Unity in diversity

Love is a potential faculty of all beings. By practicing love, this faculty develops and becomes an effective capability to love.

The object of love is not exclusive; love can be directed towards any creature, it cannot be otherwise when it is true love. As it is gradually practiced, love manifests itself as a relational choice, as a natural inclination to love, so that every creature can become object of love, not only a spouse, partner or companion in couple relationship or household. The concept that a relationship can be broken up with impunity, although it apparently presents insurmountable faults, is wrong, like the preconceived idea that a relationship must be maintained under any conditions, since the counterpart has the right not to love. Therefore, love must not depend on the precondition that the other person loves as well. Furthermore, those who abruptly and unilaterally suppress an important relationship, will actually deal a heavy blow and affect the whole of humanity; although people are unaware of it, there is an indissoluble bond between every individual and the humankind. As the famous Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote: “That which is not good for the bee-hive cannot be good for the bees”.

We are all part of the same whole, which is not only constituted by humanity but more widely by all creatures, sharing that unity of life with all living beings that pertains to the life of all lives: God. Every being is essentially connected lifelong with that uniqueness which is life and can rediscover the communion of life through love. At the same time, it is also evident that every human being has its own peculiarities and that a relationship with every creature can develop according to temporal and peculiar different dynamics; in fact, that is the capability to manage the tension  between the two poles of unity and diversity: the harmonizing function of love. In other words, it is the integration with each other, that leads to the communion in unity and diversity, ergo in God. Hence we can define authentic love as the fruit of the dynamic evolutionary commitment that implies: attention, care, respect, responsibility, understanding, creativity, autonomy and the desire to see our interlocutor growing spiritually. Ultimately, to love means to help a person or a community to realize their potential of love and improve themselves. If you love a rose, you should make it blossom as the most beautiful of all roses: not to selfishly enjoy it, but to offer it with gratitude to God and, for His love, to others.

Love demands respect for the loved ones, for their individuality, for their uniqueness.

An acorn should be helped developing into an oak tree and a date into a palm.

Similarly, we should well understand the essence of a person in his/her essence and help him/her grow according to his/her own spiritual identity. This is why the practice of love necessarily embraces a path of self-knowledge, that helps better knowing and understanding the others, if not there would be a risk of forcing people into unnatural behaviors, which is far from loving them.

The physiological and psychological attraction characterized by ego and eros, if accompanied by mental instability and immature understanding, causes further fragmentation of the person, while love leads to an ever deeper knowledge of oneself and of the other.

Toxic emotions such as resentment, anger, jealousy or envy gradually fade away by practicing sadhana-bhakti, as if a syntropic energy of a higher nature forges a new personality structure, which is actually our original archetypal identity having a spiritual nature.

Marco Ferrini
(Matsya Avatar das)

Centro Studi Bhaktivedanta, Popular University of Indovedic Studies