The Great Love

This week in class we have been exploring the Anahata chakra, the heart chakra, associated with love, compassion and joy. And although love can be viewed as a many-levered thing, from a yogic perspective, we refer to Love as that unconditional love of being one with All. Love with a capital ‘L’. The Great Love, love as the source of everything, love as radical unity.

At this level, love is another name for Absolute Reality, Supreme Consciousness, what the yogis call, Brahman, the Westerns call it God, the Eastern cultures call it Tao, the Source. The yoga tradition often describes Absolute Reality as satchidananda—meaning that it is pure beingness, present everywhere and in everything(sat),that it is innately conscious(chit),and that it is the essence of joy and love(ananda).

As ananda, the Great Love is woven into the fabric of the universe, which of course also puts it at the center of our own being. Most of us get glimpses of the Great Love at some time in our lives—perhaps in nature, when we go for a walk in the woods, when we listen to a beautiful piece of music, when gardening, or in the moment of bonding with our children. We remember these experiences for years afterward, often for the rest of our lives. We remember that feeling of deep connection it give us, and the fact that even when the love we feel seems inspired by someone or something in particular, it has a profound impersonal and universal quality. And sometimes, that Great Love hits us so hard that it changes our lives forever.

The Great Love, the love that is the kernel of everything, is present in everything, peeking out during every moment and every time we feel a spark of tenderness, appreciation and gratitude. Any glimmer of love is a spark from that fire and leads us back to it.

Stay open, stay loving.

Namaste.