Synopsis:  There was a query from a reader which is reproduced below:

“….I have a question for you, which nowadays I started asking myself as well as searching for an answer everywhere. How do we monitor our condition? Is there any universal unconditional Love Barometer? If there is one, how do we measure up?”

The questioner wanted to know whether the ability to love all creations without any conditions (notwithstanding what they are or who they are) can be used to measure the level of spiritual maturity one has attained.

The article attempts to explain the difference between the concepts of regular love  and universal unconditional love. The article also suggests ways for regular love to mature into universal unconditional love.

The article further suggests that there is no need to measure the perfection of anything in the universe, including the need to measure the level of spiritual perfection attained by one. This is because the entire manifestation is already perfect by default; the spiritual perfection we are referring to is, therefore, only subjective. However, if an aspirant, for routine practical reasons wants to know, but not for self-judgments,  where one stands in developing spiritual understanding,  it is beneficial to check how far the principles of universal oneness is appreciated by the aspirant. This is because, universal unconditional love is the direct result of a deep appreciation of the principles of oneness – the unitary nature of whole cosmos.

There are two queries here. (1) How do we monitor our spiritual conditionfrom time to time? (2)  Can Universal Unconditional Love be used to measure our spiritual condition ?

The second question is about Universal Unconditional Love, which can be answered first, because that will pave the way for answering the first question.

We need to clearly understand the difference between the regular form of love and the Universal Unconditional love, to begin with.

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What is love ?

We are generally aware of the emotion called "love", only as we experience it, in our mundaneeverydaylife.  Examples of such commonly experienced  “love” are:   

• The love as being popularly portrayedin films - love between boy and  girl or        

    between man and woman.

• Lust mistaken as love.
• The love for wealth, buildings, cars, clothes, perfumes, bank accounts,  movie,            

    music, etc.

• The love for food, intoxication etc
• The love for career, name, fame etc
• The love for one’s own children, family etc

Broadly speaking, we love what we create or what we wish to create. This means, by default, we are not all that inclined tolove all those that we have not created orallthat we have not wished to create.  At best, our feelings are neutral about   creationscreated by others. There is no deep love for something created by 'others', no matter what we talk about themoutwardly. This is the regular, standard  concept of love in our mundane life. Putting it differently, our regular love is an expenditure of  energy occurring within our  inter-connected circle  of all that we choose to include in it. This is an extremely limited view and experience of ‘love' .

Universal unconditional love, on the other hand, is the love that embraces everything that is there in existence. No exceptions are there. No pre-conditions are applied. It is denied to none . It is denied to nothing.  Who can have that kind of love? Only the Creator who created everything can have such love. Just as our love is towards our creations, universal love is  the Creator's love for His creations, which includes  everything seen or unseen in the cosmos, including ourselves .  

But there is one major difference. Our creations are just re-arrangements we do using the stuff that the Creator has so kindly given to us. There is no original stuff of our own in any of our creations. We are only playing with what the Great Creator has already created and given to us – including ourselves.

What are “creations“ ?

The creations of the Creator are all the expressions of one-single-great-original stuff – “Consciousness”.   How do we come to know of this? There is a simple logic to know this.

I am alive, because I have consciousness. When that consciousness is gone from me, I cease to exist. I know that you are also alive just as I am. That is good enough proof for me to realize that you too have consciousness.  If consciousness is something that only I have, only I should exist and not you! Because both of us exist, it is logical to assume that we are both abiding with the same stuff – the  Consciousness.  So does every other thing because every other thing  also exists;  hence Consciousness is the  common causative substratum for everything to exist. Everything could have sprang forth only from this one single “Consciousness”.  I am using Capitalized ‘C’ to denote that original  pre-existed , single, non-dual Consciousness which is the God principle.  Small letter ‘c’ is used to denote   units of  identified or  manifested     consciousness that we refer to as ‘you’, ‘me’, ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘mountain’, ‘star’ , ‘sun’ etc.

