to love selflessly
is an act of true courage
to love with complete abandon
is to know God
63 thoughts on “love and abandon”
Hi Mr.Kapur,
Your reply to my ‘Smile haiku’ query is much appreciated. I am trying to compile poetic philosophies and your reply makes an interesting reference. I came across this particular entry while browsing through your answer and thought of commenting. The subject of the verse you have entered above was coincidently the basis of a great debate between me and some of my co-writers. I am currently going through a divorce and in the process have discovered a slight modification of the verse above…
“to love selflessly
is humanly impossible
and to love with complete abandon
is to systematically let go
of that precious little God
within ourselves”
I hope you take my impertinence with a tinge of humor. I don’t mean to be rude, just whimsically candid 🙂
Regards,
Aditi
Both Loving selflessly and with abandon – both need some knowledge , Self preservation is the only virtue practiced by every materail being !
Love is only another way for a convoluted form of self-preservation – perhaps and at best shared self-preservation.
No one wud love without experiencing ‘Joy’, or atleast anticipating it ! No Joy , No Love !!
I have another question – can charity of heart , kindness be love ?
Any answers ?
rudra, all charity, all kindness, if not tinged with self glorification, is love. To give with no desire for anything in return, to give as the priest in the temple hands out ‘prasad’,
then it is love, yes.
shekhar
Thank you Shekhar , but i have to refine my question : It is ‘obligated’ charity of heart and ‘obligated’ kindness i was asking about – for example , when someone is so attached to us , so dependent on our reciprocation – i am sure many women can relate to this better ( only since they are the usual chased ones ).
If a person were to reciprocate that love and end up saying ‘ alright , i love you ‘, only since otherwise this pining heart wud hurt and wallow in pain – would that be love ?
Dear Shekhar,
You talked about giving without asking for anything, and I agree that is love. If a man gives a woman an expensive gift at the beginning of a relationship hoping for her love in return, is that not love, even if he truly loves her?
Did the material expression of his love to expect her love in return made the love go away?
Regards,
Himanshu – NY
I read this quote about 5 yrs back and it really made me think deeply about the beauty of the universe, and the deep love God has for us. I hope you like it:
“The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.”
~ James Irwin American astronaut, APOLLO 15 LEM Pilot: Eighth man on the Moon
Regards,
Himanshu – NY
I do believe that only selfless love will withstand all forces of our human life. when we love with complete abandon we are spirited, elevated as humans. We dont let go the god within we become one with god. i think material gifts are not selfless acts of love we crave for more gifts.
Hope somebody does agree
nandini ,
i agree with your first and last sentences! for the rest , we dont know what ‘God’ is – with our limited understanding .
I dont know or see how Love and God are the same – God , if such an entity logically does exist , has to be unbounded – We have Love and Lust inside us – so all that we do is driven by ‘Love’ .
I dont think its correct to assume , entity God ‘s actions , can be defined only by this ambiguous ‘Love’.
can God not hate ? If there is no Hate , then why are there all the bigotries and hatred pedelled by the so called ‘religious’ ? – even a peaceful person reacting to such hatred is labelled ‘hardliner’ ! why is there such a thing called ‘Hate’ in this world ? – Both Love and Hate need ‘Passion’ – Any answers ?
cheers,
Rudra.
Hi everyone,
please check out Osho’s view about Hate and love.I found it on youtube.Its very intersesting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-7JSIDgcLk
Cheers,
sanjay malhotra
Rudra,
true love is unconditional we all know..love like you don’t ever want anything back..telling that person alright i love you then..is wanting that person to not hurt is -hmm for lack of a better word-selfish.You aren’t responsible for another’s actions or even emotions..say it only if you mean it.Better still showing them that the love they crave for from you in within them first is a far better option..
Rudra,
How will you ever know what love is if you don’t have its opposites?how will god experience what he/she is all about if you aren’t there to experience it for him/her…
“why is there such a thing called ‘Hate’ in this world ? – Both Love and Hate need ‘Passion’ – Any answers ?”
Dear Rudra,
Love and hate are two extremes of the same emotion. Contrary to popular belief, hate is not the opposite of love. The opposite of love is indifference. And if I remember correctly, Osho held exactly the same view on this subject……maybe I’ve been influenced by him.
