26 November 2013

Bhakta, Bhakta, Burning Bright, in Kali Yuga's Dark Night

Email from Steve who attended our October Retreat:

My Dearest,  I AM IN LOVE.  I am truly in Love. 

With what I do not know but it is coursing through me this very minute. Every atom of my being is deeply in Love. This is so overwhelming and deep and meaningful-never have I felt this much encompassed and surrounded in such an elixir of Divine Grace.

This is not a personal love it is impersonal and a thousand times deeper than the deepest waterfall. 

My dear Love Edji, you and Deeya placed a piece of coal in my soul and it is turning into a untouchable Diamond that lies so deep within this soul, its brilliance is drawing me directly to it, its radiance is pulling me to it (I AM coming Home). Finally I am on that footpath of Light.

Just your compassionate thought produced a whole new reality.

How can I ever thank you, its impossible to repay the Divine but only by your example can others know of the true brilliance that exists before them.

I bow my head to the Lord.

God took me today.

Everyday you breathe through me

The Kindness of you Heart

I bow to You both.

Oh! what a wonderful thing to be so DEEPLY in LOVE

It burns....and a fire has started.

OH! I LOVE YOU.  steve

MY  REPLY:

Fantastic Steve!

But I need to caution you.  Such fantastic love usually is accompanied by a flip-side of negative emotions often called the Shadow Side.

The Shadow manifests when the Beloved fails the expectations of the Lover for one reason or another.  The Lover feels rejected, despised, ignored, jealous or hurt, whereupon the darkside needs to be worked through in what is often called "shadow-work."

This is when most relationships break up, and the former Lover becomes a hater and a hurter.  There is a 180 degree turn from projecting positive elements onto the Beloved, to projecting negative elements.

At this point, the former Lover must understand this is where the deepest spiritual work occurs--working through the shadow.

Usually it is not all positive then all negative, but a cycling between the two.  It is very, very important not to run away at this time.

This has happened to other students, though not so dramatically as is the case with Lila.

Think back into your own life.  Remember when you were overwhelmingly in love with someone then something happened, an affair, a breakup of some sort, and then how much you hated that person for a long time and perhaps broke off the relationship yourself.

Or perhaps someone loved you totally, madly, but you also felt love for someone else, or maybe you left the first relationship for love of someone else, and the first Lover went nuts and became your primary hater.

It is very, very important not to leave the relationship if the other leaves it open despite hate going one or both ways.  You owe it to yourself to work through the shadow, the negativity.

8 comments:

  1. In the forests of the night..

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  2. Oh thank you so much Steve, this is so very beautiful! I can see your radiance.

    And thank you Ed for your brilliant response. Have been there many times...

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  3. A very valid point and one to my knowledge hasn't been explored yet......the reality of the negative or Shadow side. I think Jung delved into this as well(because I recall references from him to the Shadow) probably recognizing how the energy in Love has its flip side.

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  4. Wonderful comment and reply - had a few days of absolute Bliss awhile back then some old stuff came forth in a brand new way and was most disturbing. I Love the breadth of your perspective Edji - you never seem to amaze me - I couldn't make it to the last retreat but the next retreat - I'm coming!

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  5. Ed, could you, please elaborate more on working through shadow in one of your satsangs.

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  6. It's not my experience that there's this 'shadow.' Isn't that just another model, a concept?
    I've been deeply and incredibly in love many times and never experienced my own flip side as you portray.
    I have never become a hater or a hurter, no matter what the other person did to end things.
    Can you comment on that?

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  7. This Love (it is not even my love) is NOT directed toward any person, place or thing. It is that untouchable diamond, the Absolute, that dwells within our Guru, you the reader and all beings. The body of Edji could pass away tomorrow, blow up a Starbucks or wipe out a few devotees and this Intense Love would be unaffected. Mis-directed Love to a person, place or thing has a flip side of hate and like Edji said if you have unresolved issues the Shadow side may appear. Pure Love of the Absolute is Divine, all-encompassing, totally fulfilling and life changing experience available to you.

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  8. Uddhava said to Lord Krishna, "Those who have neglected devotion to the guru declare that they have attained liberation are deluded. Please, give us devotion to the guru. Do not tell me that devotion to the guru is not necessary. You are able to make possible that which is impossible, and make impossible that which is possible. He who becomes one with you holds all of your glory...Even if I gain liberation, I desire only to be your devotee."

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