Divine Love Number: Kalyana-Kalpataru (An Old and Rare Book)

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Is it not a misfortune for humanity that we are compelled to live and breath in the air that is surcharged with atheism and agnosticism? There are people who firmly believe that there is no need of a God for running and managing the universal machinery smoothly. It is all automatic and the very nature of universe to run. They do not even bother to think whether or not this show will come to a stop and whether or not it will again commence and when and how. It is sufficient for them that they are living; the earth is rotating and the planets are functioning in their routine way. The materialistic tendencies are reaching their peak and zenith.

Even though the generality of human population have started feeling some sort of unrest and suffocation in the core of their hearts and they are getting fed up with the material advancement and try to break through this horrible net. But alas! Nobody seems to have a torch to see the path clearly. So everybody seems to be groping in the pitch dark, moving cautiously.

Is there a remedy for the present situation? Yes, certainly there is a remedy. It is the faith and reverence and love to Divine and its divinity. The history tells and presents irrefutable proof that in the days when India was rich enough in her idealistic thinking, devotion and reverence for Self and Superself, everybody felt satisfied and happy within and without. They were after quenching the inner thirst of knowledge; to know the Reality which existed before the life commenced and which will remain even after the show is over.

Ego is an element which played a very important role in the development of civilizations-spiritual or material. Our seers in ancient India found the annihilation of ego as the only remedy to get inner peace. This annihilation of ego could be achieved through two different and distinct ways. Let us take an example. There is a slate with a drop of water over its surface. We have got to remove it from there. How to do it? Now we throw some heat and get the water evaporated and finally disappeared. This is one way. There is another way quite opposite to the first. We start spreading the water over the entire surface of the slate and ultimately we find that there is no water at all.

The seers of India experimented on both the ways. Some of them abnegated their very existence and made a complete surrender within the hands of their God. It was known as Bhakti cult. When Kabira says-

It is a complete abnegation of ego. There was the other camp which we may even call Upanishadic camp. They went for infinitival expansion of their ego or Self in other words- "Whatever there is, it is all the expansion of my Self. There is nothing different from and beyond this Self of mine. There again Kabira says-

In the words of Emerson-"I keep and pass and turn again." It was roughly speaking Jnanamarga of the Upanisads. We have seen the drop of water disappearing from the slate. So far the human genius could invent only these two ways for annihilating ego or Maya or social or spiritual dissatisfaction or in materialistic terminology as removing obstacles in the path of smooth and peaceful running of the society or universe.

One thing is certain we are swimming for which we are bound to, in the waters of materialistic ocean. There are only two ways for the adjustment-either we spiritualize the matter or materialize the spirit. The latter is automatically happening for the former we have got to make sincere and serious efforts. And for this purpose Kalyana- Kalpataru is bringing out its special issue as Divine Love Number-Divine Love which is the only panacea for all evils-social, cultural, spiritual and so on. What does the expression 'Divine Love' mean? Divine Love is just like a multifaceted coin. Artiste the Supreme moulds and makes so many toys and happily plays with them. Every creator is innately bound to love his creation. The universe and its relation within and without, is the proof of his complicated workmanship. He too loves his creation. As a token of His love He provided all necessary paraphernalia for all beings-animate or inanimate. He has provided gravitational force and strength for the sustenance of their position. The Upanisad says-"When His created beings felt hungry, He supplied food." That is one aspect of divine love-the flow of love from the Divine to its creation, (2) as a corollary of love, this cord of innate love among the creations, attracts them to the very source of the existence. There comes religion, worshipping, practising penances, devotion, doing job selflessly and realizing the non-existence of this illusory world and some more. These are all different aspects of love divine- a few negative and the rest positive in the forms of different approaches, (3) in the language of psychologists love is the most prominent among the fourteen instincts of the human beings. It is innate. A person cannot but love whether we distinguish it as mundane love or spiritual love i.e., love towards God.

In the present chaotic era the factor of love is most indispensable. Since the man has converted himself into a carnivorous animal trying to devour everybody else apart from him, the teaching, the preaching, the extension and the expansion along with the sublimation of love, is the only remedy, is the only cure. Only the sublimation and expansion of our mundane love can make us a real Karmayogi. It will reduce every type of friction to nil. In the words of Tulasidasa-

So, this is the natural result of love sublime. O! There does not stand a being other than me. It is all me and me. Of course, it is an ideal state. We certainly cannot expect to expand our love and our individuality to that standard yet there is no harm in making sincere effort in this direction. We can certainly cultivate in us the quality of tolerance, accommodating and respecting the neighbour. We should certainly not make a nuisance of ourselves and develop a helpful attitude to our society-mates and all other creatures and side by side remembering God-

We should never forget that the right place for us is not the top of an ivory tower. We have got to live in this very world willingly or unwillingly and at the same time we cannot sit idle even for a moment-work, work and work. So why not to make our work as divine worship?

Next I would like to acknowledge my shortcomings and limitations to the scholarly readers. It's a very big venture and a subject beyond the human reach of discussion and description. It is for the readers to judge the value and the merit of the issue. I on my part feel simply to be an instrumental puppet in the hands of Almighty. Anyway good or bad whatever it is, I offer to the lotus feet of the Lord. To our readers I apologise for the faults in this number which may be there. Side by side I thank the scholarly authors for their contributions and so do I thank the editorial staff of Kalyana-Kalpataru for the great and sincere labour they have put in bringing out this issue.

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