Kahlil Gibran, and his speech on Love, in "The Prophet", with a brief spiritual hermeneutic.

    The lebanese writer and painter Kahlil Gibran (6.I.1887 - 10.V.1931) has given to the light of this world on 1923, already living in New York, his most famous and so beautiful work, The Prophet, and in it a speech on Love, very quoted onwards, like us now, adding love to Love. We have transcribed it, and written some reflections in a certain spiritual hermeneutic, not so present usually, but without pretensions. You can also contemplate some (he left around 700) of his so soft and spiritual paintings and drawings...

 After a very rich but short life on afections and love (specially with Mary Haskell), writings and drawings, and fighting for the independence of Syria and Lebanon from Otomam empire, in 1931, he left his body due a cyrrosis (like four years after Fernando Pessoa, another short-lived famous writer ) and his physical body was transfered for a Christian Maronite church and monastery, now Gibran Museum, in Bsharri, Lebanon, where he is still "pilgrinated", as in his epitaph, written by himself, he summons us and himself, in a powerful call to awaken to our spiritual imortal entity:
'I am alive, like you. And I now stand beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you'. Gibran"

                                       
                                                ON LOVE

«Then said Almitra, speak to us of Love.

     And he raised his head and looked upon

the people, and there fell a stillness upon

them, 

[As the Prophet's soul, so full of light and love, was envolving them, and by their deep reverence, love and expectations...]

 And with a great voice he said:

     When love beckons to you, follow him,

     Though his ways are hard and steep.

     And when his wings enfold you, yield to him,

     Though the sword hidden among his

pinions may wound you.

     And when he speaks to you believe in him,

     Though his voice may shatter your dreams,

as the north wind lays waste the garden.

 [Welcome with courage Love. Don't be afraid of the strivings or efforts that you may have to do  to maintain the fire of Love burning  strongly, as is the case when Love shines or beckons you through some one, or in a moment of your advancement in the spiritual path.] 

                                         For even as love crowns you so shall he

crucify you. Even as he is for your growth

so is he for your pruning.

     Even as he ascends to your height and

caresses your tenderest branches that quiver

in the sun,

     So shall he descend to your roots and

shake them in their clinging to the earth.

                                      

     Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto

himself.

     He threshes you to make you naked.

     He sifts you to free you from your husks.

     He grinds you to whiteness.

     He kneads you until you are pliant;

     And then he assigns you to his sacred

fire, that you may become sacred bread for

God’s sacred feast.

 [Purification is surely one of the aspects or effects of the fire of Love in us: - Love  make us better and so he has to cut  our defects, in order that our spirit, and so God's love, be shining more, or all the time, in us. Then we are in the mystical body of Mankind, a sacred food for others that you will inspire and intensify, knowing or unknowingly]

     All these things shall love do unto you

that you may know the secrets of your

heart, and in that knowledge become a

fragment of Life’s heart.

 [What are the secrets of the heart, we can ask Kahlil Gabrin, as he doesn't say them. Are its preferences, its fears, or its spiritual secrets: the spirit, its forms or body, his capacities or powers, his past and present, and specially his subtle union with the Divine Source, the Primordial Fire of Love? Or  is there a call to be more aware of the heart's subtle life and intimate history?]

 

     But if in your fear you would seek only

love’s peace and love’s pleasure,

     Then it is better for you that you cover

your nakedness and pass out of love’s

threshing-floor,

     Into the seasonless world where you

shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,

and weep, but not all of your tears.

 

          Love gives naught but itself and takes

naught but from itself.

[Don't fear the hardships of Love, as he is the pearl of the ocean, the elixir of Life, the Source. Love, we can say in a trinitarian way,  is God essence and in God, He permeates the cosmos as attraction and harmonization, He is in you, as your divine spark is more ignited or active by the sincerity and aspiration of unity of your heart and actions. So when you feel more Love, one of these aspect is vibrating more in you or with you. Sometimes you will feel  blessed by subtle currents or streams... Then you can say: I am being blessed by Love's current, and I shall avoid what bloks, or hides or covers Love and its kinship with the unified field or anima mundi.].

     Love possesses not nor would it be

possessed;

     For love is sufficient unto love.

 [Love doesn't need anything or anyone, and can not be captured, as it is the fire of the invencible Love burning, asking you to leave aside fears, pains and limitations and become embrased on this Divine Fire with the beloved one, or also with the Divine face loved by us, the ishta devata.]

          When you love you should not say,

“God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am

in the heart of God.”

 [We can say that there are two different ways of expressing the awareness of the presence of the Divine and of Love in us: either the living God within, either the feeling of being within God's heart, indeed rare and difficult if we mean the almost unaatainable  heart of the Divine being, but natural if the heart of God means love. I would say: I am feeling more the Love permeating all the Cosmos, and then also in the Heart and in all my being, specially when I am with the beloved ond. And, only in very rare cases, we can feel and see already the living God within, not just Love but his Being, or his personnal face for us, as for example is developed in the mystical tradition of the Ishta devata of the indian spirituals,

And think not you can direct the course

of love, for love, if it finds you worthy,

directs your course.

                                             Love has no other desire but to fulfil

itself.

     But if you love and must needs have

desires, let these be your desires:

     To melt and be like a running brook

that sings its melody to the night.

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

     And then to sleep with a prayer for the

beloved in your heart and a song of praise

upon your lips.

[ May the Divine Love be your inner Sun during all your day and labour, and when you return home from your work done with love,  embrace your loved ones, and pray and meditate with much gratitude and love  to the Divine and to your companion and more eternal friends. 

May we commune with Kahlil Gibran in God's Love, may we shine as prophets of Love, or Knights of Love, so famous in italian and portuguese traditions, in this so hard third decade of XXI century...]