The HEART of Mysticism

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The Heart of Mysticism

 

By James Bean

 

(Copyright August 1997)

 

Cultivating love is one of the central teachings of mysticism, East

and West. In India, Masters often use the term " Bhakti, " which means

love and devotion. Students of spirituality are instructed how to

develop love for the Creator and for all souls. They're taught that

approaching spiritual exercises and meditation with an attitude of

love will lead to a much more succssful spiritual practice. An

ascetic attitude of discipline can achieve some results, but love

concentrates the mind much more effectively. Love takes the

difficulty out of one's practice. Instead of meditation being thought

of as a " duty " or " chore " to be tolerated, it's transformed into joy,

a divine love affair!

 

The book " Enchanted Land, " published by the MSAC Philosophy Group

features encounters with several Indian mystics. I remain in awe of

this particular quote from Yogani Mataji (Nirmala Pandit), a

Radhaswami guru who now lives in Bombay. I often use this quote in my

meditation classes. The author asked Mataji: " How can one sit so

still, repeat only holy names and think of God constantly? " Mataji

serenely replied:

 

By falling in love, because when one is truly in love nothing but

the Beloved can enter one's mind. So the secret of Surat Shabda

Yoga and of mysticism is not necessarily 'practice and more

practice,' but love. To be so devoted to one's Lord that nothing

can stand in the way, this and nothing else is the truth

of Sant Mat.

 

The reason why love is so effective is, as many saints have revealed,

the universe was created by love, is sustained by love, and is

returning back to love; love is the essence of everything including

our soul. Our true nature is love. Kirpal Singh, an Indian master

popular in the 1960's put it this way, " Love is innate in our souls.

God is love and our souls are the drops of the ocean of all Love,

which is also love personified. " The great 19th century mystic Shiv

Dayal Singh, the founder of the Radhaswami movement said, " The

essence of Spirit (Atma) and God (Paratma) is love (Prem). Bhakti and

the Supreme Being are one. A genuine Master is the embodiment of

love. You are also love in essence, so are all souls. " (Sar Bachan

Radhaswami Poetry)

 

Spiritual practices like silent meditation can gradually transform

the practitioner in profound ways. Meditation is the method used

throughout the ages to re-identify with our soul, the spark of love

within.

 

" When we identify ourselves with our true essence we will discover

the wealth of spiritual regions rich in knowledge modern science can

only dream about. " (Rajinder Singh) Instead of perceiving ourselves

as being merely five dollars-worth of chemicals plus H2O, or a

collection of neurons firing and molecules, we perceive who we really

are: SOUL. This process of self-realization, re-identifying with the

love-essence of our soul is viewed as one of the most important steps

of our spiritual evolution. Who we think we are will determine the

course of our lives, both inwardly and outwardly.

 

Orthodox academic voices often portray our identity as solely

materialistic: the 'five dollars worth of chemicals and neurons

firing.' Other rigid or closed 'fundamentalist' belief-systems

portray human beings as ugly sinners and ugly saints perpetually

unworthy of partaking of divine mysteries, and that only after death

will the meaning of life be revealed. This appears in the context of

mysticism to be too little, too late. Fortunately, other alternatives

exist! The approach of the mystical tradition transcends blind faith

in limited belief-systems and encourages individuals to directly

verify the existence of the soul, higher spiritual realities and God

through personal contact with them. For mystics, the human body is a

kind of laboratory where spiritual claims can tested for oneself. My

favorite quote from The Nag Hammadi Library is found in The Book of

Thomas the Athlete, one of the Gnostic gospels:

 

Examine yourself that you may understand who you are, in what way

you exist, and how you will come to be.

 

How logical. We're advised to examine who we are and how we have come

to exist in this body of ours. This admonition implies that human

beings have access to higher intuitions and senses, through which we

are able to make new spiritual discoveries -- that is, IF we are

willing to make use of them.

 

Contemplatives seek spiritual knowledge through meditation. This

focuses all of one's attention upon the soul, that life force which

makes us alive. The eastern way of self-knowledge is one in which the

soul increasingly learns of it's true nature. The drop seeks to

discover the ocean from whence it came -- the ocean of life. Mystics

call this looking within process, " inversion. " In this way, souls

learn to know themselves as well as to gain perception of the

Oversoul, the Supreme Being.

