Achariya Fritz Kramer
Speaks on "True Love"
Sunday, February 14, 2016 at 11:00am
This Sunday's worship service happens to land on February 14th, coinciding with the celebration of Valentine's Day. People around the world will give gifts as symbols of friendship, affection and romance. But why limit ourselves to only those flowers and chocolate? Rather, may we take this opportunity to meditate on the divine ideal of True Love. We all have experienced some degree of love in our hearts. Yet, some is never enough, and we still long for love's fullest expression. Let us gather together in the Temple this week to contemplate our search for true love, and strive to feel it in ever deeper ways.
—Acharya Fritz
From the Gurus and Swamis: AUM
"All things in the universe are of divine origin and deserve to be loved; it has, however, to be borne in mind that the love of the whole includes the love of the parts."
—Swami Vivekananda
"In the universal sense, love is the divine power of attraction in creation that harmonizes, unites, binds together. It is opposed by the force of repulsion, which is the outgoing cosmic energy that materializes creation from the cosmic consciousness of God. Repulsion keeps all forms in the manifested state through maya, the power of delusion that divides, differentiates, and disharmonizes. The attractive force of love counteracts cosmic repulsion to harmonize all creation and ultimately draw it back to God. Those who live in tune with the attractive force of love; achieve harmony with nature and their fellow beings, and are attracted to blissful reunion with God."
—Swami Yogananda Paramhansa
"Love reveals God. God does not refuse the demand of his devotee. Love wins God. God becomes a devotee in the presence of devotion. Why? Why is it that God, man and animal, nay, all objects of the universe, respond to the power of love? Why do we all long for love? Because love is the essence of creation."
—Swami Vivekananda
Noble Thoughts: "Let Noble Thoughts come to us from every side." —Rig Veda
"The very fire of love which afterwards is united with the soul, glorifying it, is that which previously assails it by purging it, just as fire that penetrates a log of wood is the same that first makes an assault upon it, wounding it with its flame, drying it out, and stripping it of its unsightly qualities until it is supposed that it can be penetrated and transformed into fire."
—St. John of the Cross, "The Ascent of Mount Carmel"
"Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal Source."
—Leo Tolstoy, "War and Peace"
"Love is that you remain standing
In front of your Beloved.
When you are deprived of all your attributes,
Then His attributes become your qualities.
Between me and You, there is only me.
Take away the me, so only You remain.
I am the Supreme Reality."
—Al-Hallaj, "The Essential Mystics" edited by Andrew Harvey