Without Love?

Rumi says, ''A Lover only Loves. He has no choice". 

I am in awe of Love. Each day, it teaches me a new lesson. It reaffirms to me that it is on a journey of its own. I have no choice but to Love, no choice but to live in surrender. Surrender is a choice that requires immense love and strength, and it is not a sign of weakness. 

The only Love that is permanent in my Life, is the Love for God. Through that Love, all other love flows and I am only a channel. It is so simple, that all life, irrespective of form, seeks and lives through Love. We know it, but we don't understand it. Or maybe, we understand it, but we don't know it. Which one is true, I don't know. 

I don't know if we truly realise, that sadness, sorrows, trouble and tears bring with it the joy of patience, surrender, faith and peace? 

Each one of us is on a journey, no one's journey less important or more meaningful than the other. Thinking, that your journey has a higher place is not the voice of God within you that is speaking, but your Ego which wants you to believe that you, somehow, have a superior purpose. All purpose is simply that - Purpose. Effort shall be recognised and purpose achieved. That is the wonderful law of this Universe. 

In this journey toward my purpose, of which I still lose sight sometimes, I know that without Love I cannot cope. Without God, I cannot cope. And for your constant Light and Presence, I am eternally grateful. You break me apart God, so I can see the Light you have planted in my heart, for that I am thankful to you. 

A few more verses, 

 ‎"You try to be faithful
And sometimes you're cruel.
You are mine. Then, you leave.
Without you, I can't cope. And when you take the lead,
I become your footstep.
Your absence leaves a void.
Without you, I can't cope.

You have disturbed my sleep,
You have wrecked my image.
You have set me apart.
Without you, I can't cope." 

~Rumi~

• © Sneha Singh 2010

The Unseen

''This which I am faced with, how will it go away? How will it all detangle? Where will the strength that I need to face this come from? What do I do?''

Questions like these come up in our lives at every moment, where we're tested and we find ourselves spiraling into the circle of fear and doubt. It is, in times like these, that we need to centre ourselves and find that which is true within us, that which WE ARE. In the words of Eckhart Tolle, things we have can be taken away from us, but that which we ARE will always stay with us as our real strength, as our true virtue. The depths of an ocean are always calm, always serene, no matter what happens on its surface. The surface is lashed with lightning, storms, winds and rain, but in its depth, the ocean knows what it is. It takes what Nature gives it, and underneath it all, it remains calm. It knows, like all other storms, this too shall pass. 

It is the unseen, the unfathomed, the unknown that we all fear. In our careers, relationships, family - we don't know what is going it happen. In life, we don't know what is going to happen! And so we spend today in fear, creating a fearful, troublesome tomorrow. Have you tried just being thankful for the fact that you are alive and reading this right now? That you have access to a computer or a mobile device, which millions in the world don't? If you are still here, you're mission on this Earth isn't over yet. That, you must be sure of. But instead, we complain about what we think we want, what we think we need to make us happy. Your heart's real desire is created in God's image, and there is no other way but for it to come true. Think back at all the things you really knew you wanted, and those you 'think' you wanted. You'll see how it all came together, just right. Because there is something that we don't understand that works in our lives. Thank God for that!

The problem is we try to understand God. We try to analyse what will happen, how it will happen. God is too expansive, too amazing and too overwhelming an energy to be understood. I can't understand Math, how am I supposed to even attempt understanding God? But I have felt His Love, and that is REAL. How can I argue with that which is SO real? God's love is visible, just not tangible because it is a burst of energy traveling through all Creation. So don't get caught up in that which you cannot see, comprehend or understand. It might be dark, and so you might not be able to see the way, but when God's morning lights up the sky, the way will be crystal clear. 

Patience and faith, my love. :)

• © Sneha Singh 2010

Selfish Love/ Selfless Love

''Nit khair manga soneya main teri, dua na koi hor mangdi'' 

(I always ask for your wellness, there is no other prayer in my heart) ~ Sufi Song sung by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Sufi songs overflow with Love, where singers and poets talk of their piya (Beloved) and their unending quest to be reunited with their Supreme Lover, which is their Spiritual Master or God. These poets never aimed to be famous, but simply sang the song of their heart, and here we are centuries later, still humming these words. Such is the power of the Heart and the ocean of Love within it.

It is a well established fact now, that we all, every one of us, is looking for Love. It does however make me wonder, how many of us are looking to get Love and how many looking to give Love. THAT is the question. We look for Love so we can get Love, appreciation, praise, care. We give so we can get. Seldom do we give for the joy of giving. Thus, we fail to see that the 'Love' we think we fall in, is a selfish Love, which in truth cannot exist since Love by virtue is selfless. When we realise that the joy of Love is within it's giving, within it's flow and the purpose of Love within it's fulfillment, we will connect with True Love. A Godly Love, wherein the presence of Love itself is so overwhelming and powerful that you only pray for the wellness of your Beloved. Such a Love draws more Love unto itself, and we realise that, that which we crave for in a 'selfish' Love, we graciously receive in a 'selfless' Love, as a 'by-product' of giving. This evokes awe, wonder and deep gratitude for Love, the Lover and the Beloved for no longer now do they exist as three entities, but only One. 

