Guru Bhakti: A Lesson in Love

VI

Now the question is: Whom should we love? As love is the law of life, we cannot do with out loving one thing or the other. We bestow all our love on the world and all that is of the world, wife and children, riches and possessions. But all these objects of the world betray us at one stage or another and leave us rueful sooner or later. We must love something which may be eternal so that our Love is not falsified. The former is not Love in the strict sense of the word but blind infatuation commonly known as attachment. Why not then find something worthy of our Love and which can befriend us both here and hereafter? In this context, I place before you a small hymn of Kabir so that we may understand the subject better.

We must love One Who will not leave or forsake us till the end.

He alone is worthy to be loved who will stand by us in all the vicissitudes of life on the earth plane and lead us into the beyond before the judgement seat of God.

In the Gurbani we find this statement:

Oh Nanak, snap all ephemeral ties of worldly relations and find the company of a True Saint, the former shall break away in this very life, while the latter shall abide with thee even after death.

The friends and relations in the world, howsoever near and dear they may be, do not stand by through thick and thin. Some of them leave off in poverty and indigence, some in prolonged illness and disease and some in adverse circumstances and misfortune. At the most, a few may help you to the funeral pyre and that is all. The friendship of a Saint is everlasting. He abides forever and forever and even stands by to help you before the judgement seat of God.

Thus Kabir says:

When in affluence all flock around thee and feed thy vanity, with the turn in fortune all fly away and none comes near.

Even the most sincere stand by helplessly when you are at death’s door and gasping for breath. When they see you fighting and losing the battle against death and helplessly struggling for life, all that they can do is to pray to God to relieve you from the tortuous agony of the last moments. What else can they possibly do?

Again in the Gurbani we are told:

Serve the True Master and develop the Holy Word. The Master receives at death those who have done their best to follow Him.

We should, therefore be the doer of the Word and practise It day and night. It is the comforter of which Christ spoke. It helps us in diverse ways when we are helpless in death’s trap or in treacherous situation. It materialises in the likeness of the Master to advise and encourage us, no matter where we may be, on the snowy mountain top, in the burning desert sands, down in the ocean depths or high up in the sky. And again, when one is in the last moments of one’s life, It appears in the Radiant Form of the Master to escort the soul into the beyond, leads the spirit gradually from plane to plane, as and when He thinks fit, until He conducts you safely to the abode of God.

My Master used to say that a Satguru while revealing the Holy Word at the time of initiation actually reveals His True Form – Shabd Swarup –, which always remain with the initiated soul till both merge in Sat Naam, the primal manifestation of God, Who then helps the soul to Agam – the incomprehensible –, Alakh – the effable – and Anaam – the Nameless without form and attributes. It is because of this momentous and signal service and sacrifice of an Eternal Nature that we are advised to cultivate Love for One Who loves us eternally and befriends us both here and hereafter.

Maulana Rumi, speaking of this Love, tells us:

Love is different form sensuality in men, for sense feed upon the objects of senses, and thrive upon the food we take.

Thus we see that Love is something sublime and sacred and should not be confused with lust which is the outcome of base desires and sensual appetites. It is Love of the soul for the Oversoul, or of the created being for the creator. How then can we come by Love is the next question.