What Is the Meaning of Pure Love?

The sun and the moon and the earth and all things are held together by the love of God. If we want to know God, we must not isolate our love but join it to divine love.

In spite of life’s sorrows and the dance of life and death, God is love. Love cannot be described; it can only be felt. There is no greater tonic than love, which can beautify both the body and mind of man.

All our love in its native purity is the love of God. If pure love beams in our souls, we will be clothed with the everattracting universal beauty of God. All nations must come into the temple of universal love and understanding. Love alone will last. The laws of God are the laws of brotherhood and love.

Love is born in usefulness, but we typically live our lives unaware of that fact. A mother’s love for her child is unconditional. Mothers are known to love even the most unattractive or wicked children. Although love is born in human relations, pure love transcends all relations and is free from all conditions, including the law of mutual usefulness.

We Must Expand Our Love

We must not limit our love to those near us. Nature breaks the ties of family life so that we may learn that the love we give our family must be extended to our neighbors, our friends, our country, and all nations. He who does not love his family cannot love his neighbor or his country. He who does not first love his own country cannot learn to love all countries.

Love is a condition of the heart and mind that transcends all relations — yet we can worship God through all forms of human relations. We can love Him as father, mother, or friend, or as the beloved of all hearts.

Love must never remain hidebound in a small circle. Through the gates of friendship, conjugal affection, parental warmth, and the love of all fellow beings and animate creatures, we can enter into the kingdom of divine love. Pure love does not come by talking about it but by culturing it gradually on the soil of an ever-increasing sympathy and friendship toward all.

A person who has never loved anyone in the world, nor even birds or animals, cannot possibly love all humanity. One who has never loved his fellow beings cannot possibly love God. It is only on the soil of a heart that can grow human love that divine love can flower.

by Paramhansa Yogananda from How to Spiritualize Your Life