The Power of Love - 2 - Heart power
by Stefan Shavulev
(Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria)
The worldly riches, power and sense gratifications are no longer the chief pursuits of our lives. We cannot be so attached to them as to forget the chief purpose of our lives; they are just subsidiary means to the spiritual end. It is through the heart that we perceive kinship with another human being. Gradually we learn to love others as we love ourselves, and this is the key to the dawning of everlasting peace in the world. There are subtler planes, other than physical and intellectual ones and they can be felt if we delve in the sphere of the heart. Heart transcends the artificial boundaries of color, sex, age, beauty, strength, race, creed and nationality. It is that something in our hearts that unites us all together and is the unifying principle behind all physical, mental, economic and political spectrums.
It is about the spiritual relationship based on unconditional love from the heart that is deeper than any other relationship in our lives. Unconditional love grows on the basis of development of spiritual consciousness. Because the wonderful facilities of mass communication brought on with the advent of the internet and other related technologies, humans are being brought much closer than ever before. We have to come to realize vividly that our interests are interrelated and the best way to maintain and enhance those individual and collective interests, is to seek the interests of humanity as a whole. Unless the heart is pure, the heart?held intentions of the mind cannot be pure. We have to learn to delve in the part of the heart that is connected to selfless love and divine consciousness.
“Mind is only the reflection of the heart…can the moon in the pond remain to the view if the clouds hide the moon, ” said Ramana Maharishi.
We as the human race will always have problems in the physical world as long as we live in mind or the senses and blindly seeking material comforts and power over others without regard to humanity.
What we lack is a simple prescription from the heart in our private and public lives. The values of heart are missing more and more as we advance materially and socially. So long as we chase wealth, position, power, prestige, beauty, ego?based knowledge, singly or jointly, we cannot attain world peace. The qualities of heart: kindness, compassion, generosity, truth, inner goodness and heart?felt understanding and unconditional love are missing in the world of give and take. The great sages of India always dwelt on the concept of selfless love…this only can serve as the greatest force for the unity of all mankind. And this selfless love cannot be attained without anchoring at the heart chakra or without imbibing the virtues and purity of the heart. The slogan for the new order of world peace should be; “Practice unconditional love from the heart” or to love others as you love yourselves, in the spirit of brotherhood and oneness of human race. “Love thy neighbor as thyself, ” said Jesus Christ, and it should be the commonsense rule of any kind of conduct. The great Vedantic seers also dwelt on the theme of selfless love from the heart.
There cannot be a more peaceful world or better world without the corresponding richness of hearts…unless we become better individual, better husbands, better wives, better citizens, better human beings, better families, better societies and better nations.
Unless human relationship improves at every level, among all of us composing it, all scientific advancement, industrial development, international organizations; all the latest gizmos have no meaning and should not be construed as a mark of advanced civilization. Until every human being on this planet can have at least two meals a day, have access to equal education, medical care and housing, equal justice and human dignity, world peace will remain a mirage or a slogan.
What is needed is the change at the heart level. We have to face the challenges of the new age. What is needed is the inner transformation from the heart. Each and every individual can make a huge contribution and make a major difference towards world events. We have to dig deep into our own consciousness and realize we are a part of the world that is still not at peace with itself, whether it is human sufferings, violence, environmental disasters or global warming. It is we who are responsible, it is we who can bring the change by a small shift in collective consciousness at the heart level, whether it can put Hillary or an Al Gore or an Obama or McCain in presidential contention, is another matter.
I would rather see a candidate who is all hearts, one who is concerned about 24,000 hunger related deaths each day, who can awaken our hearts to universal love, who is willing and able to minimize social inequities and who sees the danger of poverty as weapon of mass destruction and one who has the vision to care and foster love and understanding from the heart, to bring peace and joy to all, by honoring the earth and its people of all lands and cultures and celebrating the unity of human spirit.
A true leader is one who can feel for others, who can inspire others; one who can transform and at the same time heal the human hearts as well as the kingdom of plants, animals and all creation. That person is the one who knows the right path, one who has the vision to lead, who can hold the torch of truth to help innumerable souls to find their ways in the wilderness of the world, the one whose life serves as a beacon of light, truth, kindness and compassion for many.
Unless and until we get deeply anchored into the heart and its eternal springs of kindness, generosity, truth and unconditional love, there will be no lasting peace on this planet.
As the former President Kalam of India puts it lucidly in one of his recent speeches: “Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.”
We must progress as one whole. Vasudeva Kutumbhkam, as written in ManuSmriti, the ancient code of India, as taught by the Indian seers of the past, that we who dwell on this planet belong to One Family as One world, one religion that of love, one spirit that of universal love, one common bond, the bond of humanity at the heart level.
We have to honor and cherish each other as fellow compatriots on the journey of self discovery and learn to know and enjoy our diversity and each other’s uniqueness, based upon eternal principles of non?violence, mutual respect and understanding and compassionate tolerance for each other from the heart.
True religion is serving your fellow humans with love in your heart and not serving God through lips or through chanting or performing certain rituals or going to places of religious repute. It is not what we say from your lips that gives meaning and content to our words. It is what we feel in our hearts and what we do that matters.
One who has glimpsed the beauty of one religion, has glimpsed its beauty, which is radiant in every religion—the religion of Compassion and Love. It is the same message from Buddha, Christ, Mohammad, Krishna, Guru Nanak, Zoroaster and Sai Baba.
What we need is a new awareness, a new consciousness based on love from heart and oneness of mankind.
It is not only universal brotherhood but universal oneness that is needed and understood and followed upon by every inhabitant of this planet. Needless to say it is the universal oneness that binds us all together with that energy called love, harmony, peace or understanding.
Killing or violence is not the answer to bringing world peace in the name of patriotism. We should not tolerate any human rights violations anywhere in any country, whether it is Iraq, Afghanistan, Myanmar or violations of human rights against prisoners in Guantanamo Bay or abuses in Abu Gharib prison. For every person you kill or torture, you create ten more enemies on the horizon. Violence begets more violence. Peace is the answer by aligning ourselves with the higher spiritual laws and moral values of the heart. It was J. William Fulbright who wrote in “The Arrogance of Power”.
It is the love from the hearts that can unite the world not war or better ideologies or religions or life styles, jingoism or patriotism. Make your life overflow with the spirit of love, emanating from that Universal Energy that binds and unites us together.