Yes, both love and hate are driven by passion. You go on to ask, “why is there such a thing called ‘Hate’ in this world ?”……….For the same reason as there is darkness in the world along with light. For the same reason there is coldness along with warmth. For the same reason there is femininity along with masculinity. This world runs or rather exists only because of its dual nature. If there was no duality, this world would not exist.
You ask “can God not hate ?”. Yes, God can and does hate, if you percieve God to be an individual. If you perceive God as an all encompassing Force, even then it encompasses hate. The same energy keeps changing forms. Anger/hate becomes compassion when the wheel turns. Compassion turns to love. If there was no hate, love would have no meaning. Day has a meaning only because we know what’s night.
Cheers!
Navin
Sanjay : it was fun listening to Osho , he says , Love cannot be posessed – it cannot be controlled – we come in its possession – so he says , in this world , Hate is Pure ! – which reflects what i was saying , since we make a big deal of forced and enticed Love – but when it comes to the moment – our inner Passion takes over – it could be Love or Hate – like a Switch !
Rashika : Thanks for the perspective – you are so right ! you found the words and the perspective for a condition i have encountered quite perplexing….Many times silence is taken for approval while the heart smoulders in rebellion , it is not healthy Love at all – at the same time kindness and compassion also makes us drag on and on and on and on….
but i did not understand your second part – how can what we experience define God or Love ??
Dear Navin : does God depend on our perception ? is he an individual or an ‘ all encompassing Force’ ? – both are imaginary ideas. so how can we be sure ‘ God Loves us ‘ – something many organised religions claim ? and lastly, i’d like to know which wheel youre talking about – i wish to know how anger can becomes compassion ? – i hope you dont mean ‘the wheel of time’ !
Nice observation Shekhar. The purest form of love in the world that I can percieve is the selfless love that a parent can have for a child, though not all parents demonstrate that. Love with complete abandon – that’s a higher level, I don’t know if any being so far in the history of the planet has been able to get there. But truly, I agree, that is a demonstration of a truth beyond the comprehension of most humans.
Rudra,
let me show you another thing about GOD. thats again on you tube .this fuckin.. internet is a even more weired discovery than than the wheel. check this out on you tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6mBYZIZx1k
but Rudra I’M not saying this is my point of view ,OR WE SHOULD force it to anyone,..but we are here to just listen what ever everyone is saying ..Again I feel it very interseting and would like to share it with everyone .That gives the answer of “WHAT IS GOD?”
“does God depend on our perception ? is he an individual or an ‘ all encompassing Force’ ? – both are imaginary ideas. so how can we be sure ‘ God Loves us ‘ – something many organised religions claim ?”
Hi again, Rudra.
If I use my brain, I’d have to agree with you that God only exists in our imagination. Every newborn is burdened with the concept of God, which I think is the hardest conditioning to get rid of. And I don’t think much of organized religion. They are just running their business, like any other.
But I do sense a higher presence in my life at times. I can’t define it.
Everything is a wheel. Most things move in a circular pattern. Seasons are cyclical. The water-cloud-rain transition is a cycle. Time is a cycle. Birth-Aging-Death-Birth is a cycle. What you give to the world comes back to you. If you’ve been nice to the world, the world will be nice to you and vice versa (in the long run).
Similarly, your state of mind is always in a flux. You can’t feel the same emotion all your life. Haven’t you ever seen your anger towards someone turn into compassion once the heat of the moment is gone? I have. I used to get angry at people who I considered on a lower level of existence than me. No longer. Now I only feel compassion for them. This change comes with an understanding that they too are in the process of evolving into better human beings like me. If there are some people ahead of me, then there are also some people behind me and I have to treat them both equally.
Cheers!
Navin
but the object of such love is difficult to find. there are more than million chances to be misunderstood and misinterpreted.
people like to define you with their limited intelligence.
When you love with complete abandon, you know God, then you realise that the object of your love is nothing but a human. Despite this realisation if you can love selflessly, it’s indeed an act of courage!
Sanjay – the link you sent, what was the point?
