nature. The fact is if you love God, for all practical purposes you are with God. Loving God, having love for God in your heart and being with God are not separate. Love for God is God. That is the kingdom of God. Everything in connection with God is absolute, so if one has a loving relationship with God, even though they are in the material world and they have a material body now, they are in fact in a sense in the kingdom of God because they are with God. So, the kingdom of God is not just a geographical location. The kingdom of God is love for God. Love for God is the kingdom of God. Therefore, it is said by Jesus that, “The kingdom of God is within.” (Luke 17:20-21).

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-10, we learn more about the qualities a person develops when he is experiencing true love, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-10)

Some people say that God is not attainable and that we can never see God. Many people are taught that God must always remain a mystery to us and that we cannot actually attain God. But in the New Testament Jesus Christ proclaims the good news. The good news is that the Supreme Person is attainable. You can achieve a relationship with God; you can link up with God. We can actually achieve perfect God realization. We can have a perfect relationship with God and see Him face to face. We can have God as our Master, as our Friend, as Our Beloved. This is the Gospel of Divine Love. If we are to fall in love with God again, then we have to know Him well. It is not possible to love a mystery. Fortunately for all of us, it is possible to know and love the Supreme Lord!

No one else is God, so no one else will be able to love me perfectly. And even if we do find a very nice person in this world to love and be loved by, it is a temporary relationship. And when this temporary relationship ends, there will be great suffering. There will be great pain of separation and loss unless this relationship has become spiritualized. How can we spiritualize relationships in this world? We can spiritualize all of our relationships in this world by making God the center, by trying to please the Supreme Lord with our lives. The center of our lives needs to be loving the Supreme Lord. To make Him that perfect person to love. Many people in this world are looking for their soulmate. But our eternal perfect soulmate is not to be found in this world. We may not be aware of it, but it is God Who we are always yearning for. The Supreme Lord is our eternal perfect soulmate. He is all-attractive, all-loving and all-lovable. He possesses all the qualities in perfection that we are always looking for in others.

Jesus explained that these two people prayed with two different attitudes. The Pharisee was very proud, thinking that he was very spiritual, and everybody else is a demon. He felt that he was not a demon, rather he is a devotee of God. Jesus stated that this person was not really connecting up with God, that this person is really not pleasing to God. He did not really hook up to God. Whereas, the tax collector was pleasing in the eyes of God. And he was so pleasing that Jesus chose to eat dinner at the house of the tax collector. Humility attracts the Supreme Lord and His loving servants.

If you want to experience God's forgiveness upon you, you must beg forgiveness from Him, and with this simultaneously, you must forgive others. This is why Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.“ (Matthew 6:12) Jesus is feeling, “My dear Father, please forgive my offenses against You, my trespasses, as I forgive those who have offended me, who have trampled upon me, who have trespassed against me.” It is simultaneous. This is not Christian or Hindu or Muslim truth. It is non-sectarian truth. It is about relationships. It is about your relationship with God and your relationship with others.

How exactly should we be treating other children of God? It states in Matthew 7:12, “In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you, for this fulfills the law and the prophets.” Now some people wanting to do good to others have put all their emphasis on Jesus’ second commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But there is a tendency to forget the first commandment. People forget Jesus’ first and foremost instruction, upon which the second one is based upon. Jesus Christ said, “My second commandment is like unto the first that you love your neighbor as yourself. As much as you love yourself, as much as you care about yourself, you should care about your neighbor.” (Matthew 22:39). You care about yourself; you should care just the same amount for your neighbor. You should care the same amount that you care about yourself, your own future, your own happiness; you should care that much about others. But Jesus is saying it is like unto the first commandment. In other words, if you love God, you will love others. It is not possible that you can just love others without loving God.

If we believe that to dominate means that we can exploit others, this will lead to great disharmony. But when we act as caretakers of others and the planet, then there can be real harmony.

When we hear of descriptions of the kingdom of God, we should not be interested in gold streets and wanting to live a life of great opulence. The real treasure is that we experience our eternal loving relationship with the Supreme Person. This is our original and most natural condition. And experiencing pure love for God and His unconditional love for me will give me the happiness that everyone is always looking for. We cannot find that deep spiritual happiness by trying to enjoy things. So, we should be relating with the Supreme Person, not His property.

The materialistic idea is that God exists for the purpose of helping me get material enjoyment. God is the waiter, and I am the enjoyer sitting at the table of life enjoying my senses. “God, get me a beautiful spouse. God, get me a nice meal. God, get me a big house. God, get me a nice body to enjoy all these things with.” This is not pleasing to Jesus. A real follower of Jesus Christ is one who follows the instruction of Jesus that we should love the Supreme Person, love the Supreme Father with our whole being. We should do His will, we should desire to do His will out of love. We should be happy by rendering service to Him, by glorifying Him, by saying His Names. This is spiritual life.

