The story of Abou Ben Adhem ("may his tribe increase") tells us how we may
know who loves the Lord. The angel wrote the names of those who loved the
Lord most faithfully and fully, and coming to Abou Ben Adhem asked if he
should write his name, and received the reply that he could not say whether
he deeply loved the Lord, but he was quite certain that the angel could
"write me as one who loves his fellow-men." And, lo! when the list was made
and the names of all who loved the Lord recorded, Abou Ben Adhem's name
headed the list.
The Vedanta philosophy teaches non-attachment and Vivekananda himself says:
"To love any one personally is bondage. Love all alike then all desires
fall off."
To love only the personal self of any one binds us to the sorrow of loss
and of separation and disappointment; but to love any one spiritually is to
establish a bond which can never be broken; which insures reunion, and
defies time and space.
We can not love all alike, though we can love all humanity impersonally.
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