The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran

The Way of Love ╯
We might turn to the Christian mystics for help here, for
most of them have walked the way of love. The medieval
Christian work called The Cloud of Unknowing states that love
is the sure, safe path to God: “By love He can be gotten and
holden, by thought never.” In a well-known passage in the
New Testament, St. Paul puts love above knowledge and even
above miraculous powers: “But I shall give you a more excellent
way. . . . Love never faileth. But whether there be prophecies,
they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall
cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”
And St. John of the Cross tells concisely why the vast majority
of human beings find it easier to overcome their weaknesses
through love than through knowledge:
In order to overcome our desires and to renounce all those
things, our love and inclination for which are wont to
inflame the will that it delights therein, we require a more
ardent fire and a nobler love – that of the Bridegroom. . . . if
our spiritual nature were not on fire with other and nobler
passions, we should never cast off the yoke of the senses.
But such love is often not forthcoming in the struggling
soul, even in one like Arjuna. So Krishna says that if Arjuna
is not able to focus his devotion, he should learn to do so
through the regular practice of meditation. Even love and
devotion can be cultivated through regular practice; they
needn’t be regarded as mysterious forces, divine gifts of the
spirit.
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