It is said that love is the highest feeling of a human life. It is said that love is the fulfillment of human life. These sayings appear to be correct. For a devotee or a Sikh, the highest feeling is losing himself in the love of God. Even a longing for heaven appears to be a distraction for a person on the path of love.
However, love is not what we have made it to be in today’s times. Today, when we say “I love you” or “I love this”, we mean “I want to possess you” or “I want to possess this”. This fixation on possession is called attachment. Love is not attachment. Loving someone is losing oneself in that person. It is selflessly serving the other.
The paradoxical nature of the reality is that only when I completely lose myself in the love of another do I completely realize myself. Till the time I try to save myself from losing, I keep losing myself. And only when I lose myself completely, I gain myself completely.
And when one has lost himself completely, he loves every particle of the universe. The purest love, by nature, is universal. And this is the love of a devotee. This is the aspiration of a Sikh. This is probably where Gurbani wants us to take.
Gurbani says:
ਰਾਜੁ ਨ ਚਾਹਉ ਮੁਕਤਿ ਨ ਚਾਹਉ ਮਨਿ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ਚਰਨ ਕਮਲਾਰੇ ॥
Neither do I seek kingdoms nor do I seek liberation. I only seek that I love your lotus feet.
Gurbani line above seems to turn many things on their heads by even discounting liberation. Liberation has been the ultimate goal for almost all religions and spiritual system. But who can explain it to a devotee lost in the love of God? For him, nothing else matters; just the love of God. Such a devotee neither belongs to heaven nor hell.
ਕਬੀਰ ਸੁਰਗ ਨਰਕ ਤੇ ਮੈ ਰਹਿਓ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕੇ ਪਰਸਾਦਿ ॥
ਚਰਨ ਕਮਲ ਕੀ ਮਉਜ ਮਹਿ ਰਹਉ ਅੰਤਿ ਅਰੁ ਆਦਿ ॥੧੨੦॥
Kabeer, I have been spared from heaven and hell, by the Grace of the True Guru.
From beginning to end, I abide in the joy of the Lord’s Lotus Feet. ||120||