God, Love And The Relationship Ding Dong… by Atul Singh

There is a certain intelligence that pervades the Universe, we all know. Some of it is coded through DNA, and some expresses itself through laws of physics. 

That a seed from an Oak tree will not shape up to grow tomatoes is a given. We undertand that the mechanism through which it’s entire future is encoded is in the DNA of each cell of the seed. But we do not know why it is there. Similarly, that the Earth rotates around the Sun and not around Jupiter sometimes and around Mars another time is clearly observed. Underlying the behavior and characterstics are laws and forces such as Gravity. However we do not know why Gravitational pull is what it is and why those laws are as they are. 

So this intelligence, which drives the Universe has been called by different names. Some call it God, some Nature and in the context of how it is expressed in living organisms, some call it life-force. A lack of life force causes the organism to die, and it’s constituent components are yielded back into the environment and start behaving like matter did, before the life-force was present. The cells decay and release back the constinuent elements such as Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen or the molecules such as CO2 back into nature. All this is clearly observed and there is no rocket science here. 

From time immemorial, people in advance stages of spiritual journey have pointed to a experiencing a one-ness amongst all beings in the Universe. We are told by Rishis and Monks that we are all cut out of the same fabric and the layer of ego that we carry, gives us an illusion of separateness from each other. Ego in this context refers to a combination of memories, thoughts and desires, that each one of us individually carries. We are told that in higher states of conciousness, through well traversed meditation paths, that veil drops off and this “oneness” with each one of us is experienced. In layman’s terms this was the experience that Sodhartha Gautam of Lumbini had and he came to be called Budha, the knowing one. Countless spiritual aspirants in the land of Bharat experienced the same and came to be known as Rishis also. 

I personally have not experienced this, however, in theory, just as all matter can be reduced to basic elements known as Quarks, which are all the same for anything and everything, in the final reduction, all conciousness being one and same is also quite plausible. May be some day I will get to experience it too. 

If we go by that understanding i.e that it is the same God/Intelligence/lifeforce that flows through us all, then why do all beings experience life so differently, is a fair question to ask. Why is it that one organism’s conciousness or awareness is more limited than another’s. Why is a bug more limited than a monkey in how it experiences life, when there is the same God inside both of them, or in other words they are cut from the same cloth. 

So the best reponse I got for this question was  that the limitation lies in capacity of our respective brains. A fish’s brain limits how much and in what fashion the “Supreme Conciousness” is able to express itself. The instrumentation that each organism carries becomes the prism through which the light of the “divine” gets through and casts itself in terms of our individual conciousness or awareness. The more evolved the brain, the more the infinite light can shine through and express itself. Human brain being the biggest and most evolved instrumantation allows for the biggest expression of Brahm or Divinity or Supreme Conciousness or God, whatever you choose to call it.

I like this explanation, hence will ask you to indulge me a bit here. It also does not break any religious paradigms, except for the very rudimentary and politically driven ones, such as heaven and hell.

So what’s love got to do with it? Where is the connection between Love and these metaphysical conjectures. There is a parallel I think. Let me elaborate. 

Similar to the ever present metaphysical questions, is a relationship question. Is Love  enough? It has been asked since time immemorial. Movies have been made about the two lovers finally getting together after facing all the challenges. The suggestion being that henceforth their love made it work. Movie directors are too smart to go beyond the suggestion and innuendo, and promptly write “The End” and let the audience assume that all went well. But did it really? 

All relationships start on the fair grounds of Love. However in far too many cases, neither the relationship nor love survives. In addition, in far too many cases at least one of the ex-partners continues to profess their love for the other. So what happens?

It seems that, just like the previous example, wherein the all powerful God, who hung the Stars, is limited in expressing himself only to the extent of the capabilities of our individual faculties, the all powerful Love, that can move mountains, needs the moist soil of basic kindness and considerate actions towards one another to germinate and become a fully grown tree. The extent to which the light of love gets to shine in a relationship, is based on simple factors such as common courtesies, considerations and active compassion between two individuals. These simple unselfish behaviors become the funnel through which love must pass through to hit the grounds of relationship. Else, no matter how much of it exists in our hearts, however much the intent is, the grounds of a relationship remain dry and bereft of the waters that cause any warmth and comfort to grow. We have seen plenty of times that even abusive spouses proclaim their love for their partner, but there is no future in that relationship.

Love therefore is an action word as they say. It is a verb and not a noun. At the very least it does not survive as a noun for too long in our hearts. It must translate itself to behaviors that show we care. Else it does not care to stick around either.