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THE GOD OF LOVE. 147 not, whether he is omnipotent and omniscient, or not. To him, He is only the God of Love! He is the highest ideal of love, and that is sufficient for all his purposes ! He, as love, is self-evident to him--for it requires no proofs to demonstrate the existence of the beloved, to the lover! The magistrate-gods of other forms of religion, may require a good deal of proof to prove them, but the Bhakta does not and cannot think of such gods at all. To him God exists entirely as Love, and finding Him as the innermost soul in all, he proclaims in ecstasy—“None, o beloved, loves the husband for the husband's sake, but it is for the sake of the Self, the Lord, who is in the husband, that the husband is loved-none, O beloved, loves the wife for the wife's sake, but it is for the sake of the Self, the Lord, who is in the wife, that the wife is loved."
It is said by some that selfishness is the only motive power, in regard to all human
