Everything Is Embraced: Divine Love and Human Flourishing in Hinduism / Anantanand Rambachan

Is creation itself an act of divine love? Anantanand Rambachan reflects on the Hindu understanding of the world as embraced, enfolded, and sustained in the divine. Interpreting the Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita, he explains that creation is not separate from God but an expression of God’s very being. Love, he argues, is not just a divine attribute but God’s very essence. To exist is to exist in love, and human flourishing depends on living out that reality. In a fractured world, Rambachan insists, “Our world is only going to be saved by love.”

Highlights

1. “Creation as being… Divine Self, Multiplication, Divine Self, Expression.”

2. “Why would the divine bring forth everything out of itself? I see it as an act of love.”

3. “For me also, as a Hindu, the divine is love.”

4. “We all exist in God and God exists in all. That we exist in love and love is at the very heart of the divine.”

5. “Our world… is only going to be saved by love.”

Creation as Divine Expression

• Hindu theology sees creation as emerging from the divine itself
• “Creation as being… Divine Self, Multiplication, Divine Self, Expression.”
• Contrasts with creation ex nihilo; instead, creation is from divine fullness

Love as God’s Very Nature

• Love not an attribute but God’s essence
• “For me also, as a Hindu, the divine is love.”
• Everything that exists is embraced in divine love

Sacred Texts on Embrace and Value

• Upanishads describe creation as enfolded and embraced by God
• Rambachan interprets this tender language as love-language
• The divine’s love establishes the value of all life

Flourishing Through Love

• Human flourishing depends on embodying divine love in relationships
• “Our world… is only going to be saved by love.”
• Crises arise from failures to love; hope lies in rediscovering it

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