The Consistency of Love

There are quite a few photographs of Gandhi in Easwaran's book, Gandhi The Man, How One Man Changed Himself To Change the World.  With the exception of some pictures taken early in his life when he was trying to fit into European culture, he always dressed and looked the same.  Just about the only difference was whether or not his torso was clothed.  His attire was of the Indian poor regardless of whatever world leader he was meeting with at the time.  Gandhi renounced the world's so-called values,  so he could more fully love the world. I think this letting go will be one of our great lessons of this pandemic disease. We may need to surrender much, but in that renunciation, we hopefully can discover our core of love.  More importantly, we just might learn to live and reach out from that core.  We are part of God's mandala.      

While we associate Gandhi with non-violence, Easwaren's work has shown me that at the root of Gandhi's non-violent movement was an  ever-expanding love.  Gandhi himself said that it takes practice.  He recommended that we start with our families and then let that love spread. I am reminded of the Loving Kindness prayer (which is rooted in Buddhism) that begins with our own hearts, then to those we love, and then to those who are causing us discomfort, whether we personally know them or not. He and his wife had some stormy times, but he eventually understood that it was she who was teaching him to love through her consistency.  

  

In Gandhi's life and work, I do hear Jesus' teachings, although Gandhi's personal sacred text was The Bhagavad-Gita.  Love is universal; Christ is universal, and God speaks through all traditions and cultures.  Therefore, most traditions have much more in common than they have ways of differing. The journey is the same.  It is a journey to love because there is only love. Everything else is a reaction, usually coming from fear, which is rooted in ego. This morning I am struck by Paul's wisdom in Ephesians 3:14-18: 

  

This is why I kneel before the Father. Every ethnic group in heaven or on earth is recognized by him. I ask that he will strengthen you in your inner selves from the glory through the Spirit. I ask that Christ will live in your hearts through faith. As a result of having strong roots in love, I ask that you'll have the power to grasp love's width and length, height and depth, together with all believers. I ask that you'll know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge so that you will be filled entirely with the fullness of God (Common English Bible).    

 

Be at peace, dear friends. We are all a part of God's ever expanding love.  I give thanks that your soul is in this world.   

 

 

 

photograph: San Leandro, March 2020