Love is the most beautiful reality in this world. Penetrate the world as God. It is the most difficult to “define” love but the easiest to “know”. We all know what love is. Even an animal knows what love is. Love is, therefore, matter of realization and the knowledge of love is knowledge of the universe. Saint Kabir, the famous Sufi poet said:

Many people died reading the Scriptures,

However, they did not become wise,

One who understood the meaning of “Love”,

He is the only man who is Wise.

Love is therefore not only an emotion, but also the deepest knowledge that a man can hope to know. Once we know love, nothing else remains unknown. However, there is nothing mysterious or complex about love, since even the most innocent person “knows” it without reading a single book.

The knowledge of love requires not only the application of the mind but also the heart, soul and intuition.

The complexity of love is due to the fact that love has multiple dimensions. It is like a living being consisting of many body parts. These members are interconnected with each other in such a way that they complement each other. All of them are an important and integral part of being, since a person becomes lame even if a part of the body is lost.

THE SEVEN DIMENSIONS

Love manifests itself in seven different forms. It is like a beam of white light that hides in it the spectrum of seven colors. If even one color is missing, love is incomplete. These seven dimensions are described below.

1. Love is sensual

The most primary dimension of love is the body which leads to the satisfaction of the senses. You can’t love someone you can’t see or imagine. Sensual love is so important in love that often people use the word “love” interchangeably with “lust” seeking sexual gratification. Although many have believed that lust is the lowest manifestation of love, sensuality has been a necessary ingredient in love. For example, the Sufis developed their love for God through sensuality. They imagined God as a man (or woman) and themselves as their beloved. The root of idolatry also lies in man’s need to develop an emotional and sensual bond with God. Religions that ignored the physical dimensions of love often made their followers heartless and ruthless. People who ignored the physical dimension of love often fail to find love in their life.

2. Love is compassion

Aristotle said: “Love is composed of a single soul that inhabits two bodies.” It is perhaps the simplest definition of love. When one person loves another, they share the person’s sorrows and happiness as if they shared the same soul. This is called compassion, which is defined as “a deep awareness and sympathy for another person’s suffering.” A mother who loves her son cannot bear her son’s pain and even give her own life, if it helps to lessen her son’s pain. Often people feel possessive about their love as they want to spare their loved one any pain.

3. Love is caring

Love is not simply an emotion that unites people. When you love a person, you do everything possible to make your beloved happy, since your happiness resides in his happiness. The distinction of bodies disappears for lovers. Love without action is meaningless as illustrated in this beautiful poem “Who loved more?” by Joy Allison.

“I love you, Mother,” said little John;

Then, forgetting his work, he put on his cap,

And he went to the swing in the garden,

And he left him the water and the firewood to bring.

“I love you, mother,” said Rosy Nell-

“I love you more than tongues can say”;

Then he joked and pouted half the day,

Until her mother rejoiced when she went to play.

“I love you Mother,” said little Fan;

“Today I will help you in everything I can;

How glad I am that the school does not hold!”

So she rocked the baby to sleep.

Then, with soft steps, he went to get the broom,

And he swept the floor and made up the room;

Busy and happy all day she was,

Useful and happy as a child could be.

“I love you Mother”, again they said,

Three little children going to bed;

How do you think that mother guessed?

Which of them really loved her the most?

If love does not lead to a positive action of caring, it cannot be love. It is for this reason that every religion asked its followers to do charitable works for the benefit of the poor, since only through positive action can one please God and manifest love for God.

4. Love is sharing

Love is not just sharing the soul but also sharing worldly things. A family is a typical unit of love where everyone shares everything with each other. They share the house, their belongings, their furniture and everything in the house. Everything belongs to everyone in the family. The distinction between mine and them disappears for lovers. If you are not willing to share your most valuable thing with your loved one, surely you do not love that person. A man who loves God always considers that everything belongs to God. Therefore, he would have no attachment for any of the material goods. He, therefore, does not hesitate to give his goods to others. Whoever accumulates wealth or remains attached to wealth he cannot love. In the same way, whoever does not want to share his wealth with the people he loves, he does not really love.

5. Love is trust

Trust is the most important thing in love. How can you distrust a person who shares your own soul? When trust is lacking, love cannot last. When you love, you put all your trust of faith in your belief. Without trust, love is not possible since trust is the proof of love. It is easy to say that you love someone or to say that you are like two bodies and one soul. However, it is not easy to place complete trust in your beloved. When a man loves God, he raises a full trust in God that is called faith. When you love your child, you trust him completely. The importance of trust in love is beautifully stated in the poem “Trust” by Malcolm Coleman.

fragile as a lily,

cement relationships.

Without her there can be no feeling

to the words, “I love you”,

without her everything fails,

and happiness erodes.

Like the trees in autumn

lose their leaves,

that’s how i lose my life

If it’s trustworthy, I’m not.

I must be trustworthy

because trust builds hope and love.

Trust brings to all things

a totality that is sublime,

and that cannot be explained.

My whole soul screams in fear

If they do not believe me.

If I’m not trustworthy

What I can do?

6. Love is reverence

The material world has created hierarchies since everything material has a beginning and an end and everything is measurable. Therefore, everything is bigger or smaller than another in some measurable criterion. However, the soul is eternal and has no beginning or end. We often respect people who are older or more knowledgeable in the world than we are. However, all men are spiritually equal since they all have the same soul. However, each soul manifests in this world as a different being. Since they have all been designed for a different purpose, they are all superior to each other in some way. A small child is superior to an adult in many ways. Jesus taught,

“Unless you convert and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

So when you love a person, you also respect them for who they are. In India, when two people meet, they greet each other by calling by folding their hands and pronouncing the word “Namaste”. The word Namaste consists of two Sanskrit words, namah + te, which mean “I bow to that (divinity or soul) inherent in you.”

If you love your child, you respect him as a person for who he is, as you see many good qualities in the child that need to be respected. If you don’t respect another person, it simply means that you don’t consider that person better than you in any way. How can you love a person who is inferior to you in all aspects?

Reverence in its highest form takes the form of worship. People who love God, therefore, worship God because they consider God to be the highest form of Soul, which is Supreme in all respects.

7. Love is friendship

When lovers’ souls are one, how can their minds be different? The sharing of mind or thought is called friendship. Aristotle said,

“Without friends no one would choose to live, even if they had all the other goods.”

Friendship is another important dimension of love. Just as one can rely on friends in the hour of need, so it is with love. Love is not sustainable without the meeting of the mind. Even a religious person, who loves God, actually develops a kind of friendship with God. You can communicate with God and understand his thoughts. A man in love with his beloved knows his thoughts without effort. If you love your son, you are also his best friend. When you talk to a child, you automatically use his language, style, and language to communicate. You play with it like a child. Friendship transforms you from adult to child. Children who love their parents are never astonished at their greatness or pettiness, since they find them on the same level as themselves. Thus, friendship is always present between people who love each other.

What is love without all the dimensions?

Most people make mistakes in their understanding of love. A man and a woman may think that love is nothing more than physical attraction. However, such love does not stand unless it is complete with all its dimension. Therefore, love based on mere physical attraction does not last long unless it is filled with compassion, respect, trust, caring, sharing, and friendship. Love of God is no exception. You cannot find God simply by praying or following rituals. One also has to have compassion on God and develop friendship with Him by knowing his mind. A lover of God must care for and share his creations by doing charitable works and doing good to other people in the world who are all children of God. Love is, therefore, correctly described as the greatest knowledge in the world, since it is the means and the end of everything that one wants to learn, feel and know.