Consciousness is all that there is.  The entire manifested and unmanifested worlds, including you and me are, therefore, nothing but units of the same Consciousness. The rock, the mountain, the plants, the animals, you and I are all expressions of that Consciousness. Many sages and thinkers in many cultures  knew this and  had  talked about this  for eons of time.  Ancient Indian texts are replete with similar views. Examples are great Vedic statements such as “ Prajnanam Brahma “ ( Consciousness is Brahman – Rig Veda ), “ Ayam Atma Brahma “ ( This self is Brahman – Atharva Veda ), “ Aham Brahmasmi “ ( I am Brahman – Yajur Veda ) . They all point out to the unitary nature of creations. All is one because all is made of one and sustained by one.

From the study of Quantum Physics too,  we can see that    all matter can be ultimately broken down to sub atomic particles   such as electrons, protons and neutrons, which are not matter but are just fields of energy only. Everything is, thus, essentially the fields of potentiality, no matter how differently they appear to us in different contexts.

Consciousness is also the cause for our awareness. There is a difference in the awareness of a rock to the awareness of a tree to the awareness of a cat to the awareness of a human. Our individual awareness has expanded to the maximum possible level that we have become most comfortable with. For example, a rock is consciousness embodied but with a very tiny bit of awareness. A plant or tree is similar but  has more awareness than the rock. Animals have still more awareness than plants. Humans have even more awareness than all the former three.  Even amongst humans, the individual awareness is varying. Each one of us has reached a level of awareness that we are individually comfortable with. For example, my awareness is what I have reached comfortably resulting in what I am writing here. You may or may not share my view, depending on the level of awareness you are comfortable with.

It can also be noticed that, as awareness increases the freedom also increases. A rock has the least freedom and we humans have the maximum freedom.  Based on awareness and freedom,  every   object is  classified into  “ Densities”.  Minerals have First Density awareness. Plants are with  Second Density awareness. Animals and humans have Third Density awareness; but humans have greater freedom than animals , because of the greater awareness including self-awareness that humans have. Animals do not have self-awareness.  When our awareness increases further, we will progress into fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh densities and complete the cycle.  These are great possibilities awaiting us to attain, through expansion of our awareness.

Hence, everything is  ' consciousness ', either embodied as body-mind-consciousness complex  or non-embodied as 'energy' or ' a field of potentiality' or a ‘unit of consciousness’ .  It is this Great Divine Consciousness that we refer to as “ God.” According to our individual level of  awareness , we have differing concepts of  God – that is all. Whatever name one might use to indicate God, it is this Great Divine Consciousness  is  what is referred.

Let us now examine the connection between  “Consciousness” and  “love “.

Love/Light - Essential Nature of  “Consciousness”

Consciousness is the consciousness of love, according to the ' Law of One'  ( www.lawofone.info). Universal unconditional  love is the  infinite pure love of the Creator ( God Principle ) with which  the Great Creator put forth bits of Itself (Consciousness) and manifested the worlds, seen and unseen.

According to Law of One, the ultimate, undistorted  or uncorrupted  truth is that  “all is one” . Everything is an  ' interactive unified field' of one single Consciousness.  All the rest as we see and feel in front of us  are distortions of this great unity! The first distortion was the Freewill of this Great Unitary Consciousness to create, to express Itself and to experience Itself. Consequently, the myriad of creations came into existence at the time of big bang, using certain creative principles generated for creation. These creative principles are love and light, which is the second distortion according to “law of one”.  The entire manifestation is, thus, based on love and light.  These creative principles are referred  as ' aadi parasakthi'  by Indian Mystics while  their western counterparts called this ' Logo”. 

To sum up,  according to the ‘law of one’, the Divine Consciousness, through “It’s”  sheer freewill wanted to express ”Itself” and wanted  to experience “It’s” infinite potential. This freewill was the first distortion of that great Unitary Nature of Itself. The Second distortion was the design principles  that  the Great Divine Consciousness created out of Itself. These design principles are love and light. This love and  light is what created everything manifested or unmanifested  - the entire universe with all its mind boggling vastness and complexities. You and I am just a small insignificant speck of this love and light, but several fold distorted in the process. We are therefore,  essentially nothing other than love and light. Everything is, indeed, the love and light.  The importance of Sun on the existence of life on our planet earth cannot be, therefore,  over emphasized. Without sunlight photosynthesis cannot be done and without photosynthesis life cannot  be sustained on earth as we know it today. Plants do turn in the direction of sunlight.  You can certainly notice this great drama of life, day in and day out; where sunlight fall, day breaks out and activities begin. Where sunlight recedes, night falls and activities come to a grinding halt. This is spectacular because  we can visually see the light.

