Emotion, human and divine
There are two types of emotion — divine and undivine. Emotion by itself is not bad, but when we misuse it, it is undivine emotion. When it is properly used, it is divine emotion and is absolutely necessary. Undivine emotion is restricted to the gross physical, the vital and the obscure mind. This kind of emotion is the result of unfulfilled, unsatisfied and dissatisfied desires. It constantly tries to possess either an object or an individual or the whole world. It binds and limits us and finally drains our physical, vital and mental energy. This possessive emotion makes us think of everything in terms of 'I, my, mine'.When we use human emotion it tries to destroy everything. Gradually, emotion becomes limited only to one's own body; then to one particular portion of our body. Undivine emotion negates and negates. Emotion in the physical and vital, which are impure, will naturally try to destroy our divine possessions and qualities. With negative emotion we increase our conscious aggressiveness.
The emotion that binds us to our own limited physical consciousness has to be thrown aside. We have to try ultimately to illumine and transform both desire and emotion, rather than to control or discipline them. When we take shelter in divine emotion, we can illumine and transform the human emotion that wants to possess the world and bind us.
Emotion in its source is absolutely pure. Divine emotion expands our consciousness and is always welcome. When it comes from our soul, it tells us, "I came from God, who is Infinity, Eternity and Immortality." This kind of emotional thrill helps us to enter into our highest and deepest. Divine emotion is the expression of the inner aspiration. It lifts us up into the inner sky. It makes us feel that we are all valiant divine soldiers.
When we care for the inner freedom, when we feel that we are all-pervading, when we feel that humanity is part and parcel of our consciousness, then we have divine emotion. When something goes wrong in the world, we are affected because we truly feel our own existence in the heart of humanity. If we want to transform our lower emotion, then we must start feeding our divine emotion. We can consciously feed our divine emotion by feeling that each individual is God's child and humanity's embodied hope. Then we will have the inner urge to fulfil the divinity in humanity.
A most significant expression of divine emotion is spiritual detachment. Detachment has to be seen in its proper light. If we know the true seat of responsibility, then automatically we will know the meaning of detachment. Who is responsible? Not you or I, not the human person or the outer body, but the divine in us. If we can offer our responsibilities sincerely, genuinely and devotedly to the Supreme within us, then automatically genuine detachment will enter into us.
True detachment does not come to us when we think, "Oh, I do not belong to him; he does not belong to me. He is somebody else's; let us have no connection." True spiritual detachment comes only when we feel that we have given to the Supreme what we have and what we are. We have friends, children, relatives. We exist with body, vital, mind, heart and soul. If we can offer what we have and what we are at the Feet of the Supreme and sincerely feel that He is responsible, that it is He who has to and will look after us, only then can we learn detachment. Just by negating or separating ourselves from the consciousness of others, we cannot attain detachment. Detachment can be attained only when we feel that the Divine within us is totally responsible for us and for others.
Once we have attained this inner detachment, our sincere aspiration will tell us how far to go and where to stop in our emotional relationships with others. The Supreme speaks through our sincere aspiration constantly. Aspiration is bound to tell us where the limit of detachment is. When we have a child, we have to take care of the child. We have to bring him up, give him all the necessary things and feel that the divine is acting in and through us to help him in every possible way, to give him every possible opportunity. But we will not try to bind him to us. Even when he is young and when he grows into a youth we will not try to interfere with his personal life. We will allow him to enter into life's experiences in his own way. At the end of childhood he has to make direct contact with the Divine and lead his own life.
In the inner life it is not at all difficult to be detached from our environment. Once we separate our existence from ignorance, we will see that there is nothing more to be detached from. God's entire creation will be an experience of wisdom and light for us. The real detachment, the difficult detachment, is detachment from ignorance, not detachment from a particular person or thing.
Pure emotion expands our consciousness, sweetens our existence and fulfils not only our life but also the lives of those around us. We should pay utmost attention to the divine emotion in us, which is all-pervading. If we pay all attention to the divine emotion, we will see that the unlit, impure, earthbound emotion will automatically be transformed. It will be thrown into the sea of divine emotion, where everything is purified.
