Love… Full Stop, Then Begin Again

6 minute read

Sometimes thoughts come to me whose ideas, emerging from the nothingness within, astonish even me. Then I realise that I did not create them; they were revealed to me. In truth, nothing in Creation is new. Whatever we believe we have created existed long before humanity became conscious of its own existence. We were merely chosen to carry forward a message or a piece of information that may help, or destroy, many lives.

Human selfishness has no limits. We have destroyed everything around us in order to make our own lives as comfortable as possible, without caring about the nature that gave us life or the people who survive from one day to the next.

Some people are incredibly rich - not in the soul, but materially - while others are incredibly poor, again in material terms. The greatness of a soul is determined neither by material achievement nor by poverty. A soul is not liberated by the number of people someone helps materially or by the benefactions they leave to humanity.

Look around and you will understand what I mean. People remain "miserable", or at least most feel that way. Some die of hunger, while others cannot spend everything they earn. Our discoveries help only some of us, never the majority, and certainly not those who lack material security. Society appears to have evolved, yet its existential problems have remained the same for millennia.

Some will say that more people now enjoy a better social life, but the figures show the opposite. The population has grown to incredible proportions and continues to grow every year - or, rather, two nations alone grow as much as all the others together.

We believe this planet belongs to us and that we are masters of everything its creation offers. What a strange way to respect that which gave us life and nourishes not only the body, but also the soul. If we suffer in the future because of our mistakes, we will blame the very thing we tried to destroy.

Material wellbeing, or rather the struggle to attain it, destroys existence and prevents the soul from aspiring to freedom. If people tried once more to live simply, providing only what the body and soul truly need, our lives would contain nothing but happiness and fulfilment.

Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar: give the body the food it needs. Give God what belongs to God: give the soul the nourishment it needs. One is limited - the body - and must be fed with restraint. The other - the soul - is without limit, and its nourishment should therefore not be limited. We do precisely the opposite, and this is the source of our unhappiness.

We also believe that our thinking has evolved, that our minds have reached an advanced stage and that our species stands at the height of its development. Yet spiritually, we are like the monkeys we consider far beneath us. We believe that performing complex calculations or deciphering certain secrets of our existence raises us far above the animal that lies within us.

In fact, only a few people discovered those things. Only a few gained access to them, understood them and brought them to light. Compared with those whom our society calls its scientists, the rest of us are as backward as monkeys beside dolphins. Inequality within existence is universal: it belongs not only to the material realm, but also to thought and to the spiritual realm.

We gain access to information according to our present intellectual capacity, and the same is true spiritually. Yet upon the axis of time, everything that has been and everything that will be has existed since the beginning of Creation. You need only obtain "permission" to see it beyond the limits of time. In the spiritual realm, too, you must follow certain rules and practise for a long time before you can receive the information that has existed since your soul was created.

Humanity's problem, religiously as well as existentially, is that the limitations of human thought are imposed upon divine power. People even say that the divine is an idea invented by humanity to provide itself with an ideal.

Consider the so-called atheists. I have known several who do not believe in the power proclaimed by religions, yet still believe in a universal intelligence governing the universe and everything it contains. Only a fool, and a backward one, could believe that no power exists beyond their own existence - and there are plenty of such people. Life, however, takes care of educating specimens like these. It shows how backward we still are.

Most of us are unhappy, but even the happiness of those who call themselves happy is far from the truth. Nothing upon this earth brings true happiness, because we are not sufficiently evolved to understand what happiness actually is. Is it merely the satisfaction of the senses, or simply the absence of worry, that fulfils the soul?

I could see this limitation everywhere around me eighteen years ago, even within religion. God's existence is used and manipulated according to the wishes and needs of each age and of those who gain access to spiritual knowledge. God allows Himself to be shaped and accepted within our existence according to what each person needs.

This is why others have so often imposed the prevailing way of thinking upon us by force, and it is also where every future problem will begin. The power of a religion is given both by the number of its followers and by those who have brought it fuller knowledge and greater renown.

The world is now experiencing not only a material crisis, but a spiritual one. Technology has brought society a certain material wellbeing, yet at the same time it has made the mystical dimension and the innocence of our minds disappear. The world appears to have evolved, but in fact it stands still, spinning like a top.

A return to simple things, prayer, a moderate life and respect for existence can offer a beginning upon the path towards the soul's liberation. Society and technology have stolen what was most precious in our existence. Many people live without being conscious that they exist. Without looking at the sky, feeling the fragrance of nature within the soul or looking inward for even a moment each day, people are condemned to unhappiness. If they forget these things, one day no one will remain to remind them. Even if someone does remain, people will no longer be able to understand, because nothing around them will still be capable of awakening those states within.

Divine Love resembles a person in love who will accept anything, even slavery, simply to remain near the beloved. It allows itself to be used, manipulated and mocked, provided it is not rejected entirely, because the happiness of its existence lies not in fulfilling its own desires but in offering happiness to the beloved.

If the beloved no longer needs it, Divine Love may disappear forever from existence, because life no longer has a purpose. Its purpose remains only if it has managed to plant within the beloved's heart the seed of eternal love - not love for one person, but love for the very existence of love within the soul.

Love exists within our soul because it gave the soul life. It fulfils the soul and makes it happy. This is why human love blinds us and, in the presence of the beloved, can offer the same exaltation we feel before nature and the wonderful things of existence.

Human love is only the beginning, only the planting of the seed within our soul. Whether it blossoms depends only upon us, upon our actions and, above all, upon our acceptance of its existence within.

First published in Romanian on 17 July 2011. This English translation preserves the perspective of that period.

Original Romanian article: Iubire... Punct și de la capăt.