Divine Love can be experienced physically, first as a longing in the body itself for the Divine contact, a deep longing in the senses to see, to hear the Divine, in the heart as a sudden joy that leaps up at the sight or touch of anything that reminds us or makes us aware of the Divine Presence. It is experienced like a fire burning in the very body for contact with the Divine. But it is not easy to receive it and having received to contain. It is a tremendous power that takes away all other physical longings for the various pleasures of life and the comforts of the body as it then begins to seek only the Divine contact in everything, in plants, animals, humans, everywhere and in everyone the body seeks the Divine as nothing less can satisfy it anymore. A great inner purity, strength and a strong foundation of Peace is needed to bear contact with this love and a complete self giving to the Divine wherein each part and every movement of the body would want to give itself unconditionally and seek the Divine, serve the Divine, love the Divine.
In fact the Divine Love touching the body gives it a new youthfulness and vigour, a subtle beauty and joy, a flow of sweetness within the nerves, a calming of the organs, even a subtle fragrance within it, a dropping off of certain old habits. The body itself feels light and glad and conscious.
Here is a passage from the Mother revealing something about it.
‘Here is the flower we have called “Aspiration in the Physical for the Divine’s Love.” By the “Physical” I mean the physical consciousness, the most ordinary outward-going consciousness, the normal consciousness of most human beings, which sets such great store by comfort, good food, good clothes, happy relationships, etc., instead of aspiring for the higher things. Aspiration in the physical for the Divine’s Love implies that the physical asks for nothing else save that it should feel how the Divine loves it. It realises that all its usual satisfactions are utterly insufficient. But there cannot be a compromise: if the physical wants the Divine’s Love it must want that alone and not say, “I shall have the Divine’s Love and at the same time keep my other attachments, needs and enjoyments….”
The fundamental seat of aspiration from which it radiates or manifests in one part of the being or another is the psychic centre. When I speak of aspiration in the physical I mean that the very consciousness in you which hankers after material comfort and well-being should of itself, without being compelled by the higher parts of your nature, ask exclusively for the Divine’s Love. Usually you have to show it the Light by means of your higher parts; surely this has to be done persistently, otherwise the physical would never learn and it would take Nature’s common round of ages before it learns by itself. Indeed the round of Nature is intended to show it all possible sorts of satisfactions and by exhausting them convince it that none of them can really satisfy it and that what it is at bottom seeking is a divine satisfaction. In Yoga we hasten this slow process of Nature and insist on the physical consciousness seeing the truth and learning to recognise and want it. But how to show it the truth? Well, just as you bring a light into a dark room. Illumine the darkness of your physical consciousness with the intuition and aspiration of your more refined parts and keep on doing so till it realises how futile and unsatisfactory is its hunger for the low ordinary things, and turns spontaneously towards the truth. When it does turn, your whole life will be changed—the experience is unmistakable.’
Affectionately,
Alok Da
