Love’s Ways are Strange!
Love’s ways are strange!
It is less than the least,
Greater than the greatest.
‘Tis humble—‘tis proud.
It yields as the reed in the wind,
It is firm like a rock unshaken.
‘Tis soft as a flower,
Hard as adamant.
It is filled with bliss,
‘Tis surcharged with sorrow.
‘Tis gentle and smiling as the new-born babe,
‘Tis stern and grim like a volcano.
‘Tis kind—it is cruel,
It wants all—it wants nothing,
It creates—it destroys,
Love’s ways are strange!
-Swami Ramdas
Papa’s poem is both wonderful and terrible; for it contains the totality of life in its verses. God is the love (as described in the poem), and love is God; this is absolutely true.
You face God daily in the life that you lead. For the pragmatist, God comes in the form of practical solutions to life’s vexing problems; to the mystic life is a constant expression of Divine Life; to the depressed life is living in a small dark cave; to the one “in love” God is walking on air. For each one lives on the same planet, but in different worlds.
You determine the world you live in by what you focus your mind upon. Think of yourself as separate, apart, and alone, and you are. Think of yourself as connected to the Infinite Being, surrender yourself to it, and you become one with God.
Love and God are exactly as Papa describes. It is the mind that determines that only when you have what you deem good do you feel happy, and when you experience what you judge to be bad do you doubt.
Mother always taught, “Keep your mind on God,” knowing that what you constantly fill your mind with is what you become. So, my friends, what do you wish to become?
When Krishna revealed his universal form to Arjuna, it was awe-inspiring and eventually became overwhelming; Arjuna was not yet ready to remain in the universal vision. You must surrender all that you think you understand about life at the feet of the Infinite, good and bad, high and low, and become totally open to the mind of God. It is then the mirror of your mind may be so perfectly clear that it reflects only your Divine Nature; only then may you be truly free!