Today is Valentine’s Day – the
most celebrated day for lovebirds to express their love for each other.
Lovelorn majanoos wooing for lailas is no uncommon sight today. In fact, so
many love songs of Bollywood sing the story of the unrequited love. And such
love stories and examples could invariably be found in every corner of this
world. Most Indian movies make their business with story of two star crossed
lovers with their feuding families, their songs or soliloquies in separation
and ultimately their phenomenal union. No wonder, young lads growing with these
stories dream of their Juliets and lasses like Cinderella eagerly await for their
princes. And the corporate world is always on their toes for such opportune
moments to cash in on people’s emotions by endorsing and promoting days like these
(and being a software developer of an e-commerce shop, I can certainly vouch
for this!).
Real Love
Sages and seers of truth of various
traditions, however, define love as life meant for pleasure of the beloved,
unconditionally and uninterruptedly. To quote HH Radhanath Swami – “Love means
to serve. And to serve means to please.” It is selfless in nature. Such love
reaches its complete perfection when the beloved object is Supreme Lord. In true
love, the lover loves not only his/her beloved but everyone else connected to the
beloved. When love is reposited in Supreme Lord, such love is naturally manifested
for all living entities as they are also connected with the Lord. Because of
such love, great prophets like Jesus, Mohammad or my very dear Srila Prabhupada
could surpass bodily limits and fight against so many obstacles to express
their compassion to all living entities. And there are countless examples of
such personalities in every single genuine tradition round the globe.
Mundane Love
But that which is portrayed as
love in the modern times is limited to superficial bodily attraction, and
with ultimate desire for consummation (often, in unlawful and irresponsible way).
The authoritative scriptures label this as plain lust. There is an easy way to
understand this fact. The spoken or written words permeate the level of consciousness
or intent of one’s heart. There is no dearth of poems, haikus and messages on
love, exchanged between couples on this day. One can easily get a glimpse of
the superficiality in the modern-day love from study of these texts. Most of
these texts generally speak of selfish desires to be in company of other for
some mental or social happiness or gross desire for physical enjoyment (you just
need to listen to any bollywood love song to convince yourself of this). Since this
blog is not meant for writing movie songs, I would skip citing examples in this
regard. Sometimes, passionate lovesick heroes talk of sacrificing life if
beloved is not attained. But such frustrated sacrifice of life seems much
despicable, when compared to a blissful life of sacrifice for the pleasure of the
beloved.
Expressions of Pure Love
To understand the nature of the true love we have to study lives of realized souls in loving devotional service to Lord who were completely selfless and free from any tinge of false ego, their beautiful poetic opuses, written compositions which were realized to them. In my little study of their literature I found it imbued with superlative form of love for Lord, higher than anything seen or heard about love in this world, testimony to their intense feelings of belongingness to the Lord.
These literature are not just mental imaginations or
intellectual juggleries for cheap recognition, but pieces of heartfelt, truthful realizations. Without fail, these texts charm me every time I read them. These literary
master pieces have been a great source of inspiration in my spiritual life and
it won’t be an exaggeration to say that my devotional life sustains itself thanks
to such texts. One can easily understand the depth of their love from their compositions.
In comparison to this love (even in textual way), mundane love appears just as broken
pieces of glass pales in comparison to diamond.To understand the nature of the true love we have to study lives of realized souls in loving devotional service to Lord who were completely selfless and free from any tinge of false ego, their beautiful poetic opuses, written compositions which were realized to them. In my little study of their literature I found it imbued with superlative form of love for Lord, higher than anything seen or heard about love in this world, testimony to their intense feelings of belongingness to the Lord.
In essence, if we want to be an actual
connoisseur of true love and the associated bliss, we should take inspiration
from these realized souls and should not settle with anything less offered by mundane
love of this world. For only that can sooth the core most desire of everyone’s heart
– to love and to be loved.
(Citing below few examples from
such texts), You may comment with similar examples from scriptures which left you inspired.
“O Lord Hari, it is not to
be saved from the dualities of material existence or the grim tribulations of
the Kumbhīpāka hell that I pray to Your lotus feet. Nor is my purpose to enjoy
the soft-skinned beautiful women who reside in the gardens of heaven. I pray to
Your lotus feet only so that I may remember You alone in the core of my heart,
birth after birth.”
“My mind cannot turn from Śrī Kṛṣṇa's
lotus feet, even for a moment. So let my dear ones and other relatives
criticize me, my superiors accept or reject me as they like, the common people
spread evil gossip about me, and my family's reputation be sullied. For a
madman like me, it is honor enough to feel this flood of love of Godhead, which
brings such sweet emotions of attraction for my Lord.”
[ King Kulshekhara, Mukunda Mala
Prayers, text 4 and 42]
“O Lord, I am just like a puppet
in Your hands. So if You have brought me here to dance, then make me dance,
make me dance, O Lord, make me dance as You like.”
[Srila Prabhupada in his prayers
on the Jaladuta Ship]
“May I be born again even as a
worm, so long as I may remain Your devotee. I have no desire to be born as a
Brahma averse to You.”
[Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur,
in his “Manasa Deho geho” song,
from Sharanagati]
“The Supreme
Personality of Godhead said to the brahmana: I am completely under the control
of My devotees. Indeed, I am not at all independent. Because My devotees are
completely devoid of material desires, I sit only within the cores of their
hearts. What to speak of My devotee, even those who are devotees of My devotee
are very dear to Me.”
[To reciprocate to love of his devotees Lord says in Srimad
Bhagavatam 9.4.63]