Gift of Love - 03.18.10

Student Question: Earlier you mentioned that one needs to cultivate this love for one’s Real Self. So what are some ways of cultivating that?

Shunyamurti, the founder of the Sat Yoga Institute in Costa Rica, provides that “if you recognize the qualities and the powers that are given to you by God—if you are open to receiving them—the siddhis, the very gift of life itself,” then one can recognize that “All of this is a gift” of love from the Creator. “It was an act of infinite love to create this universe. This was not a necessity on God’s part. This was a gift so that we could grow toward God-consciousness—and it’s perfect! It’s an absolutely perfect universe. We think it’s not but it’s our own karma that makes it seem imperfect. . . . It is the seeing it in the flesh, the recognition that love is reality” that makes us want to know the Source of all love. “We are beings of love. Our very essence is love. But we live in this shell that originally we created to protect that essence, then we lost sight of the fact that it was in there and we live in the shell. But the shell is not the purpose of life, and we must break through the shell and be released again. And once we realize that, that itself will be the act of love that liberates us.” Recorded on the evening of Thursday, March 18, 2010.