When somebody ask you to define love, will that be an easy task?! May be Wikipedia can give you an answer like "Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection to pleasure. It can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection..." But do you think that we can limit the love with a simple definition?! Obviously Not! It is not an easy task to define love as it is beyond the words or expressions. The limitation of language can be clearly visible in such a situation. Humans haven't developed a language yet that can explain love. In simple words "Love is beyond language!" Then what is love?!
A survey was conducted recently to find out the most beautiful word in English language. The word which came in the first place is "Love" and the word "Mother" grabbed the second place. See the beauty, Mother, in a broader sense is love itself. This diversity of meanings and uses combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to define or compared to other emotional states. Throughout the history people explained love in different angles. That’s how the cultural, religious, political and philosophical theories of love got formulated.
Almost every religion derived in human history has provided a superior position to love in their doctrine. The Bible says:
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 )
How beautifully described - this might be the reason why the Bible is also called as the 'Book of Love'. Bible also gives a new message to the humankind which none of other books have provided:
"But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked." (Luke 6:35)
Atharva Veda, the ancient Indian text, recites "Love binds all hearts in a soft silken symphony. Seen through the eyes of Love, all beings are beautiful all deeds are dedicated and all thoughts are innocent. The World is one vast kin."
Yet another beautiful sloka in Rig Veda starts like this:
"Sing the song of celestial love, O singer!
May the divine fountain of eternal grace and joy
enter your soul.
May Brahma, (the Divine One),
Pluck the strings of your inner soul
with His celestial fingers,
And feel His own presence within.
Bless us with a divine voice
That we may tune the harp-strings of our life
To sing songs of Love to you."
Rig veda takes a non-dualistic approach and equates love with Brahma. The love in its highest point ever! In Hinduism, attaining unadulterated, unconditional and incessant love for God is considered the foremost goal of life.
The Holy Quran also gives immense importance to Love. Quran says "Love is earned (Qur'an, 30:45), Love is true sacrifice (Qur'an, 2:177), Real love does not decay (Qur'an, 49:12), Allah is love (Qur'an, 11:90 and 85:14) " Love is more than an emotion in Islam and like the weather, a spectrum of vivid or dark colors, is prone to change. Its darker shades can lead to lustful corruption; its purer essence lead to faith.
Starting from Sigmund Freud through modern neuroscience love is one of the favorite subject of scientific research. Scientist classified love in two major categories, the Impersonal love and Interpersonal love. The impersonal model talks about love to an object, principle, or goal to which we are deeply committed and greatly value. The interpersonal love further breaks down into Biological and Psychological model. Biological models of love is similar to hunger or thirst. Psychology sees love as more of a social and cultural phenomenon. The conventional view in biology is that there are two major drives in love: sexual attraction and attachment. Attachment between adults is presumed to work on the same principles that lead an infant to become attached to its mother. The traditional psychological view sees love as being a combination of companionate love and passionate love. Passionate love is intense longing, and is often accompanied by physiological arousal (shortness of breath, rapid heart rate); companionate love is affection and a feeling of intimacy not accompanied by physiological arousal.
If we look at the literature and art ever created we can see love everywhere. Love is the most celebrated emotion in the whole human history. Some people talked about love, some spread love, some lived in love and some reformed a generation with love. I cannot forget the names of Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa who lived as apostles of love. We can read and feel the eternal love in the works of poets like Valmiki, Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Rumi, Pablo Neruda, Khalil Gibran, Coleridge. Ramayana, one of the greatest text in Indian literature starts with the beautiful lines:
"mā niṣāda pratiṣṭhāṁ tvamagamaḥ śāśvatīḥ samāḥ
yat krauñcamithunādekam avadhīḥ kāmamohitam"
[You will find no rest for the long years of Eternity
For you killed a bird in love and unsuspecting]
A survey was conducted recently to find out the most beautiful word in English language. The word which came in the first place is "Love" and the word "Mother" grabbed the second place. See the beauty, Mother, in a broader sense is love itself. This diversity of meanings and uses combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to define or compared to other emotional states. Throughout the history people explained love in different angles. That’s how the cultural, religious, political and philosophical theories of love got formulated.
