Workings of Divine Love and Its Human Distortion (HH 256 )

Of all the divine powers there is none that is as magical as Love. With the Divine Love is the power of transformation. Yet it gets easily distorted in the world and humanity due to the general action of falsehood. In this talk we share how the Divine Love works and how it is received by the human consciousness.

Words of The Mother

The story began with an entirely concrete and material incident very amusing; this is not the first time it has happened, but it was so concrete and so precise that it became interesting. Someone was complaining of being ill, quite a serious, psychological illness: periodic possession by a spirit of falsehood, recurring regularly every month, of more or less long duration. This person comes to see me, and the moment she’s here there’s an upwelling of that profound Compassion of Love, with a considerable, concentrated Power to drive away the possession; and all of this accompanied, even outwardly, by quite an affectionate gesture. This person leaves and within half an hour I receive a letter: ‘Now I know: you hate me, you want me to be ill and you want me to die because I disgust you.’

It was interesting because it was so concrete. I was conscious of my movement of compassion and love and of what it had become in the other person’s consciousness!

It’s very easy to explain: she was already more than half possessed, and of course this spirit of falsehood hardly felt comfortable! And the identification (not only mental but sensory, vital) was so complete that she felt this love as a movement of hatred. When I saw the two phenomena, I also saw that this is exactly what happens in the world! It’s exactly what everyone is.

I must add that the experience came after I had been concentrating for three days (concentrating almost constantly) on finding an explanation for this: why has it become this way? It is impossible to find the ‘why’ because it’s the reason asking and this goes beyond reason – but what is the mechanism? Finding the mechanism would already be something – to have the experience of the mechanism. And then came this concrete superposition of the vibration of Love and the reception of hate. ‘But this is exactly what happens!’ I said. ‘The Lord is All-Love, All-Truth, All-Bliss, All-Delight – He is constantly like that – and the world, especially the human world, constantly receives him in the other way.’ And the two things are superposed (Mother covers her left hand with her right).

* * *

Sri Aurobindo had the feeling or the sensation that what was farthest from the Lord (I always base myself now on that experience, which is very concrete in its sensation, of the “nearness” or “farness” – it isn’t a farness in feelings, not that, it’s like a material fact; yet it isn’t located in space), well, Sri Aurobindo, for his part, felt that the farthest was cruelty. That’s what he felt farthest from; that vibration seemed to him the farthest from that of the Lord.

And yet, it sounds bizarre but in cruelty one can still feel, distorted, the vibration of Love; far behind or deep within that vibration of cruelty, there is still, distorted, the vibration of Love. And Falsehood – the real Falsehood that doesn’t arise from fear or anything of the sort, that has no reason behind it – real Falsehood, the negation of Truth (the willed negation of Truth), is, to me, something completely black and inert. That’s the feeling it gives me. It is black, blacker than the blackest coal, and inert – inert, without any response.

When I read that description in Savitri, I felt a sorrow which I thought I had been unable to feel for a long time – a long time. I thought I was (how shall I put it?) cured of that possibility. And last time, when I saw that, I saw it was still there; and while I was looking, I saw this same sorrow in the Lord, in His face, His expression.

The deliberate negation of all that is divine – of all that we call divine….

* * *

I will tell you the second experience first, because it’s a phenomenon of daily experience, a daily observation. And it’s one of the chief reasons why it’s impossible for ordinary human beings to understand a being who acts from what we could call “divine impulse.” Because all human activity is based on reactions, which are themselves the result of feelings and sensations, and, for people who are considered “superior” and who act according to reason, is based on principles of action – everyone has his range of principles on which he bases his action (this is so well known that there’s not much point in talking about it). But the other fact is interesting: for instance, when a human being loves someone (what he calls “love”) or doesn’t love someone, his reactions to the same phenomenon – the same phenomenon – are, not always opposite, but extremely different, to such an extent that ordinary human judgment is based on those reactions. It would be better to take a very precise example: that of disciples and Master. The disciples almost never understand the Master, but they have opinions of him and of his ways of acting; they see and they say, “The Master did such and such a thing, he acts with this person in such and such a way and with that other person in such and such other way, therefore he loves this person and doesn’t love that one.” I am putting it very bluntly, but that’s the way it is.

All this is based on experiences of every minute, here.

All human action is based on that – for them, that’s the way it is; they won’t act with this person in the same way as with that one, even in similar circumstances, because, as they say, they “love” this one, but not that one. Therefore, in one case, the Master loves, and in another case, he doesn’t – (laughing) simple!

So I said that human action is based on reactions. Divine action, on the other hand, spontaneously stems from the vision through identity of the necessity of the “dharma” of each thing and each being. It is a constant perception, spontaneous, effortless, through identity, of the dharma of each being (I use the word “dharma” because it’s neither “law” nor “truth,” but both together). In order for this being to go by the shortest way to his goal, here is the curve of the most favorable circumstances; consequently the action will always be modeled on that curve. The result is that in seemingly similar circumstances, the action of the divine Wisdom will sometimes be completely different, at times even opposite. But then, how do you explain this to the ordinary consciousness?… In one case, the Master “loves” this person, while in the other he doesn’t “love” him – it’s easy!

It was so clear! And such a constant, constantly repeated experience that it’s really very interesting. It’s very clear that it’s impossible for the disciples to understand; even if they are told, “What is done is done because of each being’s dharma,” for them it’s just words; it doesn’t correspond to a living experience, they can’t feel it.

