When we meet a spiritual teacher, the power of God’s love radiates from him. Intoxication and bliss exude from him. Our soul is drawn by this magnetic power of love. One feels blissful, peaceful and intoxicated. Love for God, teacher, guru, parents, beloved etc is such; any separation from them makes us desolate and anguished. We yearn to be with that person. The hours away from the Beloved feels low and torturous. Soon, a kind of madness of love takes over.
The history of mysticism has many examples that illustrate the state of madness of love. One of the oldest examples dates back to ancient India, in which we find the gopis or milkmaids mad in love with Lord Krishna. When Krishna played his flute, it had such power that the milkmaids would drop everything and be drawn like a magnet to Krishna.
On several occasions, after braving long, dangerous travels through the woods in great heat or cold, they would reach Krishna’s abode. In the game of love, he would sometimes act or seem indifferent and ask them why they had come and then he would keep them away from him. Confused, one day the gopis said to him, “You rebuke us for wandering from our homes and coming to your path. Do not blame us for coming here. Blame the sweet sound of your flute. Blame your beautiful long black hair. Blame those for making mad lovers of us, causing us to wander in the infested forests in the dark night. Then, after we come, how is it that you treat us coldly and advise us to go back home? You torment our hearts. You light and fan the flame of love in us and then let us suffer the agony of separation.” Thus, the madness of love is always with the lover.
Sant Rajinder Singhji, head of Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission, works towards promoting inner and outer peace. He can be contacted at www.sos.org
