Love and saṁskāras

Love is the same or 
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.

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.