A Valentine's Ode To Love
Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year. Ok, maybe it’s my absolute favorite. Since I was very young, this notion of an entire day dedicated to love really made my dreams come alive. I’ve been trying to write something about love, and wanted to post this on Valentine’s Day, which you can see didn’t happen. I felt lost. Not knowing what to say. And today I figured out why.
Because love doesn’t need any explanation. Love is God, and God is love. They are interchangeable. You’ll never get closer to God than through love. And you’ll never experience anything else on this earth more profound than love. We all seek for it, or some version of it. Some of us run away from it. Especially when the light it shines rips our world view apart. But that is just proof of its profound divine nature and that love itself is God. Nothing else can rip the mind apart to make room for something greater.
You can study God for lifetimes. Learn rituals. Become perfect with mantra. But I’ve come to understand that only when the realization that God is love clicks for you, that you’ll stop searching for God. You’ll accept yourself fully. You’ll place value on the small and meaningful things in life, and not on existential philosophy. Only when you realize God is love will a man be able to look at a woman and truly worship her as The Goddess, with no separation between human and Divine.
It’s not coincidental that Chapter 12 in Gita is about love and Bhakti. That is the same chapter equated to the state of Self-Realization. Because once you get it, and I mean really get it, you’ll never again doubt your connection to God and you’ll always know your relationship with God is sound. You and God are One. Always have been and always will be. Nothing you can say or do changes that. But only when you realize it will the mind stop searching and trying to find God through “spirituality”.
So really, what can be said of love? All things, or nothing at all. It is the greatest mystery and the highest blessing attainable in life. It’s the only thing that brings ultimate peace and joy at the same time. I hope you all find a love in your life that removes all doubt about God, your purpose and eliminates all fear, and helps you become exactly who and what you want to be.