The constancy of God’s love
We live in an ever-changing world. Whenever we think we have found stability in any area of our life, we ultimately find there are changes we must endure. If we look at any aspect of life in this physical world, we find nothing seems stable.
Physically, we go from being an infant to a toddler, from a toddler to a child, from a child to an adult and from an adult to a senior. Look at your photo albums and see how many changes we undergo as human beings. Even from one day to the next, we find our bodies changing. Cells grow and die. New cells replace those we lose. Our hair and nails are always growing, no matter how often we trim them. Every time we eat, our body goes through changes as we absorb nutrients and expel waste. Nothing in our physical body is permanent.
If we look at the sky, we find it is always changing in appearance due to various weather patterns, from the wind to moisture levels to the shapes of passing clouds.
Around the globe, in any one location, weather can go from hot to cold, dry to wet, from the intense heat that causes fires to break out to intense rains that cause flooding. People experience hurricanes, tornadoes, snowstorms, blizzards, tsunamis, floods, heat waves and numerous other challenges. The weather never stays the same for long.
At a personal level, we find continual fluctuations in our financial situation. We may go from having a comfortable income to losing a job or the stock market dropping.
We may experience the addition of family members to support or face increased expenses, such as having a baby, buying a home, paying college tuition for our children, healthcare bills, transportation costs, or other necessary items for survival.
Even our relationships undergo change. Our childhood friends may have moved away. After graduation, we may grow apart from college friends. If we raise a family, our neighbours may be a big part of our life until they move away. People experience relationship problems that cause them to separate from those who were once close to them. Over time, no matter how near and dear we are to someone, we all have to leave the world.
At some point, we awaken to the reality that there are always ups and downs in life. We go through times of great happiness and extreme sorrow. We experience good times and hard times throughout life.
The question we may ask is: Is there any constancy in this physical world? The answer is the love of God. The world of God’s love is not subject to change. It is a realm without dawn or dusk, where opposites do not exist. There is neither night nor day, no ups and downs, no winter or summer. There are no polar opposites; all is one state. What is that state? It is the state of God and God’s love. Saints have described God as love, with the two being synonymous. God is a power that exists in a constant state of love.
How can God be constant? God is eternal. God is an ocean of divine love. God is all bliss. The words ‘Sat-Chit-Anand’ (Truth-Consciousness-Bliss) are used to describe God. It means, ‘God is truth, God is consciousness and God is bliss.’
God is an ocean of eternal love. If we were to enter the land of love, we would be entering oneness with God. In that state of love, we become so blissful and oblivious that we do not notice whether it is day or night. While our bodies may go through the ups and downs of life, we as souls are lost in the love of God. The world turns and goes through changes but we remain fixed in a state of godly love.
When our soul, which is a drop of God, merges into God, we are immersed in Divine Light, intoxicating bliss and eternal peace. This state has no end. We become one with God and return to the place from which we emanated. It is a place of constancy, unaffected by any changes to the physical world.
The question is: how do we reach that state? Saints teach us a method by which we can reach the land of love: a meditation on the Inner light. The highest purpose of meditation is to lead us to an experience of God and the constancy of God’s love.
The meditation technique is simple to learn and anyone can perform it. It is taught as a science that we can incorporate into our own life. We can practice it anywhere—in our home or any other place. The Spiritual Masters show us the technique and help us connect to the Divine Light already within us. By doing so, we can find the true constancy within ourselves.