The heart ‘feels’ to its very bottom that it is loved by God and therefore it also loves God in return. Furthermore, it feels sufficiently safe to love all that God loves in order to be emotionally/intentionally united with the God of Love. It perceives ‘heartwise’ that God is essentially creative and generous, and it feels itself promised the power to be the same, to have and to exercise this same nature. It believes in itself as the child of God, and feels sureness and joy. And it understands heartwise that the more we create and share, the more we are like God, which is the same as being ourselves, our true selves.
We may say that the first conclusion to be drawn from the idea that we are all ‘beloved children of God’ is that we are all equal. As persons we are social equals. And this in itself requires a great shift in social consciousness, because most societies of living beings (not just humans) have some form of social ranking, with leadership and privileges. If we are to accept this word that we are all essentially ‘offspring’ of the Absolute Ground, then bhakti yoga will urge that we have feelings of honour, respect, and love toward one another. We will be motivated to see the Divine Image in everyone. The same self that is in me is in everyone else, and the same acceptance and respect that I want and expect, I must accord every other.
Each person is to be accorded the highest respect, so there is no room for giving some ‘more than’ others.
And this can be done if the bhakti aspect of my consciousness has sufficiently felt the security of this insight. I will have no felt need to see myself as either superior or inferior to any other. Indeed, if I have deeply experienced being ‘beloved’, I will be relieved of the necessity of protecting and advancing my social status and thus I will have free energy (shakti) with which to love my companions. And knowing my own deep reality, I will recognize any other person as a ‘companion’. I will feel kin to their inner selves and want them to experience and express the Divine Reality in the way that is right for them.