Almost every religion derived in human history has provided a superior position to love in their doctrine. The Bible says:
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 )
How beautifully described - this might be the reason why the Bible is also called as the 'Book of Love'. Bible also gives a new message to the humankind which none of other books have provided:
"But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked." (Luke 6:35)
Atharva Veda, the ancient Indian text, recites "Love binds all hearts in a soft silken symphony. Seen through the eyes of Love, all beings are beautiful all deeds are dedicated and all thoughts are innocent. The World is one vast kin."
Yet another beautiful sloka in Rig Veda starts like this:
"Sing the song of celestial love, O singer!
May the divine fountain of eternal grace and joy
enter your soul.
May Brahma, (the Divine One),
Pluck the strings of your inner soul
with His celestial fingers,
And feel His own presence within.
Bless us with a divine voice
That we may tune the harp-strings of our life
To sing songs of Love to you."
Rig veda takes a non-dualistic approach and equates love with Brahma. The love in its highest point ever! In Hinduism, attaining unadulterated, unconditional and incessant love for God is considered the foremost goal of life.
The Holy Quran also gives immense importance to Love. Quran says "Love is earned (Qur'an, 30:45), Love is true sacrifice (Qur'an, 2:177), Real love does not decay (Qur'an, 49:12), Allah is love (Qur'an, 11:90 and 85:14) " Love is more than an emotion in Islam and like the weather, a spectrum of vivid or dark colors, is prone to change. Its darker shades can lead to lustful corruption; its purer essence lead to faith.
Starting from Sigmund Freud through modern neuroscience love is one of the favorite subject of scientific research. Scientist classified love in two major categories, the Impersonal love and Interpersonal love. The impersonal model talks about love to an object, principle, or goal to which we are deeply committed and greatly value. The interpersonal love further breaks down into Biological and Psychological model. Biological models of love is similar to hunger or thirst. Psychology sees love as more of a social and cultural phenomenon. The conventional view in biology is that there are two major drives in love: sexual attraction and attachment. Attachment between adults is presumed to work on the same principles that lead an infant to become attached to its mother. The traditional psychological view sees love as being a combination of companionate love and passionate love. Passionate love is intense longing, and is often accompanied by physiological arousal (shortness of breath, rapid heart rate); companionate love is affection and a feeling of intimacy not accompanied by physiological arousal.
If we look at the literature and art ever created we can see love everywhere. Love is the most celebrated emotion in the whole human history. Some people talked about love, some spread love, some lived in love and some reformed a generation with love. I cannot forget the names of Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa who lived as apostles of love. We can read and feel the eternal love in the works of poets like Valmiki, Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Rumi, Pablo Neruda, Khalil Gibran, Coleridge. Ramayana, one of the greatest text in Indian literature starts with the beautiful lines:
"mā niṣāda pratiṣṭhāṁ tvamagamaḥ śāśvatīḥ samāḥ
yat krauñcamithunādekam avadhīḥ kāmamohitam"
[You will find no rest for the long years of Eternity
For you killed a bird in love and unsuspecting]
An epic poem is inspired by the lost love! This makes Wordsworth's sentence meaningful - "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility." Here that emotion is love!
Let's celebrate the festival of love with a beautiful poem of Rabindranath Tagore, "Undening Love":
“I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, its age-old pain,
Its ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star piercing the darkness of time:
You become an image of what is remembered forever.
You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers, shared in the same
Shy sweetness of meeting, the same distressful tears of farewell-
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.
Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man’s days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours –
And the songs of every poet past and forever.”
Love is the most beautiful thing in the world. You can find love everywhere in the universe; the stars love their planet and the sun loves the earth; the birds fly from tree to tree singing and telling everybody they are happy together. Always remember "A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love." Love should be eternal and unconditional. I would say Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life!
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