But there is something which is not visually visible but without which even light would not have come into existence – that is the Universal, unconditional love of the Creator's  original “thought” ( or The Design Principles in other words ). It is  with this that  the Creator  manifested  everything,  at the time of  the Big Bang. The nature of Creator's love can be described as    pure love, light, bliss and many other highest emotions that we are not aware of yet.  Everything sprang forth from this infinite blissful divine love ; this   Universal Unconditional love is there within everything  in a hidden manner, including within  ourselves.

This hidden state is due to an illusion that is there in our Third Density life,  by design. Law of One refers illusion as a result of ' distortion' . For grasping the concept contained herein, think of  liquid water as distortion of ice and water vapour as further distortion of liquid water. Water vapour is the combined distortion of hydrogen and oxygen molecules, both of which  are pure  field of energy potential.    Every creation is made of the same stuff and everything is nested together and connected together with the same stuff. There is this great Unity and Oneness that exists in spite of the myriad  of differences and varieties  that are there outwardly.

Because everything sprang forth from the field of  this Universal Unconditional love of the Creator and everything is basking in that love. Due to successive distortions, we have become what we are today ; yet the essence of us is the same love and light. Through expanded awareness, we need to remove the distortion and recover our  love and light . This is the task on hand for every seeker.

Recognizing this great Oneness and living   with the principles of this Oneness is the way to start  uncovering this hidden universal love within us. Spirituality is nothing but an endeavor to recognize and uncover this great Oneness, which is hidden to us in the illusion of life. We have to discover this great oneness.

Moving up From Regular Love Mode to Universal Unconditional Love Mode..

Knowledge   of the unitary nature of the Universal  ( “ Law of One “ ) is  of significant importance in experiencing universal unconditional love. We need to know that ‘all is one’ – We need to know, for sure, that we are also an inseparable part of that ‘oneness’.  Just as no fish has any existence without the medium of water, we have no existence without the medium of Consciousness, the essence of this Consciousness  is love/light.   Mere believing or intellectual understanding at some theoretical level  is not enough. We need to know this from our heart.   Then our role and direction  in universe  will become clear to us . With that knowing, Universal Unconditional Love will become our core nature.   This is expanded awareness – the factor that pushes us up in the evolutionary ladder.

Where do we develop  this knowledge from ? How do we make the beginning?

To initiate this  exploration , we need to recognize that our life is much deeper and purposeful, however otherwise it may seemingly appear to us right now. This exploration is partly  the result of  an inner inspiration and partly the result of an inquiring mind – a mind that is not satisfied with the routine. This is the result of the expansion of awareness.

There is a beautiful resource for learning more about this topic on the  website - http://www.lawofone.info/ . This subject is of great importance to every seeker on the path of evolution .  Law of one is not an easy subject to grasp  since the channeled information available from the original Ra Material is very dense and complex. The whole original text is available free of cost at the website referred to  above.  There is a simplified book by name “ Living the Law of One – 101: The Choice” ( ISBN:0-945007-21-3 ) that  is available from  www.llresearch.org   . This book is written by Carla L Rueckert , who channeled Ra in early 1980s  . The information available on http://www.lawofone.info/ is the result of the  life-time work of  Carla Rueckert together with her research associates  Don Elkins and  Carl’s husband  Jim McCarty . They are the modern day equivalents of  our ancient sages,  who explored the universe sitting in their meditational caves  and  stated the same truth – All  is One !

Before we proceed further , let me  introduce the subject of  “channeling” for those who are not yet familiar with this type of communication.  Channeling   is a metaphysical way of communication,  usually  occurring  between entities of    differing    densities or differing level of awareness.  There are different methods for communications. Communication through vibration ( sound ) is the method we usually  adopt in our world which is what  we are usually  familiar with. 

