Devotion is the highest form of love.
It is possible you may love one person, and love becomes so deep that slowly slowly the very quality of love changes into devotion.
Then that person becomes only a
window for you to take a jump into
existence.
~ O.S.H.O via Osho quotes
1.
The mystic Osho unveils an open secret of our existence. This is also the unveiled mystery of why every spiritual movement is centered around a single person. It has to be so because if you look closely you will see that towards that single person unconditional love and devotion came to manifest by those who met that person, came to know or simply sat in his or her presence. There is no exception to this. Whether religious history / religious scriptures record this or not, this has always been the case.
The love for the master becomes powerful devotion and then the master or the one who is loved with single pointed love, becomes a window or a portal to greater existence. Here existence can well be written with a capital "E", Existence: signifying the Real Existence, the Sole Existence of the One Who is without a second.
"By loving a person intensely and recognizing the Divinity you achieve a certain degree of Oneness... Existence is a manifestation of Divine Power."
~ Master Choa Kok Sui, Pranic Healing Master
2.
Fall in love to rise in love
There is a Sufi story and short but powerful story. This is narrated by Maulana Jami.
A seeker went to ask a sage for guidance on the Sufi way.
The sage counseled: "If you have never trodden the path of love, go away and fall in love; then come back and see us."
What it signifies that unless we experience what is love by falling into it then we will not become receptive to certain higher teachings. Some teachings will never enter into our heart unless we're matured through love. This is so because just as love is beyond language and something of the domain of the Heart, similarly a lot of spiritual understanding are of the domain of heart alone and cannot be even begin to discussed unless someone is a wayfarer of love. And when that "falling in love" experience is gained, then the Mystics, the Guides of the Heart start to teach how to "rise in love." The who alchemy of the Sufi Path is "the art of rising in love."
Rising to One Love, to love the One Heart, the Comic Heart of the One Beloved. There is an open invitation to the Religion of Love, Love not with a sentimental meaning but as gnostic knowledge (ma‘rifa), and proximity between the Ever Present Divine and man within whom reflections of the Divine is manifest most strongly.
4.
What is greater, mercy or love?
According to Osho's quote, devotion is the highest form of love. Love is such an unfathomable ocean that its mostly pointless to say what is highest, what is lowest, what is its true nature or form etc. To some devotion might feel the highest form and in another person's language and culture it might be that something else may feel to be the highest form of love.
Few weeks back I met a Sufi Teacher who was visiting Bangladesh from United Kingdom. During the conversation he was mentioning that mercy is greater than love. I requested him to explain.
He said surely mercy is greater than love but very few people understand this. In fact due to misunderstanding and abusing the word "love" for western mindset it is almost impossible to accept this truth. Love by nature is discriminating. One person may love this person, that means the one whom he or she loves become exclusive to him or her and other person compared to the loved ones become lesser. Love by nature can not help but become single eyed. This is fine. Nothing to blame, the reality of love is willed by the creator to be such.
But mercy, which has other words for it, Buddhists will call it, "Loving Kindness", Muslims may call it "Rahmah", Christians may call it "grace" or mercy itself, a Hindu may call something else. But in essence, this is the quality which is most universal. So universal is Mercy that in Islamic Sacred Tradition God Himself calls this the Foremost Quality. It is said that upon the Mystical Throne of the Divine it is inscribed that, "My Mercy shall precede My Wrath." Also Mercy being the most universal quality of God, a human being becomes a true human being when mercy is found in abundance in him or her.
Now to give an example for mercy, the teacher said, lets say you are driving a car and suddenly on the road you find that a bird is lying on the road, wounded. It is by mercy that swells within the heart which causes someone to rush to the bird to save its life, the deep concern that flows for it well-being flows because of mercy. It is not that you loved this bird before or at that moment, but it is a different experience that one feels. It is so spontaneous that no one even think about it at that moment.
In Islamic sacred tradition the Messenger of God is said to be sent as a "mercy to all beings" (wa ma arsalanaka illa rahmatallil 'aalameen). And as a sign of mercy, the Messenger is described as "one who is deeply concerned for the well being of others, for the suffering of others." (harisun 'alikum)
If you think logically and observe how people works, you will notice that if anyone doesnt show care and concern for others, no matter what lip service they give, no matter how much they use the phrase "I love you" or "I love my countrymen" etc. that matters very little. It is a sure sign of care, mercy and love for another person, beings or even process when someone shows genuine concern for that person, beings or things. This is very natural. If you see lacking of concern and care for others, mostly selfless concern, then you know there is mercy and love in that person.