As far as I can tell, it’s a guy who is totally stoned, partially incomprehensible with a funny accent, telling a particularly ribald joke that is not that funny since he messes up the punch line frequently.. however there seem to be a bunch of folks in the audience who just crack up everytime he says something 🙂
It just amazes me how many ‘gurus’ have taken kaula tantra and used it to their advantage.. the list is endless..none of those ever read the original texts, it would frighten them 🙂
French story(told to me by a friend)-
a blind beggar on the road… no one is paying any attention to him…he is so poor that he cant even afford tears…he has not cried for years…
a writer who is broke in his life…
its spring…
the writer leaves his home to wander with out a penny in his pocket.
he notices the beggar and his miserable state…
there is a slate and a chalk kept beside the beggar…
the writer approaches the beggar and says
‘ dear friend, i am a writer who doesnt have a penny but i have an art…i have power of words…i can give you that…please allow me to write on the slate which you have…’
Beggar’ sir…hardly any one speaks to me…i am a poor blind beggar…you are free to do what ever you want to do with the slate’
the writer writes something on the slate and walks away…
as writer leaves, the beggar could feel that every person passing by him is stopping and throwing coins at him…
after few minutes there is a heap of coins in front of him…
he becomes uneasy…the heap keeps raising second by second…
he becomes so restless that the next man who throws a coin in front of him, the beggar grabs his hand and says
‘sir, sorry for misbehaving…but i am a poor blind man…please do me a favor and read out to me what has been written on the slate?’
the man takes up the slate and reads out
‘ ITS SPRING AND I CANT SEE! ‘
tears roll down the old blind beggar’s cheeks…
end…
this is compassion…
who understands life better?
the writer who wrote it? or people who read it and offered coins? or the beggar who cried after so many years?
this story suddenly brought tears to my eyes, kedar. Thank you, Shekhar
Shekhar Kapur, those words will forever offer guidance.
Thank you.
yes dude…
whenever i want to cry, i recall this story…
every time i recall it, i feel jealous… why the hell i didnt write this story…!
there is a poem by Nida Fazli sung by Jagjeet Singh… that poetic song produces the same emotion when ever i sing it…
Song( if you have heard it, its very easy to sing but sing it in its original RAAG rather than reading it as a poem…that RAAG produces KARUN RASA)
garaj baras pyaasii dharatii par phir paanii de maulaa
chi.Diyo.n ko daane, bachcho.n ko gu.D-dhaanii de maulaa
do aur do kaa jo.D hameshaa.n chaar kahaa.N hotaa hai
soch samajh vaalo.n ko tho.Dii naadaanii de maulaa
phir roshan kar zahar kaa pyaalaa, chamakaa na_ii salibe.n
jhuuTho.n kii duniyaa me.n sach ko taabaanii de maulaa
phir muurat se baahar aakar chaaro.n or bikhar jaa
phir ma.ndir ko ko_ii miiraa diivaanii de maulaa
tere hote koii kisii kii jaan kaa dushman kyo.n ho
jiine vaalo.n ko marane kii aasaanii de maulaa
I agree with you Rashika. If it is charity then it cannot be love and if you are telling person that you love them only out of pity then that’s criminal towards both. Rudra, one has to take a stand, destroying two lives would be a bigger adharm than breaking a heart. It will break eventually and may be it will get fixed too.
Kedar, Thanks for sharing that wonderful story. Now days we hardly get to see this kind of senstivity.
Regards
Dear Kedar
Re #21 and #24:
Beautiful indeed!
With love
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
hahaha…dude… DK is here…
hello Dk…
Mr. Holistic relativity!
welcome to awaaragardi!
lots of love…take care…tata…
Matins
(poem by Louise Gluck)
Unreachable father, when we were first
exiled from heaven, you made
a replica, a place in one sense
different from heaven, being
designed to teach a lesson: otherwise
the same–beauty on either side, beauty
without alternative–Except
we didn’t know what was the lesson.
Left alone
we exhausted each other. Years
of darkness followed; we took turns
working the garden, the first tears
filling our eyes as earth
misted with petals, some
dark red, some flesh colored-
We never thought of you
whom we were learning to worship.
We merely knew it wasn’t human nature to love
only what returns love.
Thanks Sanjay…
i will find the name of the author…
there is another french book…ammm …Novel…
again told to me by my friend ( he is a writer himself…)
the novel is ‘LITTLE PRINCE’
what a story!
grab it…its just 100 pages…!
Pratik, That link was in context with the preception of God ,that god, what we created for our convienence..and whome we can use it according to us…and every religon uses that word with their own convienience..Like he used that particular “F” word for many situations…And what ever accent he speaks in has no importance. Important is a thought and its essense,Could you please explain about Kaula Tantra(what is that?)and the context of it, you used here. Where did that come from?
sanjay
Kedar,This sort of flavor we use to get in the work of Munshi premchand,Anton chekov, R.k Narayanan and Saddat hassan manto to some extent.I wonder where that essence and sensitivity has gone now..where is that magic gone which use to exist in the stories beyond the words,. And use to speak, talk and interact to us .
