Love is God

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

M: What do you mean by the word "love"? Do you mean love as the opposite of hate? Or do you mean something else?

V: What I mean by love is abstaining from discrimination as "me" and the "other".

M: In other words, unity of being?

V: Yes, indeed. What then is God, to whom I am expected to pray?

M: What exactly is this 'God' that you are talking about? Is he not the very consciousness - the sense of being that one has - because of which you are able to ask questions? I AM itself is God. What is it that you love most? Is it not this I AM, the conscious presence which you want to preserve at any cost? The seeking itself is God. In seeking, you discover that 'you' are apart from this body-mind complex. If you were not conscious, would the world exist for you? Would there be any idea of God? And the consciousness in you and the consciousness in me - are they different? Are they not separate only as concepts, seeking unity unconceived, and is that not love?

V: Now I understand what is meant by "God is nearer to me than I am to myself."

M: Also remember, there can be no proof of Reality other than being it. Indeed you are it, and have always been. Consciousness leaves with the end of the body, and with it leaves the duality which is the basis of consciousness and manifestation.