Love: the ultimate meaning
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| 'Eternal Love' by Carmen Guedez |
Love
is the ultimate assertion of life. Nothing says ‘yes’ to life more genially than
love and nothing renders life more meaningful than a firm ‘yes’ to it. Love is
a benign acceptance of the given reality. Once the reality is accepted, it can
be transmuted too. Love is a miracle. It can change arid deserts into breath-taking
oases. Love is the fairy kiss that transforms the monster into beauty.
Meaning
of life is inextricably related to our attitudes. Meaning is an attitude to the
given reality. Reality always demands a response from us. Within my given
reality, I must take a stand. I have to live and act within the position I
take. I can take the stand of the follower or the leader, optimist or
pessimist, sceptic or cynic, whatever. Reality demands a stand.
My
stand shapes and colours my experiences, behaviour and action. Those who
reached the heights of understanding knew that love was the ultimate response
to reality. Love is a divine response, so to say. The Buddha and the Christ,
the Mahatma and all genuine teachers of mankind were motivated by the boundless
love they bore in their hearts.
When
you love someone, you accept that person as he or she is. Your love may
transmute that person eventually. That’s also an important factor of love. Love
transmutes. Love changes the hell into heaven, the monster into a saint, noise
into music.
There
is no greater melody than love. Beethoven and Mozart will give way to new
geniuses. Shakespeare’s genius will be surpassed by other writers of similar
calibre. The Taj Mahal’s resplendence will find its rival in better
architecture. Michelangelo and Da Vinci will merge into the miasma of history.
The Buddha and the Christ will continue to sway human imaginations. Love has no
death.
Love
gives you the deepest and the most meaningful relationship with the reality
around you, however painful that reality is. Love enables you to listen to the muffled
voices of that reality. The breadth of your experience is infinitely multiplied
by your empathy with others. Love enables you to suffer with the suffering and
rejoice with the joyful, as John Powell said. It gives you a new life every springtime.
It makes you feel the impact of the great mysteries of life: birth, growth,
suffering and death. Your heart skips along with young lovers and you
experience the exhilaration that is in them. You know the ghetto’s philosophy
of despair and the sage’s peaks of ecstasy. Love makes flowers bloom on your way
and enables you to accept the thorns among those flowers too. Love is the music
that moves the planets in their orbits and your heart resonates with the same
music.
One
of the best passages on love can be found in the Bible: 1
Corinthians 13. I may be a powerful
orator who can speak in the tongues of angels, but I am only a resounding gong
or a clanging cymbal if there is no love in my heart. Even if I have the gift
of prophecy and can fathom all the mysteries and all knowledge, and even if I
have faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
Love
is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not self-seeking, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love rejoices with the
truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Always.
Love is eternal. Perhaps, that is the only eternal thing we have. What better
meaning do you want for your life?
This post is the last in a series on Meaning
of Life.
7th: Meaning
of Suffering
Love is wisdom. Love is not accessible to the materialists. Personally, I have experienced the reward of love after I stopped expecting it from others and started accepting people for what they are and fulfilling their expectations as much as possible. In fact, I have kissed the hearts of several monsters and found the angels in them without any transmutation. What was transmuted was the monster in me into a beautiful angel. Now I am considered an angel by many around me. I can see myself happier than ever. What else will be the reward for love! Thanks, my love!
ReplyDeleteThis is the best comment I have received in this whole series. Thank you for that, first of all.
DeleteTouching hearts is the best thing anyone, especially a teacher, can do. That's not easy. We have to let go ourselves. And stop expecting anything in return from others. In fact, the returns may be just the opposite of what we expect. Such is love. But the rewards we reap for ourselves will be great. That's our benefit. I'm glad you've reached that stage.
This is the best comment I have received in this whole series.
DeleteWhat a privilege, sir! Thank you. :)
Love is a response thru action..It takes different hues and shapes and meaning ...From one spectrum to the other...As Tomichan illustrated...
DeleteThank you.
DeleteThis is a beautiful post.. You have penned down beautifully.. Loved reading it
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it.
DeleteVery nice post. And yes love does change people for good.
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteWhat a beautifully written post. Loved it. Love is beautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteLove is what makes life really worthwhile.
DeleteI simply loved this post. In my opinion one must find love in everything around. Love what you do. I think that can give you more positive energy than anything else.
ReplyDeleteOne who can find love in everything is a mystic.
DeleteBut sir, the world has changed to the conclusion that love has no value. What can u contradict between Love and the present Society??
ReplyDeleteLove will continue to be a human value as long as humanity exists. Right now humanity is in a phase of degradation. The cycle will turn in due course of time.
Delete