The Ten Offenses to Love

If Radha is Love,  all love her shadow,
no love can be any other.
So the first great sin against Love, my friends,
is not to love the lover.

There is but one object of love,
for Love loves none but him.
Confused by all his names and forms,
we commit the second great sin.

Love him who teaches you love's spells,
or takes you to the trysting place,
the one who turns your head with wine--
to not do so, the third disgrace.

All revelation leads to Love,
so don’t despise the lover’s song,
nor his poems, nor his books of rules,
to do so is the fourth great wrong.

The fifth is to think they exaggerate
when they say Love conquers all.
Creation comes from Love, in Love it lives,
and into Love will be recalled.

The sixth sin is to distort Love's sense,
its essence not the Divine Yugal.
Love's not formless, it's never divorced
From people and the personal.

Augustine said, “Love and do what you will!”
How easy ‘tis to make the claim
that love justifies everything we do:
Do not do evil in Love’s name.

No religious act stands on its own,
no God, no prayer, no rite;
All things have their end in Love:
Number eight is to lose this sight.

Don’t proclaim Love to those whose ears are tin,
who have no faith, who undermine
your own faith in Love when you speak to them:
This aparadh is number nine.

Those whose hearts don't change, even when they melt,
after being touched by Love's bright flame,
who remain attached to this, that, I and mine,
make offense ten: to stay unchanged.

Now dwell a moment, friend, upon this song,
Understand it and you won't go wrong.
The Truth, Radha Shyam, the Holy Name,
and Love are One, the very same.


Jagat - GD (07 Dec 2004)