Love

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a yoga retreat with the Toronto Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre. While I was there, I had the privilege of meeting some wonderful people and speaking to some very inspirational teachers.

On Saturday afternoon at brunch, I asked one of the teachers what the topic of her afternoon philosophy lecture would be. “Well,” she said, “I’m not sure. You see, I had planned to talk about one of two very important texts in Indian philosophy. One is about the right way to live, and one is about love. But I can’t decide which one to talk about today. What do you think?”

For me, the answer was obvious.

“Love.” I said, “I think you should talk about love.”

She smiled.

I soon realized that the two texts the teacher was referring to were the Bhagavad Gītā and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Many of us may know the Gītā as that part of the Mahābhārata in which Arjuna, a warrior conflicted over his participation in battle, enters into a dialogue with Krishna, who advises him on following his dharma, his duty or path in life. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is a devotional text, the verses of which are dedicated to Krishna as an incarnation of Vishnu. The emphasis of the text, in all its complexity, is on bhakti yoga: a spiritual practice of love and devotion which connects and deepens each person’s relationship with a personal deity. All that is necessary for the practice of bhakti is an open and loving heart.

In the afternoon, once we were gathered outside on the deck in the sunshine, surrounded by the forest, the teacher told us a story. It was about a man who, looking for the thing that was missing for him, that one thing that would fill him up, climbed to the top of a mountain. When he arrived there, breathless and overwhelmed by the view, it came to him that everything he needed, he already had.

In these moments when we are very present, when our hearts crack open and there is space enough to breathe, we become aware of love. There is no need to look for it. We understand that it is who and what we are.

The central concept of bhakti yoga is that the love we share with the divine connects with the love in us, and that love reproduces in an endless cycle to release an experience of love beyond our wildest imaginings. But we do not necessarily need to participate in the mantra, ceremonies and rituals of bhakti yoga to move through our lives in service of love. Yoga is a moment to moment practice, and choosing, in any moment, to act from a place of love, is enough.

This choice, this real choice, is not only grounded in the understanding that we are love, but that we are loveable. Only when we can love ourselves enough to know this can we truly love others. Grounded in this certainty, we can choose to move in ways that come from love rather than fear. Acting from a place of fear, fear of loss, lovelessness, insecurity or abandonment can only reproduce more of the same. It is up to us to root out and shed the layers of our fears lest they get in the way of love.

Some of us learn love early. If we are lucky, it seeps into our skin when we are small. It may be a substantial experience that surfaces in warm hugs, nurturing meals, zipped up jackets and late night rides home from parties. It may show up as a cool facecloth on a forehead, a bowl of soup, a cup of tea or a saved seat. Love may arrive as kind words or a forgiving smile. It may show up in the gift of silence.

Some of us may learn love later. It may surface without us noticing it. We may move through space sighing in its absence without realizing it is right inside of, next to or around us.

Love may show up differently for each of us, but once we know it, it cannot be unknown.

Though my experience of Indian philosophy is limited, I am quickly learning that no two texts are entirely disparate from each other. They weave together like strands of DNA or streams of energy along the spine. So, whether we are studying the Bhagavad Gītā to learn about the right way to live or examining the Bhāgavata Purāṇa to learn about devotion, we are always starting from the certainty of love.

There is a calm centredness that comes with moving, acting or speaking from a place of love. Awareness and consideration of where within us the root of our action lies is not an anxious undertaking but instead a curiosity followed by quiet understanding. When we shift our gaze from our minds to our hearts, we are able to decide our next action with clarity and freedom.

Then the love that arises from the breathless beating of our hearts ripples outward into the world.

Thank you for being here.

Apologies for any errors or omissions.

Recommended Books

Easwaran, Eknath. The Bhagavad Gītā. Nilgiri Press, 2007.

Holden, Robert. Loveability: Knowing How to Love and Be Loved. Hay House, 2014.

Tagare, G.V. Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 1950, https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-bhagavata-purana