Love is our deepest desire and highest aspiration. More than anything else, love is what makes us happy and peaceful, gives our life meaning and purpose, and inspires in us the greatest of qualities and capabilities. Nothing feels more deeply right, true, and joyful for us than when we are able to open our hearts and be genuinely kind and loving, merciful and tolerant, generous and forgiving with others. When we are able to be truly loving with others, we get a taste of our transcendental nature – our nature as spiritual beings.
Each of us is eternally an individual spiritual being, currently covered by layers of material energy.
In the yoga scriptures, it is explained that each of us is eternally an individual spiritual being, currently covered by layers of material energy. The gross physical body is like outer clothes. The mind (subtle body) is like under clothes. Although we are wearing these “clothes,” we are not them. They are just clothes. Just like the shirt, pants, and so on we are wearing at this moment are not us – they are just clothes. The mind and body are also just layers of material energy that we are using for some time, and will eventually discard. We are made of spiritual energy, and our “clothes,” our mind and body, are made of material energy.
Love is our essential nature because it is the essential nature of the Supreme Person.
It is due to our nature as spiritual beings that we have such a strong desire and need both to love and be loved. Love is our essential nature because it is the essential nature of the Supreme Person. As tiny sparks of His spiritual energy, we are the same in essence as the Supreme Person and have many of His same qualities, but we have these qualities in minute quantities. We are not the Supreme, but we are made of His energies, and He is the foundation for our existence.
We have the inclination to love others – to be loving, kind, caring, compassionate – because this is an innate quality of the Supreme Person. The Supreme Person is the supreme source of love, the reservoir of love, the most loving Being in existence. His love for us, for all living entities, is absolute, eternal, unlimited, and unconditional. There is nothing we could ever do that could make Him not love us. Unconditional love is an inseparable quality of the Supreme Person. By His very nature, He is the eternal Friend and Well-Wisher of all. As we are made of His energies, we also have this innate quality to be unconditionally loving.
Even though unconditional love is natural for us, we rarely experience love in this way because we are currently not in our natural condition.
However, although the inclination to love unconditionally is there within our heart of hearts, we do not generally experience love unconditionally for all beings. Instead, our affection tends to wax and wane according to various external conditions. We may feel we love our family, but we do not feel this love for all families. Or we may feel we love our friend now, but if later this friend rejects or offends us, then this affection dissipates. Generally, we experience love in this world as being conditional. It comes and goes according to various factors. Although unconditional love is natural for us, we rarely experience love in this way because we are currently not in our natural condition.
Our innate spiritual tendency to love unconditionally has become suppressed, distorted, due to the ways we are conditioned by our material environment and materially-centered ways of living. Even though we are not our material mind and body, because we have become so closely identified with them, our consciousness has become altered. Even if intellectually and intuitively we recognize that we are not our bodies, habitually we live as if we are. We are very heavily influenced in our life by the mind and body we have – so much so that we cannot, by our own efforts, disentangle ourselves from this influence.
Material conditioning alters our consciousness in such a way that we cannot, solely by our own efforts, change it back to its original state.
The conditioning effect that material life has our consciousness is compared in yoga scripture with how milk becomes yogurt. When milk is conditioned in certain ways by bacteria, it becomes yogurt. Once the milk becomes yogurt, we cannot change it back into milk. Similarly, once our consciousness becomes conditioned by material life, it becomes altered in such a way that we cannot, by our own efforts, change it back to its original state.
This is why no matter how hard we try, we cannot, by our own efforts, cause ourselves to revert back to our original spiritual condition. And why – even though it is our true nature to love all beings unconditionally – we cannot, by our own efforts, cause ourselves to unconditionally love every person, all the time, in every circumstance. Sometimes we feel more loving, sometimes not very much, and sometimes not at all or even quite the opposite. This is the situation we are in. It does not mean we are bad or broken. It just means we are not in our natural condition – and almost no one here is.
But although our current condition is problematic, we are actually in a most fortunate position if we have the humility to recognize that we are not in our natural state – because this gives us the opportunity to do something about it. While it is true that we cannot return to our natural condition of spiritual consciousness solely by our own efforts, it is possible for us to do so through linking up with the Supreme Person.
Through consciously linking up with the Supreme Person, we can return to our original, unadulterated state of being.
Unlike us, the Supreme Person is not bound by material laws of nature. On the contrary, He is the original Law-Maker, the Cause of all causes. Although turning yogurt back into milk is not possible for us to do, it is easily within the power of the Supreme Person. And although returning to our original state of spiritual consciousness is not something we can do alone, it is possible through linking up with the Supreme Person.
In order to assist us in returning to our original state of consciousness – to our original joyful and unconditionally loving nature – the Supreme Person has given us the yoga system. Yoga is often misunderstood in modern times as a system of physical exercises to promote health and fitness. But, actually, yoga is a complete system of spiritual realization. The physical postures (asana) are only a minor aspect of the entire system and, although beneficial in many ways, are not an essential practice.
In the yoga system, the primary method for linking up with the Supreme Person is Mantra Meditation.
For each age or yuga, there is a process given in the yoga system for returning to our original condition of spiritual consciousness. In the current age, the primary yogic method for spiritual realization is hearing and repeating the Names of the Supreme Person. In yoga, this is called Mantra Meditation.
The Names of the Supreme Person are not ordinary sound. They are the Supreme Person in the form of spiritual sound vibration. The Supreme Person appears in this world as His Names out of His love for us, and offers us this method of consciously linking up with Him. Whenever we hear, chant or sing the Names of the Supreme Person, we are relating directly with Him – and it is this intimate association with our Supreme Friend that purifies our consciousness of the influence of material nature. Through regular, daily, contact with the Supreme Person via His Names, our consciousness is gradually restored to its original condition. It is like the yogurt being turned back into milk.
Daily practice of Mantra Meditation gradually returns us to our natural condition of love.
Because material ways of thinking about our self and life have become very deeply ingrained within our consciousness, it is most beneficial to practice yoga Mantra Meditation daily. By doing so, our progress can become steady, and we will increasingly experience a dawning of genuine spiritual understanding and spiritual love.
As we gradually return to our natural condition of consciousness, we will actually experience love for others spontaneously growing within our hearts. It is not something we have to try to conjure up – or that we even have the ability to conjure up – it is simply the inherent result of our returning to our original, unadulterated state of being.
In our natural condition, we experience unwavering, unconditional love for the Supreme Person and for all beings. Not impersonal so-called love. But very personal, very real, deeply affectionate love for each and every living being. Motivated, moved, by this love, we are naturally compassionate, kind, tolerant, merciful, selfless, generous, forgiving, and so on. Our every thought, word, and action arises from this love, and our life is a glorious expression of love. This is spiritual love, purified love.
Although this extraordinary love may seem very far away from us at the moment, if we sincerely, humbly, apply ourselves to the process given to us by our Supreme Friend, we can and will find this sublime love growing within our own hearts and lives. By following the instructions of the Supreme Person, by practicing yoga Mantra Meditation daily, we will experience the most wonderful inner transformation. We will find more and more that love for others comes easily, joyfully, causelessly, of its own accord – that it fills the emptiness in our hearts with sweetness and light, and illuminates the lives of all it touches. Through following the path of yoga, we can return to our natural condition of love, and inspire others to do so, as well.
For information on specific types of yoga Mantra Meditation, simply click on the links below:
If you would like to learn yoga Mantra Meditation, I highly recommend this wonderful video class:
Yoga Mantra Meditation Class with Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa