THE ONLY ASPIRATION

 
The feeling of separation from others is most acute where there is great and unrelieved craving. In hate and anger also the other person is, so to speak, thrown out of one's own being and regarded not only as a foreigner but as definitely hostile to the thriving of the ego. Fear also is a subtle form of affirming separateness and exists where the consciousness of duality is unabated.

Fear acts as a thick curtain between "I" and "you" and it not only nourishes deep distrust of the other, but inevitably brings about a shrinking and withdrawal of consciousness so as to exclude the being of another from the context of one's own life.

Therefore, not only other souls but God should be loved and not feared. To fear God or His manifestations is to strengthen duality; to love them is to weaken it.

The feeling of separateness finds most poignant expression in jealousy. There is a deep and imperative need in the human soul to love and identify itself with other souls. This is not fulfilled in any instance where there is craving or hate, anger or fear.

In jealousy, in addition to the non-fulfillment of this deep and imperative need for identification with other persons, there is a belief that some other soul has successfully identified itself with the person whom one sought. This creates a standing and irreconcilable protest against both individuals for developing a relationship which one really wished to reserve for oneself.

All exclusive feelings like craving, hate, rear or jealousy bring about a narrowing down of life and contribute to the limitation and restriction of consciousness. They become directly instrumental in the affirmation of separateness of the ego.

Every thought, feeling or action which springs from the idea of exclusive or separate existence binds. All experiences — small or great — and all aspirations — good or bad — create a load of impressions and nourish the sense of the "I".

The only experience which makes for the slimming down of the ego is the experience of love, and the only aspiration which makes for the alleviation of separateness is the longing to become one with the Beloved.

Craving, hatred, anger, fear and jealousy are all exclusive attitudes which create a gulf between oneself and the rest of life. Love alone is an inclusive attitude which helps bridge this artificial and self-created gulf, and tends to break through the separative barrier of false imagination. The lover too longs, but he longs for union with the Beloved.

In seeking or experiencing union with the Beloved the sense of the "I" becomes feeble. In love the "I" does not think of self-preservation, just as the moth is not at all afraid of getting burnt in the fire. The ego is the affirmation of being separate from the other, while love is the affirmation of being one with the other. Hence the ego can be dissolved only through real love.