But, how do we communicate with domestic animals ?  We use symbols and sounds of specific vibrations to communicate in such cases.  There is always this difficulty to communicate between entities of differing awareness levels.  But with sufficiently developed awareness and in the right conditions of mind and body, such  non verbal communications  as ‘channeling’ are possible. It is a well known fact  that the earliest Vedic knowledge was mostly ‘ shrutis ’ ( literally meaning ' that which is heard' )  - meaning, they were  communications  ‘ heard’ in the minds of sages. It was revealed to them in their minds through thoughts and symbol forms.  Think of how scientists like  Madam Curie and  Issac Newton  got wonderful ideas  which led them to great discoveries.  It was not the falling apple that brought the idea to Newton . It was the result of a communication  that happened in Newton’s mind  that resulted in the popping up of the idea. It was  at  that time that apple fell – two totally different events.

There is an excellent introduction to channeling  on this link http://www.spiritualityfoundation.org/subscriptions/whispers/invitation.html. Shri P Rajagopalachari, the Spiritual Master / Guide  of Sahaj Marg system has beautifully elaborated on this type of communication. You are encouraged to read this for gaining a good understanding of the subject.  However, it must be noted that  like in any other field,  misuse of  this mode of communication  can also be found in the field of channeling.  Caution  and care should, therefore,  be exercised in determining the value of the channeled material. This is a personal responsibility.  There is a way to test the validity of any information.  The material should not ask you to do anything against your freewill, against the spiritual laws or the laws of the land. Further, the material should not instill fear in you in any manner.  If the channeled material fails to pass any of these tests, do not pay attention to that. Just discard it. 

I shall now  endeavour  to give  a  brief overview   of the concepts involved in the process of expanding your awareness and elevating your   energy of regular love to energy of Universal Unconditional love, according to the “law of one”.  I am giving them below as simple   conceptual statements   so that it will be easier for you to  contemplate  as individual concepts and verify whether it makes any intuitive sense to you. If it makes sense to you, contemplate further on it. If it does not, just put it aside without making any value  judgment;  who knows, it might make tremendous sense to you later  on another occasion! 

·         We are not  our physical body. We are actually  a body-mind-Spirit   organism. Spirit is the core of  the individualized consciousness, which survives death and rebirths. It is the God-spark in our body-mind-Spirit complex. It is the Spirit that grows in  complexity through rebirths and attain congruency with God.    When the Spirit  takes leaves of   the body-mind-spirit complex, the entity that we know as ‘I’  drops dead. So we are essentially the Spirits. We are not this body nor are we our minds. ( Tips : to subjectively verify this explore the voluminous literature on near death experiences ( NEDs)  and out of   body (OOB ) experiences. Some links are given in the video section of this website.)

·         Mind  has a very important role to play in the body-mind-spirit complex. There are two minds. (1)  The body has a mind .  Intellect is the mind of the body. Brain is it’s seat. (2)  Our heart  has a mind of its own. Consciousness or the essence of Spirit  is the mind of  the heart. Heart is the seat of this consciousness.  Habitually , the body-mind-spirit organism is  only  making use of the intellect to solve life’s problems. Intellect is extremely useful to make decisions in life; but it is automated stored memories , like a drop down menu , from which it  chooses the most logical answer  to solve the life’s problem. The mind of the heart, on the other hand,  is the all knowing, all pervasive, all causative infinite    consciousness. Unfortunately, the body-mind-spirit organism is always run by the mind of the body – intellect.  It does not refer to the mind of the heart  for guidance and help. This is the cause for all  the sufferings of the body-mind-spirit organism. ( Tip – think of what we refer to  as ‘ prick of conscience’ ! Who is that pricking you ? Why do you put your hand automatically on your heart, when  you want to express  your true feelings, as gestures? )

·         The expansion of awareness  is the gradual  integration of  the body’s mind and the heart’s  mind  in such a way    that the body-mind-spirit organism gets  help, guidance and assistance   from the infinite source too. This  guidance from the heart’s mind  is of paramount importance  in making ethical choices in life. In routine physical matters, the guidance from the intellect is very vital and very useful. Spiritual evolution results in  a gradual shift from the brain to the heart. ( Tip – Think of incidents and events, where help has reached us miraculously. Think of the intuition  you might have experienced in your life. )

·         Develop  this  absolute ,unwavering  understanding that "all is one". There is no separate  you, me, she , he, animals, trees,  birds, mountains, stars, planets,  asteroids, independent of consciousness - all are one bit of a hugely Great Supreme Consciousness of the Creator - The God Principle.  Consciousness is all that there is. When you hurt some one, you are actually hurting yourself. When you see a flaw in others, you are actually seeing your own flaw. The only difference is that it is dormant in you while  it is active in the other person – because both are same fundamentally. Acceptance, forgiveness and compassion for others as well as for ourselves is the path that leads to evolution.  ( Tip -  Explore quantum physics. Everything is made of the same electrons and protons, both of which have nothing material about them. They are merely   fields  of energy ) 