So once and for all, I’ve given up all hope of anyone at all understanding why and how I act. Because it’s true, now I can say (it has come about progressively), I can say in an absolute way, after looking at it for several months, that my actions are not the result of a reaction – neither an intellectual reaction nor a mental reaction, nor a vital reaction, nor, of course, an emotional reaction, nor even a physical reaction. Now, even the body instantly refers all that comes to it to the Supreme, automatically.

This experience came regarding a simply personal question, to make me understand how things happen and how useless it is to hope that people will ever understand; it was on the occasion of a host of silly little events that occur constantly and make people repeat, “Mother said, Mother felt, Mother did, Mother …” and so on – and all the squabbles. And I was put forcibly into that whole muddle. For a time, I used to worry, I wondered, “Can’t I make them understand?” Well, I have seen that it’s impossible, so I don’t bother about it anymore. I simply said to those who have goodwill, “Don’t listen to what people tell you; when they come and tell you, ‘Mother said, Mother wanted …,’ don’t believe a word of it, that’s all; let them say what they like, it doesn’t matter.”

But the other experience, which came first and is now continuous (it hasn’t left me, which is quite rare: usually, experiences come, assert themselves, impose themselves, then they fade away to be replaced by others; but in this case, it didn’t go, it’s continuous), this other experience is of a more general order….

Human love, what people call “love,” even at its best, even taking it in its purest essence, is something that goes to one person, but not to another: you love some people (sometimes even you love only certain qualities in some people); you love some people, and that means it’s partial and limited. And even for those who are incapable of hatred there is a number of people and things that they are indifferent to: there is no love (in most cases). That love is limited, partial and defined. It’s unstable, moreover: man (I mean the human being) is unable to feel love in a continuous way, always with the same intensity – at certain times, for a moment, it becomes very intense and powerful, and at other times it grows dim; sometimes, it falls completely asleep. And that’s under the best conditions – I am not speaking of all the degradations, I am speaking of the feeling people call “love,” which is the feeling closest to true love; that’s how it is: partial, limited, unstable and fluctuating.

Then, immediately, without transition, it was as if I was plunged in a bath of the Supreme’s Love … with the sensation of something limitless; in other words, when you have the perception of space, that something is everywhere (it’s beyond the perception of space, but if you have the perception of space, it’s everywhere). And it’s a kind of homogenous vibratory mass, immobile, yet with an unparalleled intensity of vibration, which can be described as a warm, golden light (but it’s not that, it’s much more marvelous than that!). And then, it’s everywhere at once, everywhere always the same, without alternations of high and low, unchanging, in an unvarying intensity of sensation. And that “something” which is characteristic of divine nature (and is hard to express with words) is at the same time absolute immobility and absolute intensity of vibration. And That … loves. There is no “Lord,” there are no “things”; there is no subject, no object. And That loves. But how can you say what That is?… It’s impossible. And That loves everywhere and everything, all the time, all at the same time.

All those stories those so-called saints and sages told about God’s Love “coming and going,” oh, it’s unspeakably stupid! – It’s THERE, eternally; It has always been there, eternally; It will always be there, eternally, always the same and at the highest of its possibility.

It hasn’t left, and now it won’t be able to leave.

And once you’ve lived That … you become so irrevocably conscious that everything depends on the individual perception, entirely; and naturally, that individual perception [of divine Love] depends on the inadequacy, the inertia, the incomprehension, the incapacity, the cells’ inability to hold and keep the Vibration, anyway all that man calls his “character” and which comes from his animal evolution.

(silence)

It is said that divine Love doesn’t manifest because, in the world’s present state of imperfection, the result would be a catastrophe – that’s a human vision. Divine Love manifests, has manifested eternally, will manifest eternally, and it’s the incapacity of the material world … not only of the material world, but of the vital world and the mental world, and of many other worlds that aren’t ready, that are incapable – but HE is there, He is there, right there! He is there permanently: it’s THE Permanence. The Permanence Buddha sought is there. He claims he found it in Nirvana – it is there, in Love.

(silence)

Since that experience came, there has no longer even been in the consciousness that sort of care I took for years not to concentrate too much Force or Power, or Light or Love, on beings and things for fear of upsetting their natural growth – that seems so childish! It’s there, it’s there, it’s there – it is there. And it’s for things themselves that it’s impossible to feel more of it than they can bear.…

(silence)

We should use another word; what men call “love” is so many different things, with such different mixtures and such different vibrations that it can’t be called “love,” it can’t be given a single name. So it’s better simply to say, “No, this isn’t Love,” that’s all. And keep the word for the True Thing…. The word amour [love] in French has a certain evocative power because, whenever I pronounce it, it makes contact; that’s why I’d rather keep it. As for all the rest: no, don’t talk of love, it isn’t love.

I said and wrote somewhere, “Love is not sexual intercourse. Love is not attraction…. Love is not … ” and so on, and in the end I said, “Love is an almighty vibration coming straight from the One…. (1)” It was a first perception of That….

* * *

Love is not sexual intercourse.
Love is not vital attraction and interchange.
Love is not the heart’s hunger for affection.
Love is a mighty vibration coming straight from the One, and only the very pure and very strong are capable of receiving and manifesting it.
To be pure is to be open only to the Supreme’s influence and to no other.

* * *

The need for human love, to the extent that it is not merely in obedience to the instinct of Nature or to a vital attraction, is the need to have a Divine for oneself alone, at one’s entire and exclusive disposal, a Divine who is one’s personal property and to whom one gives oneself totally only if the gift is reciprocated. Instead of enlarging oneself to the size of the Divine and having a love as vast as the universe, one tries to reduce the Divine to one’s own size and have His love for oneself alone. Therefore, human love is not a need of the soul, but rather a concession it makes for a time to the ego.