2. Love and Longing for God
World Scripture
The supreme Lord who pervades all existence, the true Self of all creatures, may be realized through undivided love.
Bhagavad-Gita 8.22 (Hinduism)
Those who remember the Lord with every breath, each morsel, And in whose mind ever abides the spell of the Lord’s Name— Says Nanak, are blessed, perfect devotees.
Adi Granth, Var Gauri, M.5, p. 319 (Sikhism)
The Chakora bird longs for the moonlight,27 The lotus longs for sunrise, The bee longs to drink the flower’s nectar, Even so my heart anxiously longs for Thee, O Lord.
Basavanna, Vacana 364 (Hinduism)
As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night.
Psalm 42.1-3
Beloved, what more shall I say to you? In life and in death, in birth after birth you are the lord of my life. A noose of love binds my heart to your feet. My mind is fixed on you alone, I have offered you everything; in truth, I have become your slave. In this family, in that house, who is really mine? Whom can I call my own? It was bitter cold, and I took refuge at your lotus feet. While my eyes blink, and I do not see you, I feel the heart within me die. A touchstone I have threaded, and wear upon my throat, says Chandidasa.28
Chandidasa (Hinduism)
Once, while Yasoda was holding the baby Krishna on her lap, she set him down suddenly to attend to some milk that was boiling over on the oven. At this the child was much vexed. In his anger he broke a pot containing curdled milk, went to a dark corner of the room taking some cheese with him, smeared it over his face, and began feeding a monkey with the crumbs. When his mother returned and saw him, she scolded him. As a punishment, she decided to tie him with a rope to a wooden mortar. But to her surprise the rope, although long enough, seemed too short. She took more rope, but still it was too short. Then she used all the ropes she could find, but still Krishna could not be tied. This greatly mystified Yasoda. Krishna smiled within himself, but now, seeing that his mother was completely tired out and perplexed, he gently allowed himself to be bound.
He who has neither beginning, nor middle, nor end, who is all-pervading, infinite, and omnipotent, allowed himself to be bound by Yasoda only because of her great love. He is the Lord omnipotent, the Lord of all beings, the controller of all; yet he permits himself to be controlled by those who love him.29
Srimad Bhagavatam 10.3 (Hinduism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
How much do you adore and yearn for God? What is at stake in this question is whether you are prepared to completely forget about your own situation and offer everything for God; in other words, whether or not you can become a perfect minus before the perfect Plus. When you can stand before the absolute Plus as an absolute minus, then the perfect Plus will rush straight toward you.
(36:100, November 22, 1970)
Many are the believers who grasp the doctrine, but few are the believers who know the Real Being whom the doctrine describes. Few are the believers who can say, “Lord, Thy mind is my mind and my mind is Thine. Thy sorrow is my sorrow.”
Have you ever felt God’s heart of grief, a heart in fetters, a heart so sorrowful it feels as if your bones are melting? Understand that wherever Jesus went during his thirty-odd years on the earth, he had such an intense heart that he was constantly on the verge of losing consciousness and fainting.
(4:126, March 23, 1958)
Today, we have to go beyond just the word “faith” and substantiate our faith in our daily life. That is, we must become people who live our lives with Heaven… God taught the way of faith to countless numbers of our ancestors throughout history. Nevertheless, more than just be believers, God longed that they would become people who could live together with Him. This is what Heaven is longing for us to become.
God is longing for you to become people who can willingly sacrifice, die and be resurrected for the sake of your faith. God longs for you to relate to Him as your Father, to overcome death and rejoice in your resurrection to the realm of life, and to sing His praises in the eternal ideal world. God dearly misses each one of you. He has persevered to find you and meet you.
(6:84, March 29, 1959)
Do you call out to God, “Father!” with the heart to liberate His heart, which is immersed in the sorrow that pervades the 6,000 years of history? If you cling to the distressed heart of the Father and call on Him, with just that one word you can reunite heaven and earth. That was how Jesus clung to God when he called, “Abba.” Unless you can attain the same level, the sorrow of God will never leave you.
(3:58, September 22, 1957)
My misery is not from hunger;
my sorrow is not from being mistreated.
Oh loving Father, I did not realize that
no sorrow is worse than being apart from Thee.
No matter how lacking a place may be,
if Thou art there it has everything.
Even in the center of hell,
if Thou art there it becomes heaven.
Father, whether I live or die, my place is only with Thee.
(43:135, April 25, 1971)