The Purpose of Religion

The purpose of religion and of life is proclaimed in the two commandments. In them lies the essence of the spiritual path.

Luke 10:25-37 (KJV)

25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

If we can love God wholly in actual communion in daily meditation and show by our action our love for our neighbour or divine brother, we will rise above the delusion that we are mortal beings and realize instead the eternal changeless Spirit within us and everywhere.

Love for God is the cosmic law for soul liberation. God is the protector and Master of Creation. He created us as one of His children and in His image. This promises our divine relation with Him as a loving Father. He is the source of love in our heart, which implants the intuition of our soul, the attention of our mind with all the strength of our mental determination and physical energy.

It is through our love that God enters into Oneness with us. To love God is to receive from Him eternal contentment and fulfillment with freedom from all desires.

When we worship God through outward formalities we maintain a separation between us and God. To love Him is to become His own, one with Him.

We can say, that to love God is a necessity through which our soul can make a conscious connection with Him. God can live without our love, but as the wave cannot live without the ocean, it is not possible for us to exist without the love of God.

The thirst for love in us is because we are made in God’s image of love. The saints call on us to love God not because of compulsion and commandments, but because His love is hidden in our very own hearts.

Though we must love God in order to know Him, it is equally true, that we must know Him in order to love Him. No one can love anything that he does not know anything about.

How can we know God? We can know Him in deep meditation as the ever new joy, or the Cosmic Sound of Aum, Amen, in cosmic love while concentrating devotion in the heart, or Cosmic Wisdom that dawns as inner enlightenment, or Cosmic Light evoking vision of Infinity, or Cosmic Life felt during meditation when our little life is joint to the Great life everywhere. 

Anyone who even once has sensed God as anyone of His tangible manifestations, cannot help, but love Him. He is the originator of all there is, the love with which we love, of our soul with which we claim immortality, of our mind and mental processes with which we think and reason, of our vitality with which we engage in our activities of life.

There is an inner meaning to loving God with all our heart, mind soul and strength. It is when we make the effort in meditation to know God using the sincerity of the heat and deepest feelings, the intuition of the soul and all the powers of concentration of the mind, all the life energy or strength, we will surely succeed.

To love God with all our mind is to love with focused concentration.

To love God with all our soul is to enter a state of super-conscious ecstasy, direct perception of the soul and its oneness with God, when no thoughts cross the mind yet there is a constant all knowing. It is the realization of the soul as the reflection of God, the soul’s connection with the consciousness of God. It is a state of exceeding great joy. To love God with all our soul requires a state of complete stillness of mind. It cannot be achieved while praying aloud, singing or chanting or doing anything else that activates the senses.

To love God with all our strength means interiorizing our life energy through Pranayama.

To love God with all our heart means union with God through unconditional love and devotion. Here one realizes that whatever is in one’s heart is where one’s concentration is. We direct our mind on the things we love.

Jesus emphasized that salvation begins with the practices that enable us to truly love God with the offerings of hart, mind, soul and strength.

The first commandment must lead us into observance of the second spiritual law. As we strive to feel God within, we have also the duty to share our experience of God with our neighbor. “Thou shall love thy neighbour all (all races and creatures anywhere with whom we come in contact” as thyself, our own soul, because we see God everywhere and in everyone.. Our neighbor is the manifestation of God. The soul is a reflection of Spirit, a reflection that is in every being and in the vibratory life of all animate and inanimate expressions.

Most people lead a self-centered life never feeling the pulse of the Universal life of God. If we live our lives without knowing that its source is the eternal life, we live an impoverished existence, aimlessly wandering in delusion, like a dream experience. Few know that their true Self, their immortal consciousness has never woken up to express.

Love for God in all is the essence of our salvation. We are made in his image. By the effort of the heart, mind and strength the all pervading light of God shines on our soul and dispels Darkness. We need to love God through continuous prayer and meditation and through physical, mental and spiritual service to His manifestation in our universal family of neighbors.

God has everything, but He wants our love.