“Without love we stand alone, separated from the core of existence.” – Osho

Love! What is love?  Some would say it’s guaranteed by blood. Others find it in friendships. Many share it with pets. It’s easy to see in moments of beauty, courage and grace. Evidently, it is something we can fall in and out of.  And, surely, Western culture promotes Love as that which completes us. Whether we identify with the head over heels Romantic or the naysaying critic, how we experience love depends on our individual story.

Real love, however, transcends the personal. According to Curriculum AUM, the L.aw O.f V.astness E.xpressing is not just a poetical acronym, but a practical application of love as a universal force of nature. This global age of rapid expansion exacerbates the ebb and flow of life and creates volatility.  Today’s world pushes our buttons and pulls us farther and farther away from the silence within. Finding our authentic voice amidst the frenetic noise and haste demands a rigorous alignment with inexhaustible grace.

Patanjali, the Father of Yoga, says in Yoga Sutra 1.15: Drsta-anusravika-visaya-vitrsnasya vasikara-samjna vairagyam, “Detachment is the emblem of the mastery of one who sees and hears an object without craving.”  Since our desires are often reflections of our subconscious realm, it is difficult to fully understand them. Craving is not bad, nor are we supposed to give everything up, but rather pay attention to our habits so that we can clarify clinging tendencies…like those moments when we sink our teeth into a person, place or thing and refuse to let go.  Our feelings reflect our perceptions, which in turn stem from our beliefs. And more often than not, our habitual reactions hold deep roots entangled within our inner story. To understand longing, we need not cower from the unknown or retreat to the caves like the forest yogis thousands of years ago in renunciation.  We need only to embrace and embody a greater way of being.

The modern day sage Osho shares: “Once I was on a journey and someone asked me which word in a man’s vocabulary was the most valuable. My reply was, Love. The man was surprised. He said he had expected me to answer soul or God. I laughed and said “Love is God.”  Like many wise sages and seers, Osho encourages the transmutation of volatility of modern man through connectivity with the source that sustains our existence.  In this way, we are called to translate Patanjali’s sutra in an applicable way and tap into the vastness of our potential.

We were never designed to go it alone.  But when we become overly attached, well, that’s the rub.  So apply: doses of detachment. In the yogic sense, this means to dial down the inordinate attachments, obsessions, exaggerated expectations and entitlement.  More and more, dial up faith in the L.aw O.f V.astness E.xpressing. Gaze inward. Look within the heart (H.eaven/E.arth A.lways Reside T.here) to access infinite possibilities for fulfillment in the external world. When T.S Eliot expresses masterfully in “The Little Gidding – “We shall not cease from exploration/ And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And know the place for the first time,” he speaks on Love.  We came from love, and we will inevitably return to love.

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Written by Johnson Anand Saurabh Chong
Movement Philosophy