Valentine Message: True Love Is Eternal Love

Swami Shyam: The love of God is the real truth and reality of Valentine's Day. St. Valentine has become the symbol of love in a form. But form he was not. Love he was. 
    He remains love at all times. Why? Because love is eternal. Form is not eternal. 
   In the relative world, the practice on Valnetine's Day is not only to utter the words of love but to sign them on cards, and not only to sign them but to present them in the form of 'I am your lover.' In this way, the practice became the symbol of husband and wife, and true Valentine's Day is no longer observed. 
    People use the situation in the name of love to get bound, whereas Valentine showed the world that he is free. He didn't care for the body. He was not loving the religion. He was actually loving God. For him, God was only love.
    When I wish everyone 'Happy Valentine's Day,' the wish is unsigned because I have no form. 
    Those who are form oriented cannot become formless oriented. People think that for love, you can make the greatest sacrifice, and that the greatest sacrifice of all is the body. So when it is seen that someone has sacrificed the body, people think this he is the greatest martyr because nobody on earth can easily become body-less. 
    All of you are real Valentines. And if this formless love is not understood or realized by you, you will be getting connected only to some form. But the spirit of Valentine is only love and that is why it so popular and why it will remain so. Anybody who has become body-less, formless, has no mind, and is no longer the victim of the mind—he or she is real love. 
    Whenever a human being connects with that love which  is eternal, forever, undying, unchanging—he becomes happy! So close the eyes for a while and be the real love which everybody has in his or her heart.

Now, if it was a question of the sacrifice of Valentine on the level of body, everybody would have felt so sorry on this this day, saying, 'Oh! He died because he loved God.' 
    But that's not the question. He loved God because he was God, and he came to know that he was God, and he let people know that you can take away the body but you cannot destroy or dismantle the love of God. 
    Thus you, the lovers of God—each one of you—are that Valentine, without having to offer your body to be destroyed. 
    You just need to know that awareness is nothing but love. Love and awareness are one reality. Bhakti [love or devotion] and gyaan [knowledge or awareness] are one reality.
    These are the ways and means with which we can momentarily, or even for a day, become happy, which means become free from body consciousness, even while engaged on the body level and interacting with the body. 
    In whomever  we see the love eternal—undying—he or she becomes your friend, your lover, your beloved. 
    Thus the story of love continues until eternity. 

I am fortunate to be in the company of love eternal which is being represented by all of the so-called lovers assuming this incarnation, this body.
    That heart which is forever pure, which is forever free from the traits of the body, can be evolved only when you have a body incarnation. Therefore, this is 'love incarnation.' 
     If you see the body and try through it get to that state of love, you will never reach it. But if you have understood and become united with the state and existence of love, you will be able to understand all its manifestations and all the bodies.  And then, wherever you hear anybody sing the glory of love, that will be your joy.

Happy Valentine!

Swami-ji has written a Valentine wish to all his devotees which is shared here (below) with our Internet visitors.

15 February 2000