Not a Pretty Face; but a True Heart
Karmayogi
Man is charmed by a beautiful feminine face,
which initiates romance. The handsome masculine appearance of a tall man is of
instant appeal to the feminine heart, for which the woman is willing to die.
This romantic charm is, the scientist explains, because of the smell of a
hormone secreted in the armpit. Whatever it is, the spell of the charm is
inescapable and endless. At the altar of marriage, all this is sacrificed or
buried, if not at once, after a while. Still the one thing for which the
heart finds a ready answering chord is its permanence. Eternal romance is an
ever-living ideal of the human heart and the human soul.
When married
people find ardent youth utterly giving themselves to the pursuit of romantic
ideals, they say, ‘‘You are outside and are eager to get in; I am inside but am
anxious to get out.'' When for any reason such as the wife's death a man is
outside again, he is equally anxious to get back in. The truth is that what
attracts is not the pretty face but a true heart. A true heart never dies or
grows old, rather its intensities of longing grow with age. Even in countries
where marriage as a valid institution does not exist anymore, the longing of the
unfulfilled heart is alive.
We know of Romeo and Juliet; Laila and Majnu;
Dante and Beatrice. What is it that actuates them? It is not even the true
heart, but the true Spirit in the heart. Why has man not ever attained it?
Is the failure only of Man? Has woman succeeded in the effort? Is Romance,
eternal romance, ever attainable? Civilisation as well as its whole, the
creation, is sustained by the evolutionary energy generated by the eternal
aspiration for the Eternal. In the Mind it dawns as the attraction for Beauty.
In the heart, it emerges as fullness of rich emotions for which one is willing
to die. It is life giving. When sour, the same emotions can take another's life.
In the Spirit, it is Love. It can give itself wholly. It revives the dead heart.
It lives for Love as it energises Life. It is consummated at the level of the
Spirit.