UNDIVIDED LOVE

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

UNDIVIDED LOVE
Yesterday, an elderly lady approached me and said, “Over forty years ago your Master
promised me that I would certainly attain Self-knowledge, atma-jnana. For forty years I have been
striving. Why have I not yet attained?”
It is in this context that I share with you this vital factor, this vital inner state, this one vital
condition that one might call undivided love. I answered the person: “Yes, it is true that you have
been striving for forty years, but at the same time you have also been striving for many other things.
If it had been atma-jnana only for which you had been striving—that being the only desire, only
wish, only yearning of your entire being, the longing of your heart, that being the only aspiration of
your entire life, and you had directed all your love towards that attainment—who knows, by this
time you would not be putting this question to me.”
Then I asked: “Did Holy Master say when you would attain?” She said, “No.” I said: “Lord
Krishna said: ‘bahu-nam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate (At the end of many births the
wise man takes refuge in Me).’ When your preoccupations and occupations are many, then you
have to bide your time. Self-knowledge has been one of your loves, but in addition you had your
children, your husband, your home, your possessions, your social life and your own personal life
where many things were important to you.”
So, the progress of the spiritual life, its evolution, is a gradual diminishing of diversities in
our interests and occupations and a progressive focussing on that one ultimate self-chosen goal of
our life. We have to carefully test our lives and see whether this process is taking place—a gradual
narrowing down of the area of our desires, aspirations, activities and occupations.
In the beginning, it is many, it is diverse and the field is large. And as sadhana, spiritual life,
proceeds, it tends to become lesser and lesser. But even that is not enough. The ultimate aim, the

desideratum, is to arrive at a stage when there is a total unification of the entire being upon the one
non-dual aim, object, goal of all aspirations. When that comes, it heralds a new day.
This is the teaching put before us by all the saints and sages. In the Gita it is referred to as
ananya bhakti (ananya—where there is no other). When Jesus was asked: “Which commandment
is the greatest of all?” He replied: “The Lord our God is one, and you shall love the Lord with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” And Lord
Krishna said: “tam eva saranam gaccha sarvabhavena bharata (Seek refuge in Him with all your
being, O Arjuna).”
So, in various ways the scriptures point us towards undivided love. For it is said that where
the love of your heart is, there your mind is. And where your mind is, towards that you will
inexorably move. That is the law. Where the heart and mind are, that is the direction your life takes.
And, for overcoming all the distractions of the mind, the restless wanderings of the mind,
the one thing needful is undivided love. Even in ordinary life, when you like something, when your
heart is centred on it, then you spontaneously engage in it, you are drawn towards it and absorbed in
it. Even the passing of time is not felt. Where there is this liking, this love, everything becomes
natural, spontaneous, easy, effortless. There is no struggle.
Have you got the same liking for brahma-jnana? Have you got the same taste for sadhana,
for the Divine Name, for ultimate illumination? Have you got the same keen interest, keen longing?
Then it comes. But we are beings who have diverse longings, diverse interests. Many things are
tasteful to us—too many, one might say. There is not that undivided love.
There is a verse that says: “kantha-avarodhana-samaye smaranam kutas te.” The poet asks:
“If for your whole life you have been dwelling on and thinking of objects as objects, then how can
you hope that at the last moment you will suddenly become a great bhakta, start thinking about God
and repeating His Name?” He says: “Impossible! Therefore, ever cultivate the continuous,
unbroken habit of God-thought.”
Similarly, we should cultivate and harbour within our hearts undivided love. Such love has
to be carefully cultivated by doing everything that you do with a deep love in your heart: “I do this
for God, for the love of Him. Everything I do—sitting, eating, drinking, lying down, working,
typing, speaking, moving—I do for the love of that Being who dwells within me, who is constantly
by my side, in whose presence I am living each moment of my life.
“I live, move and have my being in Him. Therefore, everything that constitutes my life will
be done with love for Him, for His sake, leaving nothing out. Kayena vacha manasendriyair va
buddhyatmanava prakriter svabhavat, karomi yat yad sakalam parasmai, narayanayeti samarpayami
(O Lord, whatsoever I do through my body, speech, mind, senses, intellect, soul or
unconscious natural impulses, I dedicate as an offering unto Thee, the supreme, all-pervading
Spirit).”
Therefore, with great love, offer up everything to the Lord—everything—mental, verbal,
physical, winking, breathing, sleeping, waking up, whatever constitutes your life. Leave nothing

out, for you are in His presence. And, if you are offering everything that you are doing to that
adorable Presence Divine, it cannot be offered with indifference, it cannot be offered without love.
It will be dry then. It will not be fit to be offered to that Being. Even the least thing must be done
with devotion, bhava. Nothing should be left out. Do all things with intense bhava, with great love.
So, let this be you. Be a centre of love. Be a constant stream of love. In all that you do, let this
love manifest, let it be part of it. Then it becomes acceptable to God. With great love, Vidurani fed
Lord Krishna the skin of the plantain fruit she had pealed. In her joy and excitement she mistakenly
offered the Lord the skin rather than the fruit. But it was so filled with the love of Vidurani that the
Lord relished it and went on eating. Not only one plantain skin, a second also, a third and a fourth.
He was not imbibing the skin of a fruit; He was imbibing pure love.
If such love is exercised in everything that you do—in the minutest thing that you are
engaged in doing day after day—feeling the immediate presence of the Lord everywhere, at every
moment, then it will be possible for you to live in love, to act in love, to speak in love, to do
everything, even the most insignificant thing, with love.
This will grow into undivided love. You will become an embodiment of undivided love.
You will become love personified. And thus the portals to supreme blessedness will be opened up.
You will not have to go to the Lord; He will come to you. The Lord will come to you.
He is without and within already: “I dwell in the hearts of all. I am constantly by your side.”
Again and again, in half a dozen ways, the Lord tries to tell us this truth through His admonitions
and His divine wisdom teachings to Arjuna.
Thus, let everything that you do be done with undivided love. Then you have the key. You
have the secret key for ending up in total undivided love—which is God now, here. That love is God
now, here, in whose presence we are all gathered together. May His grace shower upon you!