Yet there is a difference between ordinary love and love for God, which is also known as Divine Love. While ordinary love brings phases of intense happiness, it also brings phases of intense misery. When the lover is separated from the beloved the pain of separation gnaws away at the heart of the lover. It is a pain which is excruciating. However in Divine Love, even in separation, the remembrance of God does not give pain. On the contrary it fills the heart and soul with intense happiness, for in this remembrance there is the thought of God who is the source of bliss and strength. The devotee does not feel any separation from God in the first place because God is ever present inside him, so there is no pain of separation either.
In the love of a lover for his beloved there is fear even in moments of intense happiness. Even in union no happiness is complete because of the fear of separation. After every union there is a separation, and finally there is the inevitable separation that is brought about by decay and death.
This must be so because everything in the world is perishable. The lover knows that one day he shall have to part from his beloved and will have to bear the agonising pain of the final separation. This fear of the future destroys even the happiness of the present.
However in Divine Love there is no such fear, because God is eternal and ever present, in life as well as in death. He is a companion who never separates from us, and who is not subject to decay and death.
The devotee knows that he too is immortal when he is united with God in life as well as in death. There is a constant feeling of union in all states, which fills the soul with happiness that is everlasting. God is the final culmination of Love. He is the Eternal Friend who is always with his devotee. Shri Nathji often quoted the Persian Verses below:
Yaareen beguzeen ke bevafaayi na kunad
Dil khastaa turaa dar aashnaayi na kunad
Paibastaa dar aagoshe kinaarat gardard
Hargiz za to yak gaam judaayi na kunad
Make such a Friend in life who will not betray thee,
Who will not break thy heart in love,
Who will keep thee ever in His embrace
And never leave thee for even a single step.
However during the initial stages of this Divine Love the devotee has much to learn from the feelings of an ordinary lover. If the devotee cannot find the feelings of love for God within himself, which an ordinary lover has for his beloved, then, indeed, his devotion is far from complete and he can never attain God realisation. The essential thing is the desire for God, which must be intense before one can reach God.
In a greater sense it is impossible for man to develop a love for God through his own efforts. A man can love his near and dear ones because he can see them and talk to them. How can he love someone who is Invisible? It is against human nature to do so. Therefore, has it been truly said that the love of God or the desire for God can come to a man only through the Grace of God. You can see the sun only with the light of the sun. You can see God only when He reveals Himself to you. You can love God only when He sends His love to you.
Man must not only purify his heart by removing the desires of the world from it, but also pray to God with faith to give him His Love and to enter within him. It is only by becoming a zero before God that man can hope to secure His Divine Grace.
When the wires of faith connect the bulb of the heart to God, the Divine Light manifests itself therein. And, yet, faith is not all, man must learn to purify his heart and then lead a life of absolute righteousness, love and service, which must be revealed in all his actions. It is only then that the Grace of God comes to him. This was what the life of Shri Babaji Maharaj had shown to the world.