Being of God (XIV, XVI, XVII, LXXVI), is here seen balanced by
his lovely and delicate sense of intimate communion with the
Divine Friend, Lover, Teacher of the soul (X, XI, XXIII, XXXV, LI,
LXXXV, LXXXVI, LXXXVIII, XCII, XCIII; above all, the beautiful
poem XXXIV). As these apparently paradoxical views of Reality
are resolved in Brâhma, so all other opposites are reconciled in
Him: bondage and liberty, love and renunciation, pleasure and pain
(XVII, XXV, XL, LXXIX). Union with Him is the one thing that
matters to the soul, its destiny and its need (LI, I, II, LIV, LXX,
LXXIV, XCIII, XCVI); and this union, this discovery of God, is the
simplest and most natural of all things, if we would but grasp it
(XLI, XLVI, LVI, LXXII, LXXVI, LXXVIII, XCVII). The union, however,
is brought about by love, not by knowledge or ceremonial observances
(XXXVIII, LIV, LV, LIX, XCI); and the apprehension which that union
confers is ineffable--"neither This nor That," as Ruysbroeck has it
(IX, XLVI, LXXVI). Real worship and communion is in Spirit and in
Truth (XL, XLI, LVI, LXIII, LXV, LXX), therefore idolatry is an
insult to the Divine Lover (XLII, LXIX) and the devices of
professional sanctity are useless apart from charity and purity
of soul (LIV, LXV, LXVI). Since all things, and especially the
heart of man, are God-inhabited, God-possessed (XXVI, LVI, LXXVI,
LXXXIX, XCVII), He may best be found in the here-and-now: in the
normal. human, bodily existence, the "mud" of material life (III,
IV, VI, XXI, XXXIX, XL, XLIII, XLVIII, LXXII). "We can reach the
goal without crossing the road" (LXXVI)--not the cloister but the
home is the proper theatre of man's efforts: and if he cannot find
God there, he need not hope for success by going farther afield.
"In the home is reality." There love and detachment, bondage and
freedom, joy and pain play by turns upon the soul; and it is from
their conflict that the Unstruck Music of the Infinite proceeds.