The True Love - Love of Guru

We all talk about ‘Love’ but what is ‘Love’. Is love, affection and attachment are transposable in our lives? While contemplating on this most frivolously used word I entered Gurdwara this Sunday, where Bhai Sahib Ajit Singh ji Alankari was doing Katha on the Vaar (Vaar 35 Pauri 20 ) of Bhai Gurdas ji . It was as if Guru himself was talking to me. Gurbani can only be understood fully through love. "Sach kahon sun leho sabai jin prem kio tin hee prabh paio." (All should listen to this truth that only those who love God can realize Him.)" and this ‘love’ is ‘Divine Love’ it is Truth; it is unconditional, it is ever-lasting.

pIau dy nwNh ipAwr quil nw PuPI nw ipqIey qwey]
peeo dhae naaneh piaar thul naa fufee naa pitheeeae thaaeae||

Bhai Gurdas ji talks about the depth of ‘Love of worldly our father’. He says that the love of a father is so in a child’s life that a child will always feel emptiness in his life if a father dies untimely death. This love can’t be replaced by love of Bhua (who is father’s real sister); Chacha (father’s real younger brother) or Taya (father’s real older brother). So there is no parallel to father’s love for his child.

mwaU hyqu n pujnI hyqu n mwmy mwsI jwey]
maaoo haeth n pujanee haeth n maamae maasee jaaeae||

Of All Worldly Loves, The Love Of The Mother Is The Highest. If one wishes to find out the meaning of love, ask a child who has lost his mother. Mother’s love can’t be comensated by love of Massi (who is mother’s real sister); Mame (mother’s real brothers) or their off-springs.

AMbw sDr n auqrY Awix AMbwkVIAW jy Kwey]
anbaa sadhhar n outharai aan anbaakarreeaaan jae khaaeae||

Bhai Sahib further equates mother’s love to love of mangoes (only those who have sucked on them till the seed is white can understand this example). If we are eating something and after chewing it for sometime we spit it out. If we are asked to put it back in our mouth and eat it, we woun’t. But mango fruit is the only thing that we take out of our mouth again and again and keep sucking on it. The taste(love) never ends.

Mother’s love is like a mango, which can’t be compensated by eating kachiyaan ambiyaan (unripe mango fruit or tamrind).

siqguru quil n imhrvwn mwq ipqw n dyv sbwey]
sathigur thul n miharavaan maath pithaa n dhaev sabaaeae||

ifTy sBy Toik vjwey]
ddithae sabhae thok vajaaeae||

Bhai sahib at the end of this pauri warns us that none of these relations and their love holds any value in front of love of kind and generous SatGuru. If one does not believe it then one may put the all kinds of love to test. Rare are those who pass the test of love for Guru, yet He loves unconditionally. His love is constant.

Love without expectation (True Love) does not exist in worldly life. Mother’s love being the highest is still is a relative love subject to increase and decrease, and has its limitations. True Love does not increase or decrease, but worldly love does. Only Divine love is constant. Real love can never be found in this worldly life. Real love is divine. Real love begins the moment one begins to understand the Self. Pure love, real love exists where there is no selfishness; when there are no feelings of ‘yours-mine’. It is because of this ignorance of the self, that people have feelings of ‘this is mine and this is yours’. When one acquires Giyaan (knowledge of the Self), one ceases to have feelings of ‘mine and yours’. However, this is difficult for one to understand. There is no love in the external world. What the world calls love is nothing but infatuation and attraction. Real love resides within and near the one who has known the Self in all splendor and glory. This love is God and God is love.