How can I love if I do not feel or understand God, but I want to

Reader's Question: How can I love if I do not feel or understand God, but I want to?

Sergei Nikolaevich's Response: We all carry God within us. Our divine «self»  is eternal, hidden in God and love. Between the human «self» and the divine, there are intermediary links, and in life, we constantly try to move from the human «self» through these links and stages towards the divine. As we detach from the human, human logic weakens, and the significance of our everyday affairs decreases. Consciousness becomes secondary. As we progress further, the significance of all our emotions and feelings diminishes, and we gradually stop depending not only on consciousness but also on our emotions.

Thus, the extent to which we periodically switch off human logic, i.e., the evaluation and analysis of situations, the extent to which we stop regretting the past and worrying about the future, the easier we try to approach any of our problems, relying on love and kindness, the easier it becomes for us to transform human love into divine love.

I once told a patient: When misfortune occurs, mark the time and for at least the first three hours, do not judge the situation. As soon as a thought appears, immediately repeat: «Lord, Thy will be done», maintaining love and not seeking to blame anyone. The more you view any misfortune as an opportunity to work on yourself, the easier it becomes for you to detach from the significance of the human «self».

Imagine the biggest grievances of your life and envision yourself as a newborn child. You are now composed only of love, you have no significance; go through all situations while remaining in this state. Focus on your sincerity, vulnerability, and defenselessness. Then it becomes easier to feel and retain love in the soul.

If you fall in love with someone—be completely sincere and defenseless. In order for human love to transform into divine love, you need to let go of demands, conditions, regrets, and fears. There's another point.

Love for God generates love for people and the world. Love for God is a spring that feeds the stream of love for people, and the spring is inexhaustible. The more human love we give, the more divine love flows into our souls.

Those who are ashamed to show their love inhibit its expression, turning their stream into a puddle. Human love stagnates, and less divine love comes in. If we frequently tell our children that we love them, stroke and kiss them, we help their souls experience reciprocal impulses of love.

Dependency on human values intensifies when the expression of love in the soul weakens, i.e., the more love and kindness we give to the world, the less we depend on it.

No matter how many attachments we remove, until we start giving love, we will not overcome the attraction of the human «self». A child who was deprived of love in childhood and was not taught to believe in God starts praying to the human that is close to them. And for the sake of possessing this, they are ready to commit a crime.

A month ago, I was traveling by train from Yalta to Petersburg and was reading a newspaper from Voronezh. It reported on a teenager whose parents were in business, and the son desperately wanted to own his father’s «Gazelle» van. To get the car, he found hired killers. The newspaper quoted his phrase: «When you kill dad, kill mom too, but don’t kill the cat, I love it».

The tragedy that occurred in this family is primarily a tragedy of our entire society and our country. For decades, we were taught class hatred and contempt for enemies. We prayed for a bright, well-fed future and gradually unlearned to love and forgive, and stopped teaching our children this. «And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold».

I remember this phrase of Christ every time I read statistics. We all ask ourselves: «When will the chaos in Russia end»? Probably then, when instead of hatred and searching for the guilty, all that should always have been there returns to our souls. And then wives will begin to forgive their husbands, and from divine love will be born harmonious and beautiful human love.

S.N. Lazarev, «Karma Diagnosis 6»