The Evolution of Consciousness
DAAJI explores a different facet of the evolution of consciousness: the importance of love, the heart and the need for connection and communion along the way.
What do most people want more than anything else in the world? If you examine the research about this question, you will find a number of answers, including happiness, peace, trust, appreciation, freedom, money, etc., but the most fundamental of all is love. Love is the center of life. Most poetry is created in the name of love, most music, art and film. “God is love,” “Love conquers all,” and so on. All great mystical teachers have extolled the importance of love. All the great saints have loved God and loved humanity. The Buddha did not speak about love, but one of his most famous statements is that he would keep coming back again and again until every human being is liberated. Is this not love?
In this series we have focused on the evolution of consciousness and the other subtle bodies, as a result of doing a spiritual practice. So how does love enter into this domain of the science of spirituality?
It is vital to understand, because in fact it is only love that can propel us to the end of this journey of expansion of consciousness, with all its ups and downs. Of course it is possible to go part of the way without love, just by wanting to grow individually, and even for that you need enough interest to commit to the process. But to reach that state of stillness, the center of our being, love is essential. Love makes the path smooth. Let’s take a worldly analogy. Marriage. What happens in a marriage where there is no feeling, no love for the other? Is it easy to accept the foibles and funny habits of another person at close quarters if there is no love? In contrast, what happens when we love? Even the faults of the other person seem so adorable. We accept so much more when love is there. It softens the way forward. Love overcomes obstacles with ease.
In a marriage or partnership, love brings connection and eventually communion and oneness. We are genuinely interested in the wellbeing of the other person. We put them first, we care about how they are feeling, what happens to them, and support them in all ways. We feel their feelings and know their thoughts. We finish each other’s sentences and respond to each other’s needs instantaneously.
You have probably seen elderly couples who have been together a lifetime, who are so merged together that they understand each other completely without saying a word.
With motherhood, the state of connection and communion moves to an even more profound level; the feeling of giving defines a mother’s relationship with her children. Giving is the quintessence of motherhood. Mothers do not sacrifice anything for their children – whether it be giving birth, staying up all night with a sick child or loving a rebellious, disobedient teenager. It is natural for a mother to love.
Loving is connection. Love creates empathy, compassion, and the awareness to ‘feel’ the other person’s needs at the deepest level. At such moments, everything we have flows from our heart into the heart of the other, naturally, without our needing to do anything. ...
Read the complete article in the Collectors' Edition 2017
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Article by KAMLESH D. PATEL
Daaji
Kamlesh Patel is known to many as Daaji. He is the Heartfulness Guide in a tradition of Yoga meditation that is over 100 years old, overseeing 14,000 certified Heartfulness trainers and many volunteers in over 160 countries. He is an inn... Read More