Regards
“why is there such a thing called ‘Hate’ in this world ? – Both Love and Hate need ‘Passion’.Can God hate? – Any answers, ?”
Dear Rudra,
Much has been said about this in this post, thanks to Shekar for bringing up profound topics for discussion. I have read many of your comments on this blog and I think you writing comes of much deep convictions and thoughts.
I would like to say a few things. Like Navin said, hate and love are two faces of the same coin. God cannot love or hate.He is beyond both.He is beyond goodness and evil, darkness and light. If you feel one, at some other you feel the other emotion. God, whether he is an individual or Omnipotent Enery, whatever each of us conceive Him to be cannot be bound my emotions that rule a human heart.
Love and hate both are expressions of the ego.Different in tone and effect. Once both are destroyed,the ego is also annihilated and gives way to compassion for the whole of creation without bias. Maybe this is the state all of us are trying to reach. Kahlil Gibrans’s thoughts on love,hate, good and evil helps. http://www.columbia.edu/~gm84/gibtable.html
Thank you and hope somebody agrees?
Love, hate, intellect, stars, thoughts, fear, space and everything that comes to mind are manifestations of primordial vibration. This primordial vibration is known and felt as the vibratory energy during sexual excitation. (If you ever pause [hmmm…just a bit] to observe sexual energy or orgasm, you will notice it has an extremely extremely fine vibratory quality that is intensely pleasurable.) By meditating on this energy one can understand the basic building block of thought as well as all matter and feelings. Love, as an emotion, is another manifestation of this energy. So is everything else.
The organization of this energy into different states of matter and thought is beyond the grasp of any mind or heart since mind and heart themselves are a creation of it. However, becoming one with this energy in one’s lifetime can mean the difference between knowledge and truth. It requires one to balance intellectual energy (in the head, conditional and learned) with primordial vibrations felt at the genitals–an impossible task in a society that denigrates the genital as much as it celebrates the intellect.
For example, all discussions on this page here are intellectual in nature, springing from trained minds, while there is not a single post that deals with the primordial energy in whose embrace were conceived all these minds (during the act of lovemaking between our parents). Complete understaning therefore is not possible, not until the intellect sinks down to meet its primordial fuel– which I think is an impossible task (for cultured people) since the mind that reasons has been completely cut off from the pure energy whose abode is far below (rhetorically as well as visibly) the mind.
Dear XYZ,
You are correct. All talk about God and Love is just that……..talk. And we all know that talk is cheap. If you have a delicious cake in front of you, would you eat it or would you talk about it? Neither God nor Love can be defined. They are much bigger than any of us. They are beyond our comprehension. That’s why all philosophising must end in silence.
Cheers!
Navin
life is sad…because today i am sad…
now i have to walk…tomorrow…? …let me just walk…
yes rudra thats life we go on … even if we are sad or happy we just walk on..if we are sad world seems sad and we make our loved ones sad as we are sad, the same way when we hate we imbibe our words into other make them hate others. so let me happpy and spread happines and love.
life is sad…because today i am happy and i am stuck to my yesterday…
now i have to walk…tomorrow?…let me just walk…
ALmost everyone knows what life is 🙂 lol
I dont knw love, ive been hurt too many times
i dont knw god, ive seen too much life
(sorry for the oozing ‘pretentious’ hehe)
Mother Teresa’s words ‘how can you love someone if you judge?’. I believe in that.
dude…
scene from MR. India- kids dont have food to eat. Anil Kapoor is trying hard to get it. Shri Devi comes home and is surprised ‘ why children are not making any sound?’…and she is shocked to see the state in which children are! she brings food…NO ONE EATS!!! ……….SAME EMOTION
Masoom – Dont call me Mother! ……..SAME EMOTION
BANDIT Queen- ab ghumti rahegi jindagi bhar…(father to phoolan after she returns from Sasooral) …..SAME EMOTION…….
