Feelings such as empathy, compassion and love are closely related. In the journey of the seeker we explored how the similarities and differences between pity, sympathy, empathy, and compassion. In this article, we explore the state of the ‘seer’ and how they feel love towards everyone. Love towards the Lord is also closely related to the concept of ‘divine grace’ which comes from total surrender, infinite faith and unconditional love. how they are free from the senses and are masters of their mind. As Martin Luther King Jr. once pointed out.
“Every genuine expression of love grows out of a consistent and total surrender to God”.
Moksha Sanyasa Yoga - Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 18, Verses 55-56
भक्त्या मामभिजानाति यावान्यश्चास्मि तत्त्वत: | ततो मां तत्त्वतो ज्ञात्वा विशते तदनन्तरम् || 55||
सर्वकर्माण्यपि सदा कुर्वाणो मद्व्यपाश्रय: | मत्प्रसादादवाप्नोति शाश्वतं पदमव्ययम् || 56||
bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaśh chāsmi tattvataḥ
tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā viśhate tad-anantaram
sarva-karmāṇy api sadā kurvāṇo mad-vyapāśhrayaḥ
mat-prasādād avāpnoti śhāśhvataṁ padam avyayam
Only by loving devotion to me does one come to know who I am in truth. Then, having come to know me, my devotee enters into full consciousness of me. (18.55)
My devotees, though performing all kinds of actions, take full refuge in me. By my grace, they attain the eternal and imperishable abode. (18.56)
In these two verses, Lord Krishna draws the connection between unconditional love, infinite faith, total surrender and divine grace that leads the ’seer’ to the eternal and imperishable abode of Brahman.
Unconditional love, infinite faith, total surrender, and divine grace
These four concepts are intertwined, mutually reinforcing each progressively leads the ‘seer’ towards realizing the Self or Brahman. As I discussed in my earlier blog, having compassion is to feel the suffering of others and actively work on alleviating that suffering. Love, goes beyond that and is an intense feeling of deep affection. It is normally associated with someone who are close to us or someone whom we know. In contrast, we may feel compassion towards total strangers. The following diagram contrasts these two emotions.
True love is unconditional and entails total surrender. As Paul Coelho says,
“True love is an act of total surrender”
This echoes similar statements made by Martin Luther King Jr. quoted at the start of this article Total surrender also requires infinite faith. This infinite faith is illustrated in the stories of the twelve Alwars - worshippers of Vishnu and the sixty three Nayanars - worshippers of Lord Shiva.
The twelve Alwars together composed 4,000 Tamil verses, called Nalaayira Divaya Prabhandham during the ninth and tenth centuries that demonstrates how these saints showed unconditional love and infinite faith towards Lord Vishnu, totally surrendered to him and achieved the imperishable abode of Brahman. One of the twelve Alvars is King Kulashekara who after conquering and ruling as a King, gives up his kingdom, donates his wealth to others, and totally surrenders to the Lord following a dream where the Lord appears in front of him and commands him to follow the path of devotion. The story of Kulashekara Alwar illustrates his unconditional love to the Lord, his infinite faith, and total surrender. In one of his famous compositions he says
“Oh magnificent Lord of Venkatam at the entrance of your temple, where all devotees, devas, and celestial damsels stand and wait, I wish to lie as a doorstep, and have a glimpse of your coral lips.”
Another great story of unconditional love, infinite faith and total surrender comes from the story of Kannappa Nayanar, one of the sixty three Nayanars who lived from the third to the eighth century in South India. Kannappa Nayanar was a hunter and one day after hunting a wild boar he is on his way back home. In the middle of the forest he finds a Shiva Linga and offers a portion of the meat to the Lord before eating himself. The Lord wanted to test his devotion. The left eye of the Shiva Linga starts bleeding and Kannappa gouges his left eye and places it on the Shiva Linga to stop the bleeding. After a few minutes the right eye starts bleeding as well. Kannappa places his leg at the position of the left eye of the Shiva Linga and then gouges his right eye to place it on the Shiva Linga. Pleased with his unconditional love and total surrender, the Lord appears in front of Kannappa, restores both his eyes and blesses him. This story illustrates the act of unconditional love for the Lord, infinite faith, and total surrender leading to divine grace bestowed on the devotee.
While these two stories illustrate unconditional love and total surrender from a dualistic or dvaitic perspective, Rupert Spira extolls the non-dual or advaitic notion of unconditional love. As we saw in our earlier blog on “Becoming aware of awareness” every experience can be thought of as composing three components - the object of experience, the subject of experience, and the act of experiencing. When we talk about ‘love’ we normally refer to an experience where the subject of love sees no separation with the object of love. In other words, in the case of unconditional love the subject, object, and the experience all merge into one. Rupert Spira describes this as follows:
“This experience of the absence of distinction, separation of otherness between our self and whatever is experienced is known as love.“
“Love is the collapse or dissolution of this apparent duality, or rather it is the felt understanding that the duality never existed in the first place.”
“Love is normally conceived as the quality of intimacy that characterizes a small handful of relationships, connecting one person to another, whereas it is, in fact, the natural condition of all relationship, of all experience.”
When advaitic texts refer to ‘divine grace’ it is this identification with peace, happiness, eternal bliss, and unconditional love that is within each one of us. A ’seer’ identifies with this one universal self and acts from the state of eternal bliss or happiness radiating unconditional love towards everyone, everything, and at all times. This virtuous cycle of unconditional love and divine grace is depicted in the figure below.
Reiterating this eternal nature of consciousness, bless, and divine grace the great Swami Vivekanada remarks
“The wind of divine grace is always blowing. You just need to spread your sail. Whenever you do anything, do it with your whole heart concentrated on it. Think day and night, I am of the essence of that Supreme Being - Consciousness-Bliss. What fear and anxiety have I?
Key Takeaways
Gita verse 18.55-56
Unconditional Love
Infinite Faith
Total Surrender
Divine Grace
Japa meditation
Exercise for the week
Practice Japa meditation by repeating any of the following mantras 108 times every day
OM
Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Any other mantra
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