Lust: A Form of Love
(Vinod Anand)
Those who try to understand God through the intellect alone, arrive at some cold and dry concept which misses the very essence of divine nature.
It is true that God is infinite knowledge, existence, power and bliss, but true understanding comes from knowing His essence as infinite love.
In the ‘beyond state’ from which the entire universe springs and into which it ultimately merges, God is eternally infinite love.
It is only when God’s love is viewed in the limited context of forms which arise in the interim period of the appearance of the illusory universe of duality that its infinity seems to - have been impaired.
When God’s love experiences it- self in and through the manifested forms of the universe, it goes through the following phases: (i) experiencing itself as extremely limited, (ii) experiencing itself as becoming less and less limited and becoming more and more like infinite love, and (iii) experiencing itself to be what it really is: infinite in essence and existence.
The experience of limitation in love arises due to ignorance caused by the sanskaras which are by-products of the evolution of consciousness; and the process of love becoming infinite is characterized by the shedding of these limiting sanskaras.
After going through the almost unconscious stages of the mineral kingdom, love becomes conscious of itself as lust in animals. Its first appearance in human consciousness is also in the form of lust.
Lust is the most limited form of love in human consciousness for it is undiluted selfishness, because all the objects to which lust clings are desired for the sake of and from the viewpoint of the limited and separate self.
At the same time, it is a form of love, because it has ink some kind of appreciation for others, though this appreciation is completely vitiated by thick ignorance about the true Self. When human consciousness is caught up in the duality of the gross sphere of existence, love cannot express itself as anything other than lust of some type.
A man likes curry because it tickles his palate. There are no higher considerations, so it is a form of lust. It is only a craving for the sensations of taste. Mind also has cravings for bodily sensations of sight, smell, sound and touch, and nourishes its crude ego-life through the excitement derived from these sensations.
Lust of every type is an entanglement with gross forms, independent of the spirit behind them. It is an expression of mere attachment to the objects of sense.
Since in all forms of lust the heart remains unfed and unexpressed, H becomes a perpetual vacuum and His in a state of unending suffering and non-fulfillment.
When the heart is in the clutches of lust, the deluded spirit remains in stupor. Its functioning is severely curtailed and perverted by the limiting ignorance to which His subject.
Its higher potentialities are denied expression and fulfillment, and entail a state of utter bondage. In the lustful life of the gross sphere, God is experiencing Himself as a lover, but it is a state of a lover who is completely ignorant about the true nature of himself or the beloved.
It is nevertheless the beginning of a long process by which the lover breaks through the enveloping curtain of ignorance and comes into his own Truth as unbounded and unhampered Love.
Love is Basic in Life
VINOD K.ANAND: A BRIEF PROFILE
Born in 1939, and holding Master’s Degree both in Mathematics (1959) and Economics (1961), and Doctorate Degree in Economics (1970), Dr. Vinod K.Anand has about forty five years of teaching, research, and project work experience in Economic Theory (both micro and macro), Quantitative Economics, Public Economics, New Political Economy, and Development Economics with a special focus on economic and social provisions revolving around poverty, inequality, and unemployment issues, and also on informal sector studies. His last assignment was at the National University of Lesotho (Southern Africa) from 2006 to 2008. Prior to that he was placed as Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of North-West in the Republic of South Africa, and University of Allahabad in India, Professor at the National University of Lesotho, Associate Professor at the University of Botswana, Gaborone in Botswana, and at Gezira University in Wad Medani, Sudan, Head, Department of Arts and Social Sciences, Yola in Nigeria, Principal Lecturer in Economics at Maiduguri University in Nigeria, and as Lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Nigeria. Professor Anand has by now published more than 80 research papers in standard academic journals, authored 11 books, supervised a number of doctoral theses, was examiner for more than twenty Ph.D. theses, and has wide consultancy experience both in India and abroad, essentially in the African continent. This includes holding the position of Primary Researcher, Principal Consultant etc. in a number of Research Projects sponsored and funded by Universities, Governments, and International Bodies like, USAID, IDRC, and AERC. His publications include a variety of themes revolving around Economic Theory, New Political Economy, Quantitative Economics, Development Economics, and Informal Sector Studies. His consultancy assignments in India, Nigeria, Sudan, Botswana, and the Republic of South Africa include Non-Directory Enterprises in Allahabad, India, Small Scale Enterprises in the Northern States of Nigeria, The Absolute Poverty Line in Sudan, The Small Scale Enterprises in Wad Medani, Sudan, Micro and Small Scale Enterprises in Botswana, The Place of Non-Formal Micro-Enterprises in Botswana, Resettlement of a Squatter Community in the Vryburg District of North West Province in the Republic of South Africa, Trade and Investment Development Programme for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises: Support for NTSIKA in the Republic of South Africa, and Development of the Manufacturing Sector in the Republic of South Africa’s North West Province: An Approach Based on Firm Level Surveys. Professor Anand has also extensively participated in a number of conferences, offered many seminars, participated in a number of workshops, and delivered a variety of Refresher Lectures at different venues both in India and abroad. Dr. Anand was placed at the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla in the State Himachal Pradesh, India as a Fellow from 2001 to 2003, and had completed a theoretical and qualitative research project/monograph on the Employment Profile of Micro Enterprises in the State of Himachal Pradseh, India.
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