What is love of God?

I can now see that love of God is in fact your love of your true inner self and of the universe.

Overview

How can you love someone you have never met, seen, or even heard from? You do not even know if God exists or not, and in what form – personal, impersonal, just energy, etc. Most religions say, and it is in the Bible as well, that you should love God more than you love your life; your family, friends, job, possessions, etc. It did not make any sense to me, but I have now learned to see things differently.

How can you love someone you have never met, seen, or even heard from?

You do not even know if God exists or not, and in what form – personal, impersonal, just energy, etc. Most religions say, and it is in the Bible as well, that you should love God more than you love your life; your family, friends, job, possessions, etc. It did not make any sense to me, but I have now learned to see things differently.

I can now see that love of God is in fact your love of your true inner self and of the universe, and this love is not the love of the physical attributes but of the true attributes.

Paul Tillich, a theologian, and an existential philosopher, has described God in terms of the ground of our being, God created us in his own image, and we are the spark of that divine.

Thomas Keating, a modern-day preacher said something along the same lines, “you can never see God because when you are God there is nothing to see. God is not an object but a subject.” The purpose of all religions is to bring us in contact with this inner reality.

In Hindu culture, God is understood in terms of its three attributes: truth, goodness, and beauty.

When we love truth, speaking and hearing the truth, we are in love with God.

When we love goodness in us and in others, we are in love with God

When we can see beauty in everything and love it, even in a torn pair of shoes, or a flower and in the thorns, or in spiders and their webs, in cockroaches, etc., we are in love with God.

In fact, the definition of God in Hinduism goes a step further, and it says God is everywhere. God is omnipotent, omnipresent, in every human being, in every animal and plant, and in inanimate objects as well.

I would like to point out that this love is different from the commonly understood selfish worldly love. This love is not something that gives you enjoyment in return, it is enjoyment. There are no expectations from the object of this love, as the act of love is the endpoint.

Normally we understand self-love as the love of our body and of our mind/personality because that is how we understand ourselves, but when one experiences the beauty of their inner self, the bliss and peace within, one start falling in love with that true self, never wanting to lose one’s connection with that no-thingness. Because that happiness is superior to all other happiness, and it is not tied to things that are constantly changing and temporary.

Poet Rumi says, “once you have seen the beauty and grandeur of your spirit you won’t burden it with the cares of the world and the body, as by doing so you are making Jesus carry your luggage while your donkey jumps freely on the meadow.”

Another attribute of this love of God is that it is a constant thing, one can and should live in this love all the time without any breaks.

Sufi preachers ask us to think of that inner spirit or consciousness all the time, even whilst doing worldly chores – very much like a woman carrying a child does all other things but all the time she is mindful of the child, or a woman carrying a pot of water on her head, keeps chatting with her friends but at the same time taking care that the pot doesn’t fall down. In the same way, we should always be in touch with our inner consciousness (inner body sensations) and remain equanimous whilst being active in the outside world. Guru Nanak, a patron saint in Sikhism, has described our connection with God in terms of the connection of a fish with water.

I have now come to realize that whenever ….

We enjoy solitude, we are in love with God.

Admire the healing energies within our body, we are in love with God

Give away good things, that we also like, to others, we are in love with God.

Help the poor and needy, we are in love with God.

Become indifferent to worldly pleasures, because we can experience a greater pleasure within us, we are in love with God.

Stop chasing name, fame, and money, because there is a greater enjoyment waiting for us within, we are in love with God.

We are completely at peace with ourselves; we are in love with God.

We have dropped all worldly desires; we are in love with God.

We are willing to embrace all sorts of pain; we are in love with God.

We totally accept our present life; we are in love with God.

Stop hating or disliking our enemies; we are in love with God.

See good things hidden inside bad people; we are in love with God.

We are emotionally neutral to our past and have no need to look back; we are in love with God.

We feel intoxicated without taking any substance and for no reason; we are in love with God.

Poet Rumi has beautifully described our relationship with God as follows: –

Your calling my name is my reply.

Your longing for Me is my message to you.

All your attempts to reach me, are actually my attempts to reach you.

Your venerations are your love and are a noose in which I will be caught.

The silence around every call “God” receives a thousand “I’m here” replies.