Love is the same or
its flow is the same
always and everywhere.
its flow is the same
always and everywhere.
That which love flows through,
its medium or channel or container,
changes its expression.
Subtlest medium - closest to absolute, divine love
Grossest medium - closest to relative, separative, divisive physical love
Think of 5 levels or kośās or sheaths of subtlety:
- ānanda-maya
- vijñāna-maya
- mano-maya
- prāṇa-maya
- anna-maya
Now think of love manifesting at
grosser and grosser levels
as one goes "down" each of the 5 levels.
Another set of 3 levels or śarīrās or bodies
of subtlety, using a different set of factors or attributes:
- kāraṇa or causal
- sūkṣma or subtle
- sthūla or gross
Now, think of love manifesting at
increasingly grosser levels, from causal to gross.
In the SMS, love flows
through infinity at the subtlest centre
(OR love is infinity),
through increasingly gross mediums
from the subtlest material inner level - non-physical -
to grossest material inner level - physical brain and heart,
through physical body,
through the physical outside.
Now imagine love flowing
through the physical outside
to another physical body.
What if this love doesn't stop at the body,
but also goes to the mind?
In other words,
what if one loves another
not just physically or energetically, but also
mentally or emotionally and intellectually?
And through the subtlest of material sheaths -
the ānanda-maya kośa?
There is yet another level,
but that is
beyond material expression,
the ātma or jīva.
Daaji talks about
consciousness and modes of consciousness
as another set of subtle bodies -
cit, ahaṁkār, buddhi, manas
(in that order,
differing from the well-known
manas-buddhi-cit-ahaṁkār, and
also from the sāṁkhya-yoga sequence
puruṣa/consciousness, mahat/buddhi, ahaṁkāra, manas).
Imagine love flowing through these different subtle bodies.
At the level of cit or consciousness,
the flow of love is
absolute, inexhaustible, unchanging
as observed or experienced from a grosser level.
Flow at the
buddhi or intellectual/discriminative, and
manas or emotional/thinking
subtle bodies
have been mentioned above and again, below.
Love flowing through ahaṁkāra creates
possessiveness, care, responsibility, guidance, etc. -
anything and everything associated with
I, me, my/mine.
Love as obsessive possessiveness
manifests as
control and subjugation,
OR
distorts responsibility and support,
changes freedom to slavery.
Surprisingly, perhaps,
"I" love may manifest
not as loving a clone of oneself, but
an opposite of oneself.
Thus, masculine and feminine,
not masculine and masculine, or
feminine and feminine.
This is not consistent across
all kośās, all sheaths, though.
It is obvious
in the physical sheath -
the grossest opposite pairing is
a plug and a socket,
to be euphemistic.
It is somewhat obvious
in the energetic sheath -
manifesting in opposite -
subtler and grosser -
directions
(perhaps a controversial assessment).
The mental and intellectual sheaths are
more random and unclear -
moods and thoughts of another matching yours
may make them your friend, if not a lover.
Or not matching, or opposing.
Matching intellectual processing, judging
also may lead to friendship,
especially in niche areas.
And at the ānanda-maya kośa,
especially if it is also the kāraṇa śarīra
(that which causes future events,
in order to unwind saṁskāras)?
love simply brings together
those who must undergo bhogam together.
those who must undergo bhogam together.
Exact opposites are as possible as exact clones,
as well as any and all variant pairings
between those two extremes.
Someone inflicting
physical pain and mental suffering on you
can clear
your individual relationship saṁskāras
as well as theirs and
also other related individual ones.
Similarly, someone giving you pleasure and joy.
And this may not be restricted to just two, a couple.
After all, one's interactions with others are
many hundreds, perhaps thousands -
without closure,
with emotional residues,
with emotional stickiness -
in one life.
Total unwinding or cleansing
of one's individual and shared samskaras
may well need
a similar hundreds or thousands
of interactions.
Yet, the further inward,
the subtler the level or body
one's attention goes to,
the easier it is
to love,
to let love flow,
to stay present
instead of dwelling on, acting from,
the past, i.e., from saṁskāras.
Or acting
from fear or caution
regarding one's future,
from one's vāsanās.
Then?
Surrender
all my saṁskāras,
all my vāsanās,
everything that makes up
the I, the me, the my and
simply be,
simply become,
simply let love flow
as it will.
And like the madman
who exploded
with joy and gratitude
on hearing of the mere possibility
of liberation
even after hundreds of lives,
your total surrender means
total relinquishing,
total laya.
Instantly.
A little solid static drop of love
melting and disappearing
into the ever-flowing ocean of love.
Then?
You remanifest,
completely new,
completely changed internally,
but looking perhaps the same
externally, physically...
Before satori, carry water, chop wood.
After satori, carry water, chop wood.
Freed of old saṁskāras and vāsanās,
without creating fresh saṁskāras or vāsanās.
