Human Love & Divine Love

I recently heard a Professor of Persian & Comparative Literature named Fatemeh Keshavarz refer to human love as a metaphor for divine love. This perspective comes from her expertise in the writings of Sufi Mystics like Jalal al-Din Rumi and others. 

She said:

"To me, I think it's a statement by poets like Rumi and others like him that there isn't really a boundary between the two. It's the same thing."

The professor then went on to add  that there is another metaphor that can be helpful to understand how our human love and human relationships can in a way prepare us for our relationship with the divine or god.

Keshavarz said:

 

"There is another medieval Sufi, actually a bit later than Rumi, who says that you can't look at the sun directly, but you can look at its reflection in the water. Now, our humanly experience of love is that reflection in the water of our senses. And it's God's way of teaching us and guiding us from this to the actual looking at the sun when you have gained the ability."

 

This second metaphor of our human relationships being similar to looking at the sun through it's reflection in the water deeply resonates with me.

 

Now, if you had asked me 30 years ago, 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago if I understood what Keshavarz was referring to in her above statement, I probably would have looked like a deer in the headlights because I would not only have no opinion on the subject, but neither would there be an internal response.

 

I have no memory of words like "divinity" or "god" being used in my home or anywhere else really in my childhood- perhaps with the exception of my recitation of the Girl Scout Promise.

 

As I've written before in this blog, you could easily argue my childhood and young adult experiences were remarkably secular. Not atheist. Not agnostic. Secular. God was a non-topic.

 

Interestingly though, as my own spiritual development has over-lapped with the birth of my role as a parent, now, metaphors that compare human love and divine love make perfect sense to me.  Like a truth that I've always known- I just didn't know I knew it.

 

The book shown in the photograph above was part of my journey of knowing.

 

If you haven't read it, please do.  Even if you don't have children yourself, I believe children's literature has messages that are universally appealing, and this is no exception.

 

One of the first things I loved about this book when I found it in a library book sale of used books, was it's dedication at the very beginning:

Isn't that beautiful?

And then of course, the words which follow, line by line, page by page, illustrate divine love as human love, human love as divine love.

They go as follows:

"Mama,' asked Little Bunny, 'if you had a wish,would you wish I never cried?'

'No, Little Bunny,' answered Mama, 'but it does make me sad to see you cry.'

'Would you wish I was brave all the time, and never got scared of anything?'

'No, Little Bunny,' said Mama. 'We all get scared sometimes.'

'What about when I get mad at you?' asked Little Bunny. 'Would you wish I never did that?'

'No, Little Bunny,' said Mama. 'I love  you when you are mad at me, and I love you when you are not.'

'I bet I know what you would wish,' said Little Bunny. 'You would wish I never made any mistakes.'

'No, Little Bunny,' said Mama, 'I love you no matter how many mistakes you make.'

'Even big giant mistakes?'

'Even big giant mistakes.'

'Well,' said Little Bunny, 'you probably would wish I looked different, wouldn't you?'

'No, Little Bunny,' said Mama. 'I wouldn't wish you to look any different than you do.'

Little Bunny was quiet for a moment. 'Mama, if you could make one wish about me, what would it be?'

'I would wish for you to be yourself,' said Mama, 'because I love you just the way you are."

Perhaps today we can all look out for those reflections of divine love in the waters of our relationships that we encounter in our day to day lives.  I will.