Soul-consciousness means the awareness that we have a soul, that we are soul-beings, and that the soul is divine.
Since the soul is not material we cannot achieve soul-consciousness through our material senses. We will never find the soul by simply gazing out of our window. It is true that the hints and clues of our material world—beauty and charm, sweetness and attraction—touch our hearts and lift our souls. But the moment of soul-consciousness will come spontaneously, surprisingly, mercifully.
Soul consciousness comes as a revelation. It is not the creation of new knowledge. It is the discovery of everything we already knew but did not realise. It comes not as a discovery of all the wonders that were unknown to us. It comes as the discovery that everything is familiar, has always already been so close by that we could touch it.
Soul consciousness arrives not through the familiar experiences of our material experience, but through the mystery and charm of our spiritual life. The soul is playful, light and sweet. It is neither shy nor timid. While the mind is cautious about the dangers of the material world, the soul is open and naive, curious and searching, eager and affirming.
Anyone where remembers child love knows that true love is possible only through surrender. If the mind says ‘wait!’, ‘careful!’, ‘let’s be sensible’, there is no chance. If the soul says ‘yes’ and again ‘yes’, then authentic love is there
But where our material pleasures may lead us to the threshold of love: the emotional excitement, the nervous desire, the sexual eagerness, only our hearts can carry us to the level of authentic love, love of God (prema).
The material senses can only let us experience material feelings. From the spiritual point of view, light, sound, smell, taste, touch are of no use to us, at least not directly. Awareness of spiritual feelings is possible, but only through our spiritual senses.
Spiritual feelings are those feelings we experience without any contact with the exterior, material reality. They are feelings that arise from our internal, spiritual reality, from the seed of the divine that God placed in us, and that guru and spiritually evolved souls can help us to develop.
They are pure, divine feelings because they are not touched by the impermanent, mundane character of the physical world. They are intense feelings because they are not interrupted by the commotion caused by the inconstant material ego.
Love is not a thing we enjoy, like a sunset over the sea, a sweet candy in the mouth, a soft kiss from a lover, or music from a golden harp. Love is something we are. It is a way of being, a way of living our reality, the reality of what is.
Love is not the act of giving wonderful gifts to our beloved, of inviting to dinner, of cultivating the qualities, habits, manners, that he or she will value. It is surrendering to the reality of his/her being in the world. It finding the common spiritual ground with the beloved. It is finding the shared soul in the beloved.
Love is realising that to love means to let my soul reunite with your soul. And this just means: to realise that your soul and mine have always been together. It means understanding that love is indeed forever. But not like a kind of Hollywood marriage promise, ’til death do us part’. Rather, it means grasping, embracing, cherishing the realisation that if I love you now, it means that I have always loved you, and that I will always love you. Like the soul itself, love does not begin, love does not end.
One of the grand errors of material life is to believe that love is a kind of thing. We think it is something we have or don’t have, something we can give or take, something we can win or lose, even something we can even buy and sell.
But as we mature in spiritual life we come to understand that we do not, cannot, possess love. We cannot give it or take it, or negotiate for it. Rather, to be in love is to realise that love possesses us. Love grabs us, holds us, embraces us, lifts us, moves us, pulls us together, makes us live.
If love is a river, then it is the river of Rādhā’s sweet hlādani-śakhti.
So it is never a question of being able to have love, or acquire it. But rather of the great gift that consists of receiving it. It means to realise that we do not receive love like a birthday package in the post. But rather, that we receive it as a kind of invitation to enter into the flow of energy that powers the universe. It is a flow of love (prema), whose ultimate purpose is to please Kṛṣṇa.
It is never, was never, a question of having love. It is a question of being love.