Toward Love...
~ Gurumayi Chidvilasananda

Many years ago, while on holiday near the sea, I went for a walk alone in the early morning. The pathway had been naturally carved over time by other walkers, and was rocky in places.
 
My eye was taken by a particularly large marble stone in the shape of a teardrop, standing a few steps to one side of the path. I felt a connection with this beautiful object, three to four feet high. It seemed to be very present, almost calling me. I took a couple of steps toward it and felt its magnetism drawing me closer. As I reached it, I found myself embracing the stone with great love, and felt its Consciousness—the same Consciousness that was within me.
 
This truly profound experience has changed my feeling of relationship with inanimate objects as I encounter them: I see them as fellow travelers, beautiful beings, walking the path to liberation.
 

Gurumayi polishes the diamond of my consciousness with every teaching she bestows upon me. 
 
What great fortune to have something so profound and mysterious as love explained from so many sides and facets! It seems to me that there is no end to the variety of ways in which love manifests itself. With every teaching from Gurumayi, I discover love in a new way. I am fascinated and each one has captivated me!
 
I want to see love, feel love, understand love, and be immersed in love.
 

Trees Watching
 
As I walk along a black asphalt path
observing black tree trunks against the white snow
standing still like the witness
they watch it all.
 
Many footprints made in the snow
scurrying quick and slow
of rabbits, squirrels, dogs, mice, and men
so busy hustling or just strolling along
as I go along, too.
 
We are all watched by the witness so black and so tall
so still just observing it all
with nothing to say no thoughts produced
just standing always there
quiet and majestic whether noticed or not
watching all weather slow, calm, or hectic.
 
The hockey rink with ice gone away
with white snow in spots having melted away, too,
exposing black mud.
 
All the skating and fun, 
the skidding and running, yelling and playing
the majestic trees observe with not a word
just watching it all in their blissful stance
as I glance high up at their limbs
touching the resplendent blue sky.
 

Viewing the nature photos on the Siddha Yoga path website, I found myself practicing this teaching from Gurumayi about “seeing these eyes in inanimate objects” that are “windows to the soul.” Whenever I glimpsed this feeling of God’s palpable presence in an object in one of the nature photos, I inwardly stepped toward it rather than just staying passive.
 
What a fascinating and rewarding step for me to take “toward love”! The question arose in me, “Are there any inanimate objects?” Everything seemed to pulse with and radiate the inner sound of God, which is also pulsing and radiating within me. 
 

This morning, when I read this “Toward Love…” teaching from Gurumayi, I was taken by surprise by her question, “Do you see these eyes in inanimate objects?” It had never occurred to me that inanimate objects have eyes that are “the windows to the soul.”
 
As I looked up and around my living room from this new perspective, my eyes fell on the chair that I sit on to meditate. It is a chair I see very often but as I looked at it today, with Gurumayi’s teaching still reverberating inside me, I became aware of its presence. It looked cozy, comfortable, somehow subtly alive. Actually, I found it quite mesmerizing for a few moments. I was reminded of Vincent van Gogh’s painting of his chair. This ordinary, everyday, inanimate object had become a subject of awe for me and many others.
 
Later in the day I understood that one way I can “take a step toward” the light in inanimate objects when I perceive it is by allowing myself to be still and receptive.
 

This morning I was surprised and happy to see this teaching in which Gurumayi speaks of inanimate objects in relation to love.

Recently, I took a trip via airplane. I have a small fear of flying. As the plane was revving up for takeoff, I began to do what I typically do in this situation. I began to ask my Gurus for protection during this plane ride. But for some reason, I stopped short of doing that and spoke directly to the plane instead. Immediately, I felt love, playfulness, and connection to and from the airplane! I wished it well and thanked it for flying me to my destination. 
 

This teaching of Gurumayi’s reminds me that when I give love to an object, this object feels illumined to me and in return, I receive its own love in my heart.
 
That’s what happened after I’d worked as a designer in the automotive industry. I worked only on the right-hand, passenger-side door of a particular car. Four years later—the time required to manufacture the car—I was about to cross a street when love filled my heart. Stopped at the red light was a car. As my eyes fell on the right-hand door, I exclaimed with love, “This is my door!“
 
Another time, I was traveling on the Paris subway. Seated near me were a father and son from the provinces. The son was ecstatic in his joy at riding in the subway. When we all left the train at the same station, I saw the child waving goodbye to the subway, saying: “Au revoir, métro!“ To my amazement, I saw that the lights on the subway were turning into eyes—the subway was alive!
 

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading an archived section called “Words from Gurumayi” on the Siddha Yoga path website. One particular teaching there caught my attention: Wherever you look, find God’s splendor.
 
Intrigued by this guidance, I dedicated time to contemplating Gurumayi’s words. In my journal I wrote, “On the Siddha Yoga path, Gurumayi encourages the cultivation of a sense of wonder. This involves finding joy in the small and extraordinary aspects of everyday experiences.” Motivated by this teaching, I next engaged in a reflective exercise. Looking around at various objects, I pondered three specific questions:
     What exactly do I appreciate?
     What emotions has it stirred within me?
     How have I witnessed the divine play of Shakti?
 
Continuing this practice, I later ventured out for a walk. Over time, I noticed a shift in my awareness. I found myself appreciating my surroundings more deeply. Spontaneously, my hands moved to my chest, expressing a profound reverence for the existence of everything around me.
 

Gurumayi’s eleventh teaching in “Toward Love…” reminds me of a remarkable experience I once had of “taking a step toward” the light.
 
I am nervously waiting for an important meeting. I pray for stillness, and suddenly everything shimmers with brilliant, scintillating light. I feel weightless and that I may disappear for an instant. Then I am subtly captured by a knowing in my heart to trust the light—it will carry me through, and I won’t disappear. I step toward the light with trust; I relax, as every cell of my being becomes that scintillating light.
 
I experience total stillness in the midst of the noise and movement around me, as people continue to meet and talk. I didn’t disappear but rather  became more full and present than ever. The light of the Self, of my being, became everything inside and out. There was no separation, only the experience of fullness, connection, and the awareness of an exquisite love that wove everything together.
 
I knew this was a gift of my Guru’s grace—to experience what’s possible and what is always here, waiting for me to see from the eye of the heart.
 

After reading Gurumayi’s eleventh teaching for “Toward Love…,” I was drawn immediately to recite Shri Guru Gita, which I had been meaning to do for a while. While reciting Shri Guru Gita, I kept thinking, “What is my prayer or intention for this today?”
 
I extended the meditation period for myself after the recitation. I was feeling unsettled that I still was not clear on my intention. Then the word purity came up for me, and how reciting Shri Guru Gita was purifying me so that I can be more sensitive to others, a virtue I have been working on.
 
Finally my mind settled on this prayer, and I felt peace: “Help me to see the Truth in myself and others. Help me to honor the Truth in myself and others. Help me to love the Truth in myself and others.”