Our heart and emotions are drawn towards some whom we begin to like and prefer as opposed to others whom we do not like and avoid. This may happen due to the circumstances of our birth such as the sense of closeness with family members or those who speak the same language and share common beliefs and customs. Or it may happen due to satisfaction of desires from each other or a shared interest in common fields. Or it may happen due to a natural affinity, an unconscious interchange that supports or compliments the forces and energies of each other. Whatever be the reason, these persons then begin to become extensions of our ego-self. The human heart then begins to enter into a give and take exchange of emotional energies with each other.
So long as the ego-self is satisfied with this mutual exchange everything goes fine. But either when the demand increases because of the heart’s hunger or else there is restlessness and dissatisfaction leading to quarrels and disaffection, even ruptures and turning away. The source of joy becomes the source of pain. The sweet wine turns into bitter poison of hate and wrath. The emotional centre shrinks cutting it further from the current of life flowing through the universe leading to a cutting off of the joy of life and we sink into the unending vortex of depression or are carried away by storms of passion and lust towards dangerous and unknown isles where death waits wearing the mask of momentary pleasure. The thrills of the flesh are then mistaken for emotions and passing momentary attractions for love. Sinking lower down there is added the rage and fear of the animal world or else the spirit of domination and possession with its attendant consequences of the painful sting of jealousy and the heady wine of hate. It is for this unending circle of joy and sorrow in which we are caught that the word attachment is applied. It is born out of the ego-self, it is nurtured by the desires and nourished by the surface emotions and passions that we have mistaken for love.
But behind the surface heart there is a deeper heart, a heart of true feelings, a heart of sweetness and love. In this deeper heart there burns the steady flame of love where feelings are born that last beyond the body and die not with its death. This flame is fed by sacrifice rather than desires. Its deity is not the ego but the Divine Presence dwelling within the heart of man. Once this flame is born discovered then only we can learn what love truly is. It is no more then the meeting of one person with another to draw emotional nourishment for each other but a constant giving to the Eternal Presence in another and a receiving from the Divine Source of all things whatever we need for our heart’s nourishment. The hunger of the heart is replaced with a deep satisfaction that can never be disturbed or unhappy. The turbulence and storms of passion are replaced by a strong and intense flow of pure joy released from divine hands into this world that is so much deprived of care and suffers acutely from a lack of love. But this love cannot be found so long as we live for and by the ego. It is only when we step back from all surface emotions and dare to love without expectations or any selfish demands, when we have the courage to go deep within in search of our soul, the pearl of the great price that we can truly learn to love. Or rather then it is the Divine who loves through us and reaches out to the Divine in others. Then all our emotions mirror God’s sacred joy and Love is fulfilled with Love.