In our time what is most lacking in many human society across the world is the lost value of mercy, for one's self, for others, for the entire humanity. That is the root cause of unhappiness inside individuals as well as sufferings, conflict, war and killing across the world.
In a well written article titled "Love in Islam: Valentine's Day" by Suhaib Webb the author reminds:
Islam enjoins the general concept of love between mankind as well. This is first and foremost done by promoting the love of God amongst our fellow man. This is manifested through our practice of the concept of “rahmah” which can be translated as love, mercy, compassion or forgiveness.
The Prophet (s) told his companions as narrated authentically in al-Targheeb (3/210):
“You don’t truly believe until you have rahmah for others.” His companions responded, “We all have rahmah.” The Prophet (s) then told them, “Verily, you don’t reach this level of faith by just having rahmah for those who are close to you, but you must have rahmah for everyone.”
In Islamic teachings it is said that in order know who has love for the Messenger, one must see whether they have love for the poor, the downtrodden, the neglected and marginal people. Same applies to Christ and any other True Human Beings. If someone claim to follow Christ, claim to follow Muhammad, a sure sign of that claim to be true is that the person who follow will have concern for the poor, the marginal, the downtrodden people. Its another kind of gold test that separate the sincere ones from the false pretenders.
May the Beloved bestow His tender Rahmah on us, help us manifest and practice it in every breath. By Allah, so be it. Ameen.
# References:The mystic Osho unveils an open secret of our existence. This is also the unveiled mystery of why every spiritual movement is centered around a single person. It has to be so because if you look closely you will see that towards that single person unconditional love and devotion came to manifest by those who met that person, came to know or simply sat in his or her presence. There is no exception to this. Whether religious history / religious scriptures record this or not, this has always been the case.
The love for the master becomes powerful devotion and then the master or the one who is loved with single pointed love, becomes a window or a portal to greater existence. Here existence can well be written with a capital "E", Existence: signifying the Real Existence, the Sole Existence of the One Who is without a second.
"By loving a person intensely and recognizing the Divinity you achieve a certain degree of Oneness... Existence is a manifestation of Divine Power."
~ Master Choa Kok Sui, Pranic Healing Master
2.
Fall in love to rise in love
There is a Sufi story and short but powerful story. This is narrated by Maulana Jami.
A seeker went to ask a sage for guidance on the Sufi way.
The sage counseled: "If you have never trodden the path of love, go away and fall in love; then come back and see us."
What it signifies that unless we experience what is love by falling into it then we will not become receptive to certain higher teachings. Some teachings will never enter into our heart unless we're matured through love. This is so because just as love is beyond language and something of the domain of the Heart, similarly a lot of spiritual understanding are of the domain of heart alone and cannot be even begin to discussed unless someone is a wayfarer of love. And when that "falling in love" experience is gained, then the Mystics, the Guides of the Heart start to teach how to "rise in love." The who alchemy of the Sufi Path is "the art of rising in love."
Rising to One Love, to love the One Heart, the Comic Heart of the One Beloved. There is an open invitation to the Religion of Love, Love not with a sentimental meaning but as gnostic knowledge (ma‘rifa), and proximity between the Ever Present Divine and man within whom reflections of the Divine is manifest most strongly.
 |
| credit |
3.
One Love, One Heart
One love, one heart
Let's get together and feel all right
Hear the children crying (One love)
Hear the children crying (One heart)
Sayin', "Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right."
Sayin', "Let's get together and feel all right."
Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One love)
There is one question I'd really love to ask (One heart)
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?
Believe me
One love, one heart
Let's get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning (One love)
So shall it be in the end (One heart)
Alright, "Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right."
"Let's get together and feel all right."
One more thing
Let's get together to fight this Holy Armageddon (One love)
So when the Man comes there will be no, no doom (One song)
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner
There ain't no hiding place from the Father of Creation
Sayin', "One love, one heart
Let's get together and feel all right."
