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I had a spiritual discussion with my father today and he said that the ultimate goal of Hindus (Hinduism) was not to merge with and become one with Brahman (God), but to experience His love. As a preface to this question, when you become one with God, you burn up all of your sins and bad karmas, which frees you from reincarnation (the cycle of birth, death and rebirth). It is not necessarily done upon one’s death can this happen when the soul leaves the body, but even while one is still on the earthly plane with a physical body, as many mystics and enlightened souls in Hinduism have experienced over the ages. This is basically the experience of realizing the God within you and becoming one with Him, as a result. The true spiritual experience is one in which you attain oneness with not only yourself and with all of creation, but ultimately, with God – again, through both deep devotion and spiritual practices (such as yoga and meditation) while you have a physical body on earth, and not necessarily after you die.

My father also said that losing one’s identity is not desirable, but there is no “identity” when you realize you are God (which is your soul or spirit), since there is no “identity” associated with one’s soul or spirit, only with the “temporary” physical body. All of our souls or spirits come from God are really all one and the same. In Hinduism, it is said that the universe emerges from God (in the manner of being create) and eventually returns back to God (via dissolution or destruction). A true mystical and/or spiritual experience (of realizing God) is non-dual…….the reality is that when you become one with God, you therefore are one with all things, including yourself, because He exists in everything, including you. The God within you is the same as the God in everyone and everything else in His creation, which is the same as God Himself. When you realize God, you realize everything – you are not separate from God and His creation, but are a part of and are the same as them.

Since the ultimate goal of spirituality (and maybe of organized religion) is to become one with God and return to Him from where you came, it does not make sense to me, as a spiritual seeker, that feeling God’s love is higher than merging with and becoming one with God (as my father said), because it speaks of separateness from God. Christian and Hindu mystics, Jewish Kabbhalists, as well as the Sufi (in Islam) all say the same thing – that so as long as one is separate from God, one is not “truly” happy. In order to attain oneness (and union) with God, one should love God so that God can love one back in return…….this is done via devotion (bhakti). The same spiritual groups (Christan and Hindu mystics, Jewish Kabbhalists and the Sufis) also mention this as the best way to attain God oneness with Him. However, one only experiences the love of God by being devoted to God as a result of separateness from Him. You cannot be devoted to God when you have merged with God and are therefore one with Him – it is not possible. So when you do more and more devotion to God, His Love of you should increase, and should get to the point where you become one with Him.

In essence, the experience of feeling God’s love should come BEFORE attaining oneness with Him (as an incentive or inspiration to attain Him), because the more you get closer to God (through devotion), the more of God’s love you feel until you finally merge with and become one with Him, at which point, one can say that God’s love becomes infinite, since there is no difference between merging with and attaining oneness with God and experiencing His love – the two are one and the same, which makes a lot of sense to me. Again, the “true” spiritual realization of God (and oneness with Him) is non-dual is nature – there is no separateness from God in any shape or form, including the various aspects of Him, such as His love.

As not just a Hindu, but as a spiritual seeker, what my father says does not make any sense to me. It seems more valid that one can experience God’s love (through devotion to Him) BEFORE one merges and becomes one with Him, in which case, you can feel love that is infinite, and is the same as God Himself. As a result, there is no difference between God and His Love because God “IS” Love, just as He is Truth, Goodness, Peace, Beauty, and Joy, and therefore, you cannot go any higher.

Which view here is correct, because the last thing I want, as a spiritual seeker, is to be misguided in the wrong direction, which ends up not towards God. Thanks so much.

- Neerav

Hey, check out these auctions:
[eba kw="Bhakti Yoga" num="10" ebcat="all"]
Cool stuff.

Hey, check out these auctions:
[eba kw="Bhakti Yoga" num="10" ebcat="all"]
Cool stuff.

Hey, check out these auctions:
[eba kw="Bhakti Yoga" num="10" ebcat="all"]
Cool stuff.

Hey, check out these auctions:
[eba kw="Bhakti Yoga" num="10" ebcat="all"]
Cool stuff.