Rumi beautifully says that the purpose of Love is total annihilation, complete destruction of self. It burns this house you call your own, to show you the wonder that exists beyond these physical and tangible forms. Love does not cage you into self, but frees you into abundance and selfless joy. Till you reach that madness, he says, call not your needy emotions Love. :)

When you truly breathe the essence of Love, you are so awakened that everything flows out of your being just as effortlessly as it flows into it. In the current of this flow, the selfish 'me' is destroyed and gone, from the ashes of which a New Love is Born.

• © Sneha Singh 2010

Welcome

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival. 

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

As an unexpected visitor. 

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight. 

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. 

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond. 

From Essential Rumi, by Coleman Barks

I've read this verse by Rumi over and over again in the past few days, and it made me aware of how I welcome joy, smiles and happiness but become laden with sorrow the moment things appear to start entering an unfavourable situation. The mind automatically starts judging and analysing, creating and spinning stories and outcomes which are often just as fleeting as the thoughts that give birth to them. 

I read once, that if we truly try to befriend everything and everyone that comes along, joy will never leave us. If we can understand what an important role sadness, solitude and disappointment play in our lives, we would never resist them or oppose them, but instead welcome their lessons with the same love as we welcome happy moments and contentment. For the minute we understand that they're all just different forms of a Teacher that has come to impart divine knowledge to us, all our resistance to it will disappear.

Just as the Rumi verse says, we have to learn to let pain in just as warmly as we open our doors for happiness. In 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle, the writer explains that when you truly befriend that which gives you pain, you overcome it. It no longer hurts or serves you. You transcend it. Welcome and love pain as a guide of what it has been sent to make you aware of within yourself - that is the real challenge, not overcoming the pain itself or resisting its transformation into resentment or anger. For every wound that hurts can only be healed by showing it some Love. :)

• © Sneha Singh 2010

All there is.

One day, this world will fall apart
As beings all over will break open 
Lashed with sorrow and hatred,  
Tired of circumstance and battle.  
And that day, through visible cracks 
In bodies and buildings, 
Light will unveil itself. 
That day, you and I,  
We all will know, that, 
Love is all there is.  


We can spend our days, running away, and running toward what the world tricks us into believing will make us happy. Or we can take a moment of silence and listen to our hearts and let its divine wisdom lead the way.  

We can argue and blame, create stories and defenses or we can take a moment of silence and open ourselves to accepting reality for what it is, and dissolve all internal resistance to it.  

We all know our need of Love but often look at ourselves as a separate from another human being, with a 'special' set of needs. But the moment we see that it is the very existence of this 'need' of Love that joins us as beings. That, Love in its essence is so beautiful that it does not need language, and is recognised by all beings, everywhere!  

A deep realisation of that, and you'll never snap out of awe and wonder for the God who created us in Love.

© Sneha Singh 2010

Letting Love direct your course

And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. - Khalil Gibran, The Prophet.

So really, how often do we let Love take it's course? And how often to we warp it, knead it, bend it according what gives us pleasure? Isn't the whole idea of Love not giving us peace and joy at all times a little absurd? Isn't that the very nature of Love - to fill us with joy at every waking moment, for the joy of true Love is never ending, unfathomable, uncontrollable and incomprehensible? And yet, we wrap Love into layers of longing, jealously, sorrow and tears. But to understand that they too are a part of Love, which is there to direct your course and guide you into patience - that is the mission of Love. It teaches one surrender, not unto another human being, but unto Love itself, unto God Himself. Love as an energy has been designed with such beauty that it gives us the chance to awaken to its reality every moment. Every moment, we can flow into the beauty of Love or we can intellectually analyse what we're gaining by being in Love. The very Nature of Love is to shine - just like the stars and the sun. It is the seed, the root and needs no anchor to sustain. So if we let Love flow, trusting its intelligence, how can it be wrong? In the midst of disappointment, we automatically get overcome by insecurity rather than learning to trust that there is a reason why the given moment is of such a nature - may it be good or bad. The choice to welcome and allow love to be dominant at all times is difficult, especially when we live in a world surrounded by conflicting emotions and constant drama. If only we remember, each moment to keep going back to the constant Seed within us, the root of us, the very energy that created us - Love.

• © Sneha Singh 2010

Born Again

You feel angry, and then you tire. 

You feel hateful, and then you tire. 

You feel let down, and then you tire.

You feel resentment, and then you tire.

You feel helpless, and then you tire.

You feel alone, and then you tire.

You feel tired, and then you tire.

And, then, at the end, from that tiredness

A peace is born.

When you know, you are enveloped by something bigger than the trivial ongoings within your small head.

When, what you thought gave you joy, only stroked your pleasure nerves, a source so temporary, an illusion unveiled.

And from that, a Love sprouts open from its shell of insecurities, judgement and justifications.

A Love that peels away your layers of fear. 

One layer at a time.

And there you shine, 

A new plant, 

Born out of Love.

• © Sneha Singh 2010