A reminder of love, this beautiful necklace features Sanskrit lettering speaking out ‘self love’, the highest form of love.
18k solid gold with 3 bezel set round, white diamonds on either side, making a total of 6.
Fully adjustable from 14” to 21” with my unique slide closure.
(Rudraksha lotus necklace in 18k gold seen in image also available)
In Hinduism, there are considered to be five stages of love:
“Kama,” or sensory craving
“Shringara,” or rapturous intimacy
“Maitri,” or generous compassion
“Bhakti,” or impersonal devotion
“Atma-Prema,” or unconditional self love
Up until this point, each stage of love has been directed outward into the world. But at its apex it comes full circle back to the self. Atma prema can be translated as “self love.” This is not the self as we usually think of it, but the essential self, the self that exists at the center of all of us.
What this means in practice is that we see ourselves in others & see others in ourselves. “The river that flows in you,” says the Indian mystical poet Kabir, “also flows in me.” The more one pours love out the more love returns to us. This is based on the ideal that all are one.
When we achieve atma prema, we recognize that, when stripped of the accidents of our genetic heritage & upbringing, we are all expressions of the one life.
Atma-prema arises from the realization that beyond our personal faults, beyond even our name & personal history, we are all children of the most high. When we love ourselves & others in this profound yet impersonal way, our love loses its boundaries & becomes unconditional.