Re: Can you love someone else and God at the same time?
Namaste
If we are discussing love in its most universal and platonic sense, then the answer is absolutely. How can you love God and not love everyone else around you? One should strive to see Him in everything, every flower, face and form.
But you mention marriage in your topic, so I think my above answer will have to be redressed. I don't believe marriage gets in the way of moksha. In this day and age, a real marriage based on a meeting of the minds of two individuals who respect and love each other's company, is a blessing. It is becoming a rare thing to find in the western world with the ideals of self-satisfaction and sating one's own lusts and selfish whims becoming more and more dominant. This certainly would be getting in the way of moksha. So I would again say, yes, you can love God and your spouse at the same time. Nayasurya is wise to give thanks to Shiva every night for her children and husband. To see God in your closest ones will strengthen your love for them, and you are surely doing the work of the Divine by raising your sons and daughters with the same unconditional love as you would for God. To love your spouse like this also will teach them the value and sacredness of marriage.
Obviously, this will be different for the ascetic or the monk who has of his own will renounced any ties to the world. But this is not the same dharma as the householder, the everyday man or woman who has for one reason or another, still more karma to work out in this life before moving onto the next stage.
Om namah Shivaya
"Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny."
ॐ गं गणपतये नमः
Om Gam Ganapataye namah
लोकाः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु ।
Lokaah SamastaaH Sukhino Bhavantu
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