Elizabeth – hollywood drama
Four feathers- hollywood drama…
PAANI- is it making you cry? …… does it need studio backing to convey what you want to say…?
if not fuck them…simple cuts…great story…make us cry!
actually i wanted to say this out when i posted that story under LOVE AND ABANDON….
those four lines have all the knowledge of the universe hidden in them…but no emotion…
where as Zen koans are weird but the rhythm of the sound produced by the words create the SAME EMOTION and if one gets the meaning then its DIVINE feeling!
does PAANI have it? if not…throw all the pages you have written and write again…
CHILDREN OF MEN… no emotion… only technique…end result- kheech taan ke emotional climax…
PS: (my cozy zone)
dont want to offend you!…
i once heard your interview where you were asked ‘ how does it feel to be at such a height of glory’
your answer ‘ feels good…now i can buy all the DVDs i always wanted to buy’
even today if you can then dont compromise even with your self…
this doesnt mean you are compromising… just that i am drunk! 🙂 i hope i havent hurt you!
your fan! lots of love….take care…kedar…
Dear Kedar,
Would you please translate the following in English, I’d like to take in the fragrance of its meaning as well…thank you.
Dear Shekhar,
The story does move one to tears…this evening I was also with the same emotion while watching “Amazing Grace” at the cinema.
It was when John Newton became blind then he realized what it was like to really “see”
Beautiful sharing from many here!
In Spirit,
Cinda
hahahaha…Cinda…Dear…i thought i was typing in english…but my english is so bad that i didnt realize that it is not making any sense…
sorry….
translation of two lines which are in Hindi as per my capabilities-
Film-Bandit queen – now you will keep wandering through out your life ( father of a girl protagonist says to her when she returns to her parents home leaving behind torturous married life. but father is saying to her that she has committed mistake by returning…because even today in india, in villages it is considered bad if a girl returns back to her parents home… the reference is very regional but the emotion is universal…the blindness of the system towards basic human emotion-compassion and treating other person worse than animal…)( watch the film with subtitles…)
i gave the reference of a film called CHILDREN OF MEN. it is made by a mexican director Alfonso Cuaron based on P.D. James’ novel.
why i gave the reference of that film because i was talking about PAANI…the futuristic film which Shekhar is planning to make…and Children of Men is also a futuristic film where the maker has shown futuristic England…but the basic plot is so simple, the basic story is so simple and the maker didnt realize this because may be he was counting on the futuristic world he has created…and he has taken extra efforts in creating futuristic world and he has not paid much attention to the emotional graph of the story…it certainly does not create the emotional impact the maker was intending to create…
so i said – keech taan ke emotional climax… which means ‘ the climax is pretentious! it doesnt create the desired effect! some how it has been made to fit in the whole frame!’
( the simple reason of the earlier comment was to put forward the different points in Shekhar’s earlier films which made me cry and asking him whether he is doing the same kind of justice to his next film? )
‘ life is like a foreign language…where you know that it has a grammar of its own which you dont know!’
take care…tata…kedar…
Shekhar,
My question is irrelevant to your current post. I want to know why so many of us who claim to be very spiritual lie and deceive about the most basic things?
They regularly quote from Gita or Gurbani but once they come out of this mode, it is back to lies and deceit again. Lying to make themselves interesting to other people.
I have been trying to figure this out since last 11 years, and recently an episode in my life has brought this question back very strongly.
They visit Durga temples, come back home and turn their mothers out of home, beat up or cheat on their wives, lust after neighbours’ wife or daughters.
Shekhar:
Just strolled here since I hadnt seen you at Intentblog…
Why have any adjectives to love? to add adjectives to a noun makes it distinctive in different states.. is love any different in a different state?
I think Gulzar Saab said it the best.. Pyaar ko Pyaar hi rehne do .. koi naam na do!”
cheers,
desh
drishtikone.com
Hi Desh,
I’m the one guilty of posting the first very cynical post at the start of this discussion. After having read everything from complicated esotericism to idealogical ramblings, I actually went back to Mr.Kapur’s original entry just to make sure I hadn’t missed out on some highly complex, arcane theory concealed in the four quite simple lines. And then just as I was about to doubt my own budding intellect you simplified matters. I often wonder why eclectic and verbose discussions are associated with acumen when the real genius lies in unbinding the knots in a tangle. There is no greater antidote to analysis than simplification, is there? 🙂
I liked your blog and was planning on leaving a comment on your blog but thought my response would be more relevant if posted in this chain of comments.
Nav,
i completely agree to you. It has really become common. The words like Love, Commitment, Long term loving relationship, Honesty, Loyalty.. have lost its meaning. All I see around is infedility, broken hearts, tears. Science and Technology has brought the world closer. It has shrinked the world. But the spaces in between two individuals in love , or in a relationship is filled with suspicion, hatered, anger, disloyalty. When this makes its room in a persons head and heart, no spirituality or philosophy can change a person.