I'm pleading to mankind (One love)
Oh, Lord (One heart) Whoa.
"Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right."
Let's get together and feel all right.
- "One Love," Bob Marley, from his album: Exodus
Lyrics Written By Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield
4.
What is greater, mercy or love?
According to Osho's quote, devotion is the highest form of love. Love is such an unfathomable ocean that its mostly pointless to say what is highest, what is lowest, what is its true nature or form etc. To some devotion might feel the highest form and in another person's language and culture it might be that something else may feel to be the highest form of love.
Few weeks back I met a Sufi Teacher who was visiting Bangladesh from United Kingdom. During the conversation he was mentioning that mercy is greater than love. I requested him to explain.
He said surely mercy is greater than love but very few people understand this. In fact due to misunderstanding and abusing the word "love" for western mindset it is almost impossible to accept this truth. Love by nature is discriminating. One person may love this person, that means the one whom he or she loves become exclusive to him or her and other person compared to the loved ones become lesser. Love by nature can not help but become single eyed. This is fine. Nothing to blame, the reality of love is willed by the creator to be such.
But mercy, which has other words for it, Buddhists will call it, "Loving Kindness", Muslims may call it "Rahmah", Christians may call it "grace" or mercy itself, a Hindu may call something else. But in essence, this is the quality which is most universal. So universal is Mercy that in Islamic Sacred Tradition God Himself calls this the Foremost Quality. It is said that upon the Mystical Throne of the Divine it is inscribed that, "My Mercy shall precede My Wrath." Also Mercy being the most universal quality of God, a human being becomes a true human being when mercy is found in abundance in him or her.Now to give an example for mercy, the teacher said, lets say you are driving a car and suddenly on the road you find that a bird is lying on the road, wounded. It is by mercy that swells within the heart which causes someone to rush to the bird to save its life, the deep concern that flows for it well-being flows because of mercy. It is not that you loved this bird before or at that moment, but it is a different experience that one feels. It is so spontaneous that no one even think about it at that moment.
In Islamic sacred tradition the Messenger of God is said to be sent as a "mercy to all beings" (wa ma arsalanaka illa rahmatallil 'aalameen). And as a sign of mercy, the Messenger is described as "one who is deeply concerned for the well being of others, for the suffering of others." (harisun 'alikum)
If you think logically and observe how people works, you will notice that if anyone doesnt show care and concern for others, no matter what lip service they give, no matter how much they use the phrase "I love you" or "I love my countrymen" etc. that matters very little. It is a sure sign of care, mercy and love for another person, beings or even process when someone shows genuine concern for that person, beings or things. This is very natural. If you see lacking of concern and care for others, mostly selfless concern, then you know there is mercy and love in that person.
In our time what is most lacking in many human society across the world is the lost value of mercy, for one's self, for others, for the entire humanity. That is the root cause of unhappiness inside individuals as well as sufferings, conflict, war and killing across the world.
In a well written article titled "Love in Islam: Valentine's Day" by Suhaib Webb the author reminds:
Islam enjoins the general concept of love between mankind as well. This is first and foremost done by promoting the love of God amongst our fellow man. This is manifested through our practice of the concept of “rahmah” which can be translated as love, mercy, compassion or forgiveness.
The Prophet (s) told his companions as narrated authentically in al-Targheeb (3/210):
“You don’t truly believe until you have rahmah for others.” His companions responded, “We all have rahmah.” The Prophet (s) then told them, “Verily, you don’t reach this level of faith by just having rahmah for those who are close to you, but you must have rahmah for everyone.”
In Islamic teachings it is said that in order know who has love for the Messenger, one must see whether they have love for the poor, the downtrodden, the neglected and marginal people. Same applies to Christ and any other True Human Beings. If someone claim to follow Christ, claim to follow Muhammad, a sure sign of that claim to be true is that the person who follow will have concern for the poor, the marginal, the downtrodden people. Its another kind of gold test that separate the sincere ones from the false pretenders.
May the Beloved bestow His tender Rahmah on us, help us manifest and practice it in every breath. By Allah, so be it. Ameen.
* On Love of Allah and the Prophet alayhi-s-salaam by Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee via Youtube
* On Rahmah (Mercy) via Youtube
* Evolution of Love
COMMENTS