Anandamoyima. We respond to what we perceive to be the divine
I find I have more to say (or someone does) on the divine qualities as divine qualities.
If the purpose of life is to know/realize who we truly are (answer: God; now off we go to realize it!), then what is God like?
We show that we have a pre-existing appreciation for what God is like through our reaction to what we conceive of as “godlike” qualities.
Unshakeable faith is one quality. Harmlessness is another. Charitableness a third. And I could go on.
On the one hand, we have a built-in “longing for liberation” which keeps us moving forward to escape eventual disappointment with the material realm, somehow knowing that there’s more and better beyond. (1)
On the other hand, I speculate that we also have a built-in discrimination device that responds to the “godlike” in another.
It’s the theme of countless movies. A being surrounded in light appears and everyone kneels. We all seem to have this built-in sense of the divine.
And I find, when I look, that I’m constantly seeking out the (genuinely) divine. Why else would I travel to India? Lug a heavy bag around through insane temperatures?
Download On the Divine Qualities here: http://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/01/21/the-overall-significance-of-mastering-the-divine-qualities/
I guess in the presence of a genuinely divine person, I feel I can let my false front down (the same character armor I just dropped and never knew I had). (2) I can be myself, whatever that might be.
It’s the acceptance that I’d be looking for. Working on the fringes of almost everything I’ve ever gotten into doesn’t win a lot of approval from the hornets whose nest you just knocked over.
I owe a huge debt to those people who believed that all the noise I was making was going somewhere. Eventually.
***
When the heart opens, our problems are solved. The love we then feel proves to be everything we’ve ever sought or wanted.
Although the experience (short of Ascension) is temporary, it leaves the door of the heart open a crack, through which we can breathe up that same love.
The first touch of that love and whatever issue was plaguing us or whatever feeling was bothering us is instantly transformed.
We all will experience it in the expected, upcoming Wave of Love, which is a planetary heart opening. (3) We’ll experience how it is that a world can be made to work for everyone. (4)
(This love is how. Shhhh! It’s a secret!)
The more we assimilate the divine qualities into our lives, I believe, the more “godlike” we become. The more “godlike” we become, the more we invite the experience of God-meeting-God (“O Thou I!”), at whatever level that meeting can be had: The dual God; later, the non-dual God.
The divine qualities are another of what the Divine Mother called “stair steps” by which we can reach her. (5) There are so many different staircases. As many temperaments and inclinations, as many roads home to her, as Sri Ramakrishna reminded us:
“The mother cooks different dishes to suit the stomachs of her different children. Suppose she has five children. If there is a fish to cook, she prepares different dishes from it — pilau, pickled fish, fried fish, and so on — to suit their different tastes and powers of digestion.” (6)
However:
“All will surely realize God. All will be liberated. It may be that some get their meal in the morning, some at noon, and some in the evening; but none will go without food. All, without any exception, will certainly know the real Self.” (7)
Heart Opening —> Ascension —> Many ascensions later, Mergence —> Much time later, Re-emergence (8)
Footnotes
(1) See The Longing for Liberation at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Longing-for-Liberation-4.pdf
(2) See Factory Reset; or, Dropping Our Character Armor at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Factory-Reset-or-Dropping-Our-Character-Armor-R6.pdf
(3) See The Ring of Fire, Wave of Love at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Ring-of-Fire-Wave-of-Love-Compilation-9.pdf
(4) See Toward a World that Works for Everyone at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Toward-a-World-That-Works-for-Everyone-4.pdf
(5) I believe that what the Divine Mother said about the Trimurthy of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva can also be said about the divine qualities:
Divine Mother: It [the Trimurthy] is much the same as we have been speaking of. It is a way in which my beloved children can come to know me and to have that experience. It is formless, and yet it is form. It is a way of connection, and it is a way of understanding and entering into a higher vibration of being. So it helps the emergence into my energy.
S: Sort of like stair steps?
DM: That is correct. (“The Divine Mother: Come to Me as I Come to You – Part 1/2,” Oct. 17, 2012, at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2012/10/17/the-divine-mother-come-to-me-as-i-come-to-you-part-12/.)
NB: Archangel Michael: We do not want anything capitalized. (Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow through Linda Dillon, Aug. 12, 2016.)
(6) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in Nikhilananda, Swami, trans. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1978; c1942, 81. (Hereafter, GSR.)
(7) Paramahansa Ramakrishna in GSR, 818.
(8) Steve: Mother, you’ve just referred to mergence have you not, or union? And you’re saying that after they return in union, they go back out into the world. Is that correct?
Divine Mother: Yes. If they so choose, yes. Now, is it in the timeline that human beings tend to think of? No. But eventually there is re-emergence. (“The Divine Mother: Each and Every One of You Carries Divine Might, Part 1/2,” June 17, 2013, at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/06/the-divine-mother-each-and-every-one-of-you-carries-divine-might-part-12.)