THE IMMORTAL WORLD OF DIVINE LOVE
Wouldn’t it be a disappointment if, at the end of the long spiritual journey, the soul was reduced to an abstract, formless, nameless, and motionless state of pure being? In one sense, this is the case, but in another sense, the abstract state of pure being is filled with nonphenomenal forms of reality, which constitute an immortal world—the eternal world of the self described by the ancient seers as a world of indescribable bliss.
In that world, every soul represents an immortal, nonphenomenal form of the Supreme Being so that all distinctions between the individual being and the Supreme Being are drowned in unity. The glue that binds all of these nonphenomenal parts into a single, nonphenomenal whole is none other than divine love—the unifying aspect of pure knowledge, which knows no reason.
In the tenth chapter of the Bhagavata Purana, in the form of spiritual allegory about a divine dance—the rasa lila (play of nectar)—the Vedic texts record a metaphorical description of that immortal world. The story revolves around an incarnation of the Supreme Being in the form of Krishna, the god of divine love, who is depicted as an adorable youth of sixteen years. Krishna represents the sixteenfold incarnation of the Supreme Being in the form of the 15 + 1 = 16 immortal layers that lie above and beyond the outermost shell of the cosmic egg.
The immortal souls that dwell within these layers were compared to the female consorts of Krishna, who viewed him as their one true love. Yet the story of the rasa lila presents this as an illicit type of love, which transcends the boundaries of social dictum and reason. Each immortal soul may be viewed as married to the unborn Creator, who presides over the cosmic egg from which it hatched. In this sense, the unborn Creator may be compared to the divine “husband” of the female soul. This marriage upholds both the covenant between heaven and earth and the cosmic eggs as imperishable forms of reality within the self.
Although the immortal soul remains married to the unborn Creator, who abides within the cosmic egg, it nevertheless cherishes an illicit love for the Supreme Being, who abides in the immortal realms beyond the cosmic egg. The nature of this love is described metaphorically by the story of the rasa lila.According to the story, the consorts of Krishna remain dutifully within their homes and serve their husbands. During the night, however, their longing turns to Krishna, their one true love. Wandering in the moonlit forest, Krishna calls to his consorts by playing upon his cosmic flute. Made from hollow bamboo, the flute symbolizes the hollow whirlwinds of consciousness that connect the cosmic eggs and by means of which the soul can travel. When Krishna plays upon his flute, the immortal souls are called to leave their (crystallographic) homes, abandon their husbands, and seek him out in the moonlit forest, filled with fluttering leaves. There, they meet their lover in the adorable form of the sixteenfold whole, and there they engage in the rasa lila, the play of nectar.
Technically, the rasa lila involves the circulatory flow of the imperishable substance of pure consciousness, the soma or amrita rasa. This flow is nonphenomenal in nature and therefore knows no reason. Upon finding Krishna, the consorts dance with him in loving embrace—yet due to their intense love, the consorts actually assume the form of Krishna. The rasa lila thus involves the dance of Krishna with himself, or the dance of the immortal soul with its own supreme self. This provides a symbolic description of the non-dual relation between the immortal soul and the Supreme Being that is inherent in the supreme abode of immortality. This relation was presented as a form of illicit love because it transcends all forms of duty and reason. The rasa lila serves no exterior purpose. It plays no role in the creation of the universe and serves only to fulfill the intense desire of the soul for union with the immortal whole. That desire is manifest as divine love for God, the one eternal self.
On that immortal level of reality, “Truth is beauty, and beauty is truth.” In other words, the knowledge of God and the love of God are one and the same. That immortal form of God, which embraces the sixteenfold whole, represents the one supreme thing by which, through knowing and loving it, everything else becomes known and loved.