An inter-religious perusal of divine love

By Fr. M.V.E. Ravichandran

I fled Him down the nights and down the days

I fled Him down the arches of the years

I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears

I hid from him, and under running laughter.

…….

Rise, clasp my hand, and come.

Halts by me that Footfall.

Is my gloom, after all,

Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?

Ah, Fondest, Blindest, Weakest,

I am He whom thou seekest.

Wrote Francis Thomson in 1893 and earned his fame. It may be an interpretation of his personal life as many commentators say but it is also the experience of every human person. The fleeing of human away from the ‘divine’ and the search of the divine for every human and the final surrender of human into the divine is a spiritual treasure every religion holds fast. 

In the deepest spiritual sense, and at a universal secular level, the ‘divine’ could be interpreted as the purest and highest level of consciousness that connects to the highest consciousness of the universe, to the ultimate truth. But man can be weak and fickle and the highest state of the consciousness of purity and connection to the highest truth – the God consciousness, may be difficult. Hence it is a lifelong hide and seek between man and the divine.

This piece of writing tries to trace this spiritual ‘hide and seek’ in different religions that are practiced in our country.

Let us, whatever religious or meditative/spiritual paths we choose to follow, strive to reach a highest level of consciousness in 2020 and emphasise love in our day-to-day lives; loving our neighbour, forgiving easily, and living charitable lives which will bring us true happiness

The fleeing away

The ultimate goal of human living is to be happy and satisfied. The tragedy is that humans have searched in vain for their happiness. There is a story that goes like this: The leader of evil spirits who wanted to keep man always unhappy decided to hide happiness somewhere, where man will not look for. So he held a competition among his juniors asking for suggestions. They indicated different places but the answers did not satisfy the leader. Finally one of them came with a solution and said, “Let us hide happiness deep within the man so that he will search everywhere and rarely within himself and therefore will never find it”. This answer was welcomed and implemented. Thus still man searches for happiness everywhere without really finding it.

However ‘God’ comes after every human as the hound that follows its prey diligently.

In Buddhism – Buddha after human 

The following famous story is found in the Lotus-Sutra (Saddharmapun-darika-sutra), a parable of ‘A Wealthy Man and His Prodigal Son’. 

Once a foolish son was deceived by a stupid friend and left his father. Slowly he fell into low repute and wandered around for food and clothing. His father worried so much that he, too, began to wander around looking for his runway son, until finally growing weary of the search he settled down in a big city. The rich father built a mansion, earned a tremendous amount of wealth. However, in spite of his luxury, he could not forget his son and as a result he was leading an unhappy life.

One day the prodigal son happened to come that way but did not identify his father. The father identified him instantly but the son was in a miserable state and was not in a situation to accept the forgiveness of his father. Knowing this the father takes him in as a servant and slowly prepares him to be installed as his son once again. When he was ready he announces publicly his son-hood and offers him all the wealth.  

The Sutra says that such is the mercy of the Buddha. Just as this wealthy father dealt with his poor son, so Buddha uses every means to help people through his valuable teachings, to raise them up, to help them save themselves.

In Islam – God all Merciful

God’s love for the world in general and human beings in particular is unanimously believed and emphasised by all Muslims. Indeed, one of God’s names is ‘al Wadud’ – He who loves. This is in addition to those names which imply His love for creatures, such as ‘al Rahman’ and ‘al Raheem’ meaning the all Compassionate and the all Merciful. Every chapter of the Qur’an except chapter 9 begins with the phrase: “In the Name of God, the all Compassionate, the all Merciful”. It is noteworthy that although one of the things attributed to God in Islam is the wrath (ghadab), its application is much more limited compared to His mercifulness and love for His creatures. This is an idea that all Muslims agree and is clearly expressed in their sacred writings.

Love of ‘God’ 

‘God’ has different levels or degrees of love for His creatures. Although this is explained through dogma in religions, many such as Quantum Physicists in the secular realm have looked at the concept of Cosmic ‘Oneness’ to explain the great phenomena of ‘God’ and there are also many non-religious meditation traditions that pursue the quest of being one with the highest God consciousness. Love and loving all beings is part of this quest and every ‘religion’ emphasises this. ‘God’ encompasses essence of love and His love includes all beings. This love includes even wrongdoers, since there is goodness in every single human being.

In Hinduism – Manifestations of love

In Hindu tradition, One Divine Reality underlies all that exists, and all that exists is a manifestation of that reality; manifestation of God and no reality is separate from the divine. From the point of view of the bhakti, or devotional, strand of Hinduism, this reality is a personal Lord who loves the beings who are the manifestations of the Divine. Love is the driving force behind this manifestation. Human beings come into this world so that they may enter into a relationship of Divine Love – loving and loved by God. This Supreme Reality is described in the Kena Upanishad as the “the end of love’s longing”.

According to the Bhagavad Gita Divine Love is active, responding to the needs of embodied individuals, even to the point that God takes on an incarnate form to aid those who suffer danger or deprivation. The narratives that surround Vishnu’s incarnation as Krishna reveal the nature of this Divine Love. 

In Christianity – God and man

The relationship between God and man is revealed in Christian Scripture as seen in the songs of Solomon (Song of Songs), a biblical love poem gives us a reflection of the intensity of God’s love through the symbolic search of a man for the woman he loves. As the man pursues the woman, so much more does God seeks us. As beautiful as human love may be, every marriage and romantic relationship is just an image of the love God has for each of his children.

St. Augustine once wrote, “Our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in Thee.” We should remember that “God Himself is restless for us as well.

Christ said, “I have come to set the world on fire, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). These are the words of intense love, and of one who will not rest until the human heart is kindled with the fire of Divine love.

Christmas, a festival we have just concluded celebrating, is not just a Christian celebration, it is a celebration of ‘God’ seeking man, God coming in search of humans. Several religions cherish this chase of God towards His creatures and encourage man to reach the highest purification levels possible and strive to keep his mind and heart unsullied to reach ‘God’ better. 

Let us, whatever religious or meditative/spiritual paths we choose to follow, strive to reach a highest level of consciousness in 2020 and emphasise love in our day-to-day lives; loving our neighbour, forgiving easily, and living charitable lives which will bring us true happiness.

Wish you all a happy and meaningful 2020.

(The writer is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Christian Civilisation, University of Jaffna with an abiding interest in comparative religion.)