www.Shahmardaan.com

Chapter 1
Love and Hate

Modern man likes to think of himself as civilized. How can we claim to be civilized when fear and intolerance seem to be on the rise? We live in scandalous times. Scandals have erupted in our capitals and corporations, on Wall Street and Main Street, and also in our places of religious worship. In the name of Ahura Mazda, Ram, Krishna, God, Buddha, Jesus, Allah, or whatever name you choose to call the Creator and in the name of religion, hatred and violence are being unleashed upon those who disagree with and/or differ from us.

Is it any wonder then that some people are more inclined to look cynically towards those who choose to live their lives by principles and values grounded in Love and attempt to propagate those values and expound the principles that reflect them? Even those who do not live by principles and values emanating from love, yearn for leaders who can measure up to higher ideals compared to the current crop of political, business and unfortunately even religious leaders who seem to provide lip service to such values while they and their cronies are busy raiding the public treasury and misleading humanity at large. Many of our leaders miss the point of leadership and so should be called misleaders because their decisions and actions seem to mislead rather than enlighten us. Rather than inform the public they tend to spread disinformation that tends to confuse and confound the people they pledge to serve and enables them to fulfill their own ulterior motives to the detriment of everyone including themselves.

What is Love?

All Scriptures mention that God is Love and is the First Cause of all that is.
Some Scriptures refer to an Infinite all pervading consciousness that is the source of all other points of consciousnesses that emanate from it and live out their cycles of existence within it. The Hindu Scriptures refer to this all knowing consciousness as Brahman out of which emanates the Holy Trinity which the Hindu Scriptures have described as comprising Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Sustainer and Shiva or Mahesh the Re-creator or Destroyer Principle. These three aspects or Principles of the Holy Trinity have been given different names in other Scriptures. In the Old Testament, the three Principles are named Raphael, Gabriel and Mikhail or Michael and in the New Testament they are called Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Consciousness is not physical. No one has seen it nor can it be described in physical terms. But we are all aware that we are conscious. Without consciousness, no experience or creation is possible. Creation exists because of consciousness and lives and moves within it. No one has seen "mind" which occurs within consciousness and is the receptacle of consciousness. Even though mind is not something that can be measured physically, we are all aware that we have a mind which is different from the brain. All limited minds and consciousnesses arise within and live out their existence within the Infinite Consciousness and Mind which is the Source of all sources. .

Examples of these phenomena which exist in the unseen are prevalent in the seen world.
For instance space itself is invisible. What makes space seemingly visible are the many solid objects within space. Thus we know space as that phenomenon which we perceive as nothing between various objects. Indeed if it were not for space, matter could not exist in solid forms and even if it could, we would not be able to see it. To us space is an empty void within which the entire universe of solid objects arises and lives out its life cycle. Space is anything but an empty void. It is the Source of the Physical Universe as we know it. A few years ago some researchers reported that Space is not an empty void but is filled with very tiny sub-atomic particles. The total mass of these sub-atomic particles is several thousands if not several millions of thousands of times larger than the physical mass of all the galaxies combined.

Similarly all sounds arise within silence, are sustained by silence and then at the end of their vibratory cycle, merge into silence. Just as space contains all forms and makes it possible for them to exist and remain separate, silence contains all sounds, separates them with pauses of silence and enables us to hear them. If the various sounds were not separated by silence, we would not be able to experience them.

Similarly within the ocean, life forms develop and live out their existence within their source, the ocean. These individual life forms may be conscious that they are living within the ocean but may not be aware that they are a part of the ocean.
It is said that God made man in His image. There is a very good reason for that. Becoming is the coming of the Being. You can only become who and what you are. You cannot become who you are not. This is reflected in all acts of creation.
When an artist paints, he paints the image that is in his mind. When an architect designs a structure, once again he renders what is in his mind. A seed produces a plant that has the qualities contained within it and every life form does likewise. So the Universe is a reflection of its Creator.

If we accept the hypothesis that the Infinite Source of all creation, commonly called God, is Love, then the Mind of God could only work with and reflect the qualities within it. If God is Love, then all creations should have Love as their basis. And indeed this is so. The source of any creation reflects all the qualities commonly associated with love. This is reflected in nature.

For instance, when a ferocious tigress becomes a mother, she becomes gentle and tender towards her offspring. A carefree bird becomes a responsible parent when it hatches a brood of chicks and a timid deer will risk its own life and try to defend its offspring against a predator.

So the basis of all creations and human beings is love.
Yet why is it that in spite of the fact that all of us are sourced in love and want to love and be loved, it is so natural for many of us to embrace fear and hate and be motivated by them?

Fear and hate:

To comprehend this paradox, we have to first understand the basis of the relative human mind as opposed to the Infinite Divine Mind. The Infinite Divine Mind has within it the wherewithal i.e. the stuff of all possibilities. This infinite quality makes the Divine Mind very secure. The Infinite Divine Mind identifies with all possibilities that exist within it. The diverse creations that we observe in the Universe i.e. what we consider good and evil and in-between good and evil all emerge out of the infinite possibilities within the Infinite Divine Mind. Some people wonder how evil can come out of the Divine. Examples abound in nature. Just as beautiful musical notes as well as grating sounds can emerge out of silence, similarly all types of creations can emerge out of the Divine. Since all creations emerge out of the Divine, the Divine identifies with them all and supports them all. This includes those creations that have turned against it.

Compared to the infinite and secure Divine Mind, the human mind is relative and insecure.

To read the rest of the chapter you will need to refer to the book
Love and Hate: Manifesting Love and Transforming Hate.

Bahram R. Shahmardaan, PhD
Author: The Journey of Life Eternal
Youth Edition of The Journey of Life Eternal
Love and Hate: Manifesting Love and Transforming Hate.

Home Return to Book Page