Remembrance of the Beloved -- Love For God -- Huzur Baba Sawan Singh

Remembrance of the Beloved -- Love For God -- Huzur Baba Sawan Singh

Huzur Baba Sawan Singh on Love for God: One who desires to achieve communion with the Almighty Father should first of all wash the dirt from his mind with the water of love. The bandage of ego should be removed from our eyes, because then alone is it possible for us to see the Lord. And this bandage can be removed only by emptying ourselves of everything except the remembrance of the Beloved. No thought of any kind should be allowed to enter between the devotee and the object of his devotion.

People say that love is blind and mad, because a lover does not listen to anyone. But the lover of God is not blind. He has eyes that see the Truth. He sees only that One whom he wishes to see. He accepts only that One and believes in Him. He is not mad. He gives his heart to One alone, and is free from duality. "Love is the Divine Law. It will triumph where reason fails."

God is love. Just as it is impossible to praise Him adequately, it is similarly not possible to define love. Those who have drunk deeply out of the cup of love have become intoxicated by it, and in their ecstasy have sung songs of praise for Him. Below are given a few quotations by way of example:

"Love is God. It is the religion and faith of man."

"Love is a pilgrimage. It is a magnetic power which attracts hearts and everything good and beautiful in them."

"A heart full of love is contented and sweet."

"Love is the comforter and sustainer of hearts. It is the hope, the longing for union, and surging emotion in the heart."

"It is a Power. When we love, we learn the lesson of courage and fearlessness."

"It is the shield against which no weapon can be effective."

"It is Truth and Reality. It is faith and sacrifice."

"It is a divine flower, which imparts its perfume to the entire universe. It is a fragrant flower through which man's life is beautified."

"It is a light by which the universe is illuminated."

"It is a silent emotion full of sweetness, in which man forgets himself completely."

"It is a heavenly gift and food for the soul."

"It is the permanent union. Both, the lover and the beloved, are imperishable. It is an indescribable state of their hearts."

"The key to heaven is love, and not intellect."

"Love is not blind. It increases vision."

"Love is stable, imperishable and infinite. In the end all one's ties and connections with the world are broken, but it is impossible for the relationship of love to be destroyed. It is stronger than chains of steel and unbreakable even by death, because it is a part of the soul."

Ancient Near-Death Experiences in Mandaean Scriptures

 

Ancient Near-Death Experiences in Mandaean Scriptures
Copyright January 1997
By James Bean

 

Photo of a Mandaean Scroll written in Mandaic, a dialect of Aramaic

The following is found in the Mandaean Gnostic scriptures of Iraq. They sound somewhat like ancient NDEs or near-death experiences. When crossing over, the soul meets "a discharge of Radiance." This inner guide brought the ascending soul a garment made of Light, often a theme in Mandaean and in Mesopotamian traditions (Books of Adam and Eve, Hymn of the Pearl in the Acts of Thomas). The soul was escorted by this heavenly guide to "the Place of Light" where God, called "the Great Life," resides. The soul is then 'embraced by the Light.'

EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT

The mystical encounters recorded in the scriptures of the Mandaeans may seem at times like ancient near-death experiences (NDE's), the visions of souls who were embraced the Light long ago:

"When I arrived at the water-brooks, a discharge of Radiance met me. It took me by the palm of my right hand and brought me over the streams of death. Radiance was brought and I was clothed in it. Light was brought and I was wrapped in it...

"[Prayer] Son of the Good Ones, show me the way of the divine beings (spirits, angels) and the ascent upon which your father rose up to the Place of Light.

"He [the discharge of Radiance] rose and took me with him and did not leave me in the perishable dwelling." (Canonical Prayerbook)
 

This is my interpretation. In the above account, after this soul crossed over to the other side, it was met by a "discharge of Radiance," (according to another translation) a deliverer or guide who not only escorted the soul into the beyond, but also gave the soul its heavenly robe of Radiance -- a garment made of Light. It's unclear to me if the soul literally was given a robe to put on, or if perhaps this is another way of describing the process of leaving the body at death, taking OFF the robe of the physical body, which caused the soul to see itself as a being of Light. In any event, the soul then prays for its helper and guide to be escorted upward to the Place of Light. In another version of this account it says:

"I lifted mine eyes to heaven and my soul waited on the House of Life. And the Life (God) who heard my cry sent toward me a deliverer."

This version also describes the encounter with the heavenly being (discharge of Radiance) who escorted the soul over the waters of death, and accompanied it during the ascension up to the Light-world. The hymn concludes with these words:

"Life supported life, Life found its own. Its own self did Life find, and my soul found that for which it had looked. Renowned is Life and victorious." (Canonical Prayerbook)

VISIONS OF THE GREAT LIFE IN THE PLACE OF THE LIGHT

Souls in the Place of the Light are described as luminous beings living in a world of infinite Light with a Supreme Being of Light. The heavens of hyperspace are traversed by spiritual streams of "Living Waters," tributaries of the Heavenly Jordan river of Light. And souls are described as radiant beings that shine upon each other like stars do in the center of our galaxy:

"They are a thousand thousand miles distant from one another and yet one is illumined by the other's Radiance."

The primary name for the highest God in the Mandaean tradition is "The Great Life." Many of the hymns in the Canonical Prayerbook begin with this invocation:

"In the Name of the Great Life, Sublime Light be Praised."

More Visions of the Beyond in the Mandaean Gnostic Scriptures of Iraq

"The jordan's of the worlds of Light are full of white waters, whiter than milk, cool and tasty, and their aroma is stronger than the great aromatic vines...

"Those beings of Light are made up of many kinds and fall into earths, skinas [abodes], jordans, trees, uthras [good beings of Light], and angels, as well as radiance, Light, and brightness which rest upon them.

"Their form is luminous and bright and the look of their faces is clear and bright like pure beryl. Every day strength and voice, utterance and victory are planted by the King of all the worlds of Light and sent to them...

"They are clothed in garments of Radiance and are arrayed in a covering of Light. They sit and dwell together, without offending one another and without sinning against one another. They are honored in their firmament and match as the eyelash the eye. Their thoughts are open to one another, and they know the First and the Last. They are a thousand thousand miles distant from one another and yet one is illumined by the other's radiance, one is fragrant through another's fragrance..."

-- "Gnosis II," Werner Forester, Oxford University Press, out of print