A scholar of the Jewish law approached Jesus and asked him, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” Luke 10:25-28
It would be short-sighted to interpret the scholar’s question as being about life after death. He was asking about the quality of life. The man was a pious Jew, and for a pious Jew a good life was defined by the presence and blessings of God. In yogic terms, we might say that he was searching for “God Realization,” the loving and blissful consciousness of God permeating every aspect of his awareness.
A very practical man, Jesus knew how life worked and answered the scholar in a prioritized order. A truly good life begins with and is grounded in our love for God. I underscore this fact because our culture tends to reduce the entirety of Jesus’ message to loving others. No! Our capacity to love others is grounded in our love for God because God is love. Through prayer, meditation, and a devout life, we experience blissful intimacy with God, and this intimacy deepens into the marriage of our souls to God wherein we become perfectly united to God in love. In such a divine marriage, where we end and God begins becomes a very blurred line. Teresa of Avila referred to this mystical state as the prayer of union.
To the degree that we experience union with God, a fountain of loving energy flows into us and from us. This loving energy opens our hearts, enabling us to embrace our fellow humans as brothers and sisters who are extensions of ourselves. The energy of love is a healing balm that reconciles, blesses, and unites people. By contrast, when the spirit of division, rancor, and hatred reigns, there is obviously an absence of love and an absence of God. We can recognize the energy of love because it always serves the highest good of others. But do not confuse love with niceness! We must avoid the tendency to domesticate love. The energy of love will manifest in whatever way it is needed to evolve a person or a situation. Depending on the circumstances, love will show up as either sweetness or fierceness. What the world needs now is not more ideology, tribalism, or toxic self-righteousness, but the unifying energy of love. The good news is that there is an endless supply of loving energy available to us. The more love we give away, more love is given to us. Yogananda teaches us, “If you meditate deeply, a love will come over you such as no human tongue can describe; you will know His divine love, and you will be able to give that pure love to others. If you could feel even a particle of divine love, so great would be your joy – so overpowering – you could not contain it.”
Divine God,
May I love you
With all my being,
All my strength,
And all my mind.
And may I love
My neighbor as myself.