 

" To convey this soul/Oversoul relationship the saints and mystics

have resorted to various analogies. Jesus spoke of it in terms

of 'father and son.' Shri Ramakrishna spoke of it in terms of 'mother

and child.' Mira Bai spoke of it in terms of 'husband and wife.' Like

St. Teresa of Avila and mystics throughout the world, St. John of the

Cross depicts the relationship of the soul and God as that of lover

and beloved, of bride and bridegroom. As the relationship develops,

the lover awakens to his or her lover and is changed into love

itself. This is the transformative power through which the human

becomes divine. " ( " Streams Of Nectar, " Darshan Singh)

 

Many mystics have used the language of romance to describe the

ineffable joy of divine love and union. The ultimate goal of

mysticism is the union of the soul with the oversoul. In the Narada

Bhakti Sutras, a twelfth century Indian scripture and manual of

Bhakti Yoga, it describes this union as intoxicating. The soul " is

completely immersed in the enjoyment of the bliss of the Atman, the

truest and highest Self. " This goal is reached in mystical states

discovered or realized during contemplative meditation. Spiritual

practice is done with an attitude of sincere love or a strong

fervent desire and perseverance to approach the Supreme Being. Love

removes all obstacles and forms a link with the Creator.

 

The medieval Indian mystic Dadu composed many odes to this divine

state of being:

 

When the heart merges into the Merciful One, then no difference

remains. Like ice dissolved in water, in God is merged the lover.

God has become the anguished lover, and the anguished lover has

become God. (Dadu, The Compassionate Mystic, RS Books)

 

One of my most favorite books of Eastern love poetry is " Songs of

Kabir, " published by Samuel Weiser books. The translator,

Rabindranath Tagore, was himself a great spiritual poet. Kabir asks:

 

How could the love between thee and me sever? As the leaf of the

lotus abides on the water: so thou art my Lord, and I am thy

servant. As the night-bird Chakor gazes all night at the moon: so

thou art my Lord and I am thy servant. From the beginning until

the ending of time, there is love between thee and me; and how

shall such love be extinguished? Kabir says: 'As the river enters

into the ocean, so my heart touches thee.'

 

Further to the West, the medieval Christian mystics also used the

language of love to describe spiritual union with their heavenly

Beloved. Saint John of the Cross, a Spanish mystic, spoke of " the

touch of the Beloved as setting the heart on fire with love; as if a

spark had fallen upon it. " Christian mystics also agreed with their

Eastern counterparts that the soul, through mystical union, becomes

deified -- becomes divine. Saint John of the Cross said:

 

And to make the soul perfect and to raise it above the flesh more

and more, He assails it divinely and gloriously, and these

assaults are really encounters wherein God penetrates the soul,

deifies the very substance of it, and renders it godlike, divine.

 

After reaching this exalted state he said, " The soul beholds itself

as one immense sea of fire. " (quotes from his classic, " Living

Flame " )

 

Another example of love consciousness or Prem-Bhakti manifesting

itself among the Christian saints is the 14th century English mystic

Richard Rolle, who said:

 

Among these delights which he tastes, moreover, he experiences in

love so sweet, the secret sent into him from heaven, which no one

here knows unless he receives it, and bears within himself the

potion which intoxicates lovers rejoicing in Christ... The love of

God takes up to itself with marvelous rejoicing the soul of the

one whom it perfectly penetrates and sets it truly ablaze by the

fire of the Holy Spirit, and does not permit it to stray for a

moment from the memory of so great a love. (The Fire of Love,

Richard Rolle)

 

I recommend two textbooks on mystical tradition. " Mysticism " by

Evelyn Underhill, first published in 1955, has become a spiritual

classic on Christian and Sufi spirituality. Another beautiful book

is " Streams of Nectar " by Darshan Singh, featuring chapters on 18

different saints of the Sant Mat, Sufi/Muslim, Christian, and Hindu

traditions, SK Publications, 4 S 175 Naperville Road, Naperville, IL

60563 ///