God does not get involved with all the little things that happen in this world. He is only indirectly responsible in the sense that He has established the laws of karma. But the laws of karma are such that the individual living being, the individual is completely responsible for his actions. That is the arrangement that God has established. The living beings, the individuals are completely responsible for their actions. And the reactions to their actions which are the result of those actions are entirely the responsibility of the individual. Too many people lose faith in God because of this one perversion of their so-called previous relationship with God. Instead of them wanting to serve and love God, they want to be served by God. This becomes an upside-down relationship. It is really a figment of their imagination because in fact the Supreme Lord is no one's waiter or order supplier. So how we relate to God will determine how pleasing to God and how close to Him we will be.

The son of God says, “Surrender to God,” and God says, “Surrender to Me.” It is the same message. It is the same thing. That is where there is real life. That is where there is purification. That loving surrender is the source of purification. That is the means of purification. The process of purification and loving surrender is beautifully summarized in 1 Chronicles 16:29, “Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name: bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”

If I make a conscious choice that I don’t want to be clean internally, then I cannot expect that I will experience the happiness of having a heart that is filled with pure love for the Lord. So, if a person wants to love God, then they must stop engaging in sinful activities. They must regulate their activities. Otherwise they are not creating a good future for themselves.

God descends to this material dimension to save us. God appears in this material world in order to save us. He appears to us in the form of His Holy Names, and He appears to us via the lips, via the tongue of His pure servants or His pure devotees. This is how God appears in this world. God appears on the lips of those who love Him purely. They sing or repeat His Names. We hear. In other words, God then enters our ears in the form of His Holy Names and gradually touches our heart. We become spiritually purified when we repeat the Names of God. As we become increasingly purified by hearing and chanting His Names. As we become increasingly purified, then the full manifestation of the Supreme Lord in His Holy Name, as it is coming out of our mouths, manifests itself and therefore enters into the ears of others and affects them in a purifying way.

Sometimes we hear some people talking about a particular name of God, and their idea is that this is a tribal god of a select group of people. And they may feel that only the people of this area are the children of this god and that other living beings are not coming from this so-called god. Such an idea of a tribal god is not referring to the one and only Supreme Lord. But if when you state a name of God you are referring to the original Supreme Lord, the Cause of all causes, the Source of all life, the Source of all universes, the Supreme controller, the Lord over all Lords, then you are speaking about the Supreme.

In the Old Testament it makes it very clear that God can purify each and every one of us and all of us as humankind. That God can purify us if we simply accept, simply receive and repeat His Holy Names. God appears in this world as transcendental sound vibration. He appears as His Names. And His Names are non-different from Himself. They are purifying as He is. When you say a name of the Lord, you actually experience the Lord. It is different from the sound “mango”, for example. You will not experience the qualities of a mango by just saying the sound “mango” because it is a material sound. But we can experience the presence of the Lord if we meditate upon His Holy Names. In the Old Testament in Psalms 54:1, it states, the devotee is praying, “Save me O Lord, by Thy Name.” “Save me O Lord, by Thy name.” We should always remember this verse. “Save me O Lord, by Thy name.” Furthermore, it states in Psalms 124:8, “Our help is in the Name of the Lord Who made heaven and earth.”

We can be purified by the hearing and singing of God's Names because God's Names, as stated in every scripture of the world, are all pure and all purifying. There are actually dozens of verses in Psalms in the Old Testament that glorify the spiritual power of God’s Holy Names. The purification power is there in the Holy Names of God. And by hearing, by receiving the Names of God into our hearts and minds and by surrendering to the Holy Names of God, the potency is there for the purification to be taking place. You become perfectly purified. We do not need to have doubt in this. If we have some doubt, then we don’t have full faith in scripture.

Actually, the process of falling in love with God is not very hard. He is the most lovable. If you have the idea that God is a big ugly muscleman on the beach, that makes it problematic to fall in love. Or if you think that God hates people and takes the bad ones and dumps them into the fiery hell and enjoys watches them burn, that is not God. And then we hear, “Love this person.” Now if all that God does it to yell and condemn and smash and burn people, then people will be afraid of God. How then is a person supposed to love God? It looks like a very difficult task. But the truth is that God is the Supreme Lovable. God is all-attractive and is full of all good qualities. The Supreme Lord is extremely lovable, and therefore the process of falling in love with God or surrendering to God is not very difficult. It is very natural.

Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God’s compassion, His unconditional love upon all of us. In this way, we come to know the heart of God. God is not a sadist. God is not lacking in power. He is not lacking in anything. The heart of God is so soft, most sensitive and caring. And God is also saying with this love, He is saying, “Welcome.” He is saying, “Welcome into My world. Welcome into your natural world. Welcome into the spiritual world. You are welcome. It is a world of comfort. It is a world of love. It is a world of happiness and joy. Welcome. I want you to come.” So, He sends His son, Jesus Christ, Christos, to say, “Welcome. Welcome to My world.” It is God's love for me which appears as Lord Jesus Christ. And I can make God pleased by my accepting His offering.