·         Think of the entire  universe as a great dancing arena , where every manifested and unmanifested entity  is dancing  in the flow of one single Consciousness. Everything is vibrating  the light and love  of same Consciousness. Enjoy this dance and join the dance, rather than standing separately from it. It is a question of attitude towards life . ( Tip – Explore  how attitude changes the experience. In our daily life. )

·         Understand that your father , mother, siblings, spouses and off-springs as well as  all those whom you consider as  adversaries and  friends are all dancers  in the  same cosmic dance. They are all  the different appendages of the same body.   You and they are the same. What is there in them is there in you too and vice versa.  Treat   them all  alike with acceptance, forgiveness and compassion as you would accept different organs of your body. Keep the energy of love and light flowing through you and let it spill over to all that this there  in you, around you and then over to the universe.

Practical Tips .

Once the above fundamentals have become the foundation of your knowing , live the life in that vibration.  Some practical tips are given below.

1. Practice the presence of one creator. Think of It and feel It’s presence with you all the time. Visualization is a very helpful tool.  Do not be discouraged by failures.  Keep the intention and efforts , it does not really matter what results have been achieved. What really matters is your intention, which alone the universe  notes down from us.

1. Practice meditation, if possible;  Or go for a walk in the woods or to the sea shore or to the forest;  take some time for yourself  to sit in the stillness of your mind. When it is difficult to still your mind, just “ intend to allow it to stop”

1. Allow a “spaciousness”  to come to your mind. Do not allow your mind to get constricted. Accept and forgive yourself.  Then you will be able to forgive others.  Do not be judgmental of yours when you make mistakes.  Mistakes are the way through which we learn. We are not able to forgive others, because we are not forgiving ourselves. When we grow old and our hair turns grey, accept it instead of painting it to its original colour and resist it. This is an example of acceptance of ourselves. Your life is worthy of it, because you are IT.

1. Try to practice meditation . Try to watch yourself . Watch your thoughts as if you are separated from your body. 

1. Asking / requesting the heart’s mind to respond to a challenging situation is a good practical way for conscious living and conscious behaving.

The Flamingo  and the Fish.

Swami Bhoomananda,  ( http://brahmavidya.org/ ) one of my teachers,  once depicted this concept of Unity with a  beautiful story .  He was referring to the  beautiful sight of a    Flamingo. While appreciating the beauty of the flamingo, it picked a beautiful fish from the lake and started swallowing it, which was, no doubt,  a bit disturbing sight. Then Swamiji observed that , we have no right to feel pity for the fish or feel annoyed with the flamingo, because both are in reality  just  two differing expressions  of the same  ‘consciousness’  that is of  the  Supreme  Divinity – the God Head. Whose side would you take ? Would you feel sorry for  the fish  or would you take part in the joy of  the flamingo?  Both are illusions made of two   units of  the same consciousness, made to appear in our consciousness by the Supreme consciousness – All are one, enacting a great cosmic drama. Swamiji, therefore, asked us to ‘watch the incident, make no comments, just keep walking ’.

Unity and Oneness as a yardstick.

Unconditional love is thus a great appreciation of the law of UNITY and the appreciation and love for the great cosmic dance, where we are also dancers. Spiritual maturity is the arrival of clear knowing that all is one and knowing  our humble role amongst all  creations. Spiritual maturity is the joy we derive from this knowledge of unity and oneness. Universal love is the result of this maturity. This dance is a perfect dance at all times.

In reality, there is no need to check and measure our spiritual maturity, because we are as best as we are comfortable with. Everything is  already   perfect  by default. How can the Supreme creation be otherwise ?

However,  for practical reasons, if one wants to know how far one hasreached in developing  universal unconditional love,  we only need to look at how far deeply  and sincerely we have understood  the law of oneness and experienced the joy of living in that eternal oneness.

You are welcome to  join the great cosmic dance! The universe will embrace you, for you are the universe itself.