The Emotion of Love
Friday July 15 2005 13:58 IST
By Karmayogi
Boys and girls fall in love. Often the parents disapprove of it justifiably. One who has once fallen in love himself will have no heart to dissuade his child from such a course. Worldly wisdom raises the question of a happy future. A heart that loves cannot think of the future because the Present Moment of Love has compressed eternity into it. The emotion of Love can be lived. Whether it is fulfilled or denied fulfilment, it cannot be analysed or argued and win its case in the court of rationality. Mans being has mental, vital, physical, spiritual and psychic parts.
Mind responds to the form of beauty, the elegance of youth. The vital irresistibly gives in to the pull of attraction, usually called vital attraction. Physical nearness, the immediate proximity compels attraction. The Spirit does not so easily move. If it ever moves, man does not think or question. He is already behind the woman as Rishyasringar was. The psychic includes all the parts and is ready to open to a FULL counterpart. Alexandre Dumas says when a woman, who is not otherwise attractive, puts a particular clip in her hair at a particular slant, she becomes one whom very few men can resist. It is a typical vital attraction. Discussing a similar phenomenon, Tagore speaks of the flowing end of her sari that wafts his heart along with it. Have you ever loved? Have you ever lost a child? are questions asked when people of life experience try to persuade someone in love or someone in distress.
A tree grows for some years, bears fruit for several years and goes dry. The human being is an organism that develops different parts of its being, feels a partial, powerful attraction at some time, gets it or fails to get it, and lives the rest of its life waiting for dissolution. When one part opens in youth and its imagination is captured by another person, it pines for it forever. It does not learn to forget it. When all parts in a man simultaneously open up and are caught up in a MOMENT that is irresistible, he is in love. He either gets it or loses himself. There is no gainsaying it. It is not in him to turn from the course or retract. Retraction is like making a river flow backwards. It becomes ROMANCE eternal when he who opens up fully in all his parts meets with another of similar disposition. Shakespeare called it love at first sight. Dante felt it for Beatrice even after she had married another and bore nine children. The result of his romantic passion was the Vision of Dante, the Italian epic poem. To be in love is to be blessed. It is not to be considered in the social context of welfare or well being. Success in love is fulfilment of that emotion. The plant of Man grew up to that point for that fulfilment. Beyond that, he bides his time waiting for the final departure. That which thinks is NOT love. Love loves, does not think.