Part III — Love and aspiration

Question: Could you say something about divine love.

Sri Chinmoy: In our philosophy of love, devotion and surrender, we start with divine love. Here there is no possession; there is only the feeling of oneness. The human consciousness is limited. When we use this limited consciousness, we try to have someone or something as our very own. But because the human consciousness is limited, we cannot have more than one person or more than one thing. But if we can enter into the Universal Consciousness through our meditation, the result or the capacity that we get from the Universal Consciousness will be boundless. Then everyone and everything in the entire world will make us feel that we belong to it and that it belongs to us. At that time we shall get true satisfaction.

In human love we always feel, "There is someone who does not want me or somebody whom I do not need." Always there will be some person whom we fear or hate or do not need, because that person is not satisfying us. Again, we will have the feeling that somebody else — some great man or spiritual Master whom we admire — is not giving us the love that we need or want. So, in one way or another, frustration comes, either because the other person is not showing us love or because we are losing our own sweet feeling and divine reality by showing our hatred towards somebody.

But if we can enter into the Universal Consciousness, then at that time we don't think of love. Only we think of consciousness. If we have something small, say a tiny knife, then we cannot cut something very big. But if we have an instrument which is very big, then we can cut anything with it. In the spiritual life, the instrument that we are using right now is a very limited consciousness, the human consciousness. That is why we cannot go beyond one or two people or things. But if we use the other instrument, the Universal Consciousness, which is very vast, then we will be able to have divine love.

But we have to possess it first, and for that we have to meditate. To enter into the vast Universal Consciousness, we must be on the highest stage of spiritual evolution. To realise this Universal Consciousness takes many incarnations. If a great spiritual Master comes and if he feels very kind to some of his disciples, then it may be only a matter of a few years for them. Otherwise, to enter into Universal Consciousness takes quite a few incarnations. The best thing for the seekers who have just entered into the spiritual life or have done a little bit of meditation is to use the term "vast consciousness" rather than "Universal Consciousness". In your case, if your consciousness is this much, then try to expand it. Then, when you have a little capacity in dealing with the vast consciousness, you will have more assurance from within that you can eventually enter into the Universal Consciousness.