a mighty ocean. It enables the Jivatman (individual) to become Paramatman (Almighty). The Divine Love which beggars description is beyond reason and intellect and so beyond creation. Nobody can create this highest aspect of love in himself, unlike the other aspects of love. The Divine Love is given and not created. It is a gift from the Paramatman (Almighty) in the Shivatman (Sadguru) state to the Jivatman (individual).

One's spiritual progress can never be steady and certain, without the Divine Love. It is the real side of religion and the only element which reveals or unfolds the emotionality of the Spiritual Path. Unless and until one is possessed of it, one can never feel the ecstasy and behold the illuminations and visions relating to the different states of the Spiritual Path.

The Divine Love knows no law. It is beyond all rules and regulations, above dogmas and rituals. Nothing can bind it and nothing can set bounds to it. It is Fire—an infinite Fire in itself, and those who burn in it get purified. The tortures of separation from and longing for the union with the Beloved sooner or later blaze up and thereby wipe out all sanskaras, good as well as bad, of the Divine Lover. It is on account of this that one who is endowed with Divine Love, which is a God-sent grace or a gift from a Sadguru, becomes restless. The trinkets of the world cannot tempt the true Divine Lover. Imagine a man lying on the sands of the Sahara in the scorching sun and longing for water to moisten his parched lips and slake his thirst. If you can properly imagine the depth of his longing for just a drop of water when he is on the point of breathing his last owing to thirst, you will get a faint idea of the longing of the Divine Lover for the unification with the Almighty. It is only the Divine Love that can bring about the annihilation of the lower self which gives Self-Realization, the Fana which gives Baka to the Lover, and makes him lose his individual existence in the universal Existence.

Divine Love also has its two subdivisions: (1) the primal; and (2) the final; as shown in the diagram. The primal is the beginning and the final is the endless end of the Divine Love. The one is the spark and the other is the flame.

Just as Paramatman as Paramatman does not know that He is Paramatman, and is unconsciously experiencing and sustaining His powers, so in the same way, love as love, considered absolutely, is considered passive. Just as Paramatman is fully conscious in the Shivatman state, so love is fully active in its Divine aspect. The difference between love as a whole and love as the Divine Love comes to this: the former is passive and the latter is active. Angels have love, but it is not in its Divine aspect, and so they cannot realize Paramatman. Rightly has it been said, "Qoodsinyara ishq hasto dard neest," i.e., "angels have love but no pain or restlessness of the Divine Love." The course of the river of Love is long, but the Goal can surely be reached.