Even I wonder many a times, why do people behave in this manner?
Kedar…sorry, the order of some of these posts sort of threw things out of perspective.
What I was after was
“garaj baras pyaasii dharatii par phir paanii de maulaa
chi.Diyo.n ko daane, bachcho.n ko gu.D-dhaanii de maulaa
do aur do kaa jo.D hameshaa.n chaar kahaa.N hotaa hai
soch samajh vaalo.n ko tho.Dii naadaanii de maulaa
phir roshan kar zahar kaa pyaalaa, chamakaa na_ii salibe.n
jhuuTho.n kii duniyaa me.n sach ko taabaanii de maulaa
phir muurat se baahar aakar chaaro.n or bikhar jaa
phir ma.ndir ko ko_ii miiraa diivaanii de maulaa
tere hote koii kisii kii jaan kaa dushman kyo.n ho
jiine vaalo.n ko marane kii aasaanii de maulaa”
Maybe now it would make more sense.
Cinda:)
Desh –
Sorry to nitpick – but it was an adverb, not an adjective that modified love in the poem. It was about ‘loving’, the verb, not ‘Love’, the Universal noun you have assumed in your comment. There’s a big difference: the former is about humans, the latter is about God.
Nav: why don’t you invert your question. Why do people who are very human, who ‘deceive’, ‘cheat’, ‘lie’ according to our standards of what a human being ought to do, why do they still wish to be spiritual? Why don’t these base, selfish folks just go on with their hedonism and die like dumb animals, instead of trying to resurrect themselves through a different plane of thought?
Do you see yourself better now? Do you understand what humanity is all about?
want to share —Kahlil Gibran on Love
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
Kishore,
Thanks for the perspective. I have another question on your comment below.
“Why do people who are very human, who ‘deceive’, ‘cheat’, ‘lie’ according to our standards of what a human being ought to do?”
Using Nithari killings to make my question simpler, would my horror or the killer’s pleasure be a “standard”? Is everything that goes on this world “chalta hai” and unquestionable? What is right and what is not?
I studied sanskrit as a language till the 12th standard. I used to be all agog when the teacher translated the verses. One word that I can still remember is “Acharan”. Looking at the way the world is operating, I think I should have just stuck to the “language”.
Each Dusshera I would think to myself, why are they burning Ravan? Going by this standard half of the people watching him explode should be burnt. He did not touch Sita against her will, as the story goes. Nor did he lie that Sita was kidnapped by somebody else to save himself. But today’s “spiritual intellectuals” have no such qualms.
Hi Mr.Kapur,
Your reply to my ‘Smile haiku’ query is much appreciated. I am trying to compile poetic philosophies and your reply makes an interesting reference. I came across this particular entry while browsing through your answer and thought of commenting. The subject of the verse you have entered above was coincidently the basis of a great debate between me and some of my co-writers. I am currently going through a divorce and in the process have discovered a slight modification of the verse above…
“to love selflessly
is humanly impossible
and to love with complete abandon
is to systematically let go
of that precious little God
within ourselves”
I hope you take my impertinence with a tinge of humor. I don’t mean to be rude, just whimsically candid 🙂
Regards,
Aditi
Both Loving selflessly and with abandon – both need some knowledge , Self preservation is the only virtue practiced by every materail being !
Love is only another way for a convoluted form of self-preservation – perhaps and at best shared self-preservation.
No one wud love without experiencing ‘Joy’, or atleast anticipating it ! No Joy , No Love !!
I have another question – can charity of heart , kindness be love ?
Any answers ?
rudra, all charity, all kindness, if not tinged with self glorification, is love. To give with no desire for anything in return, to give as the priest in the temple hands out ‘prasad’,
then it is love, yes.
shekhar
Thank you Shekhar , but i have to refine my question : It is ‘obligated’ charity of heart and ‘obligated’ kindness i was asking about – for example , when someone is so attached to us , so dependent on our reciprocation – i am sure many women can relate to this better ( only since they are the usual chased ones ).
If a person were to reciprocate that love and end up saying ‘ alright , i love you ‘, only since otherwise this pining heart wud hurt and wallow in pain – would that be love ?
Dear Shekhar,
You talked about giving without asking for anything, and I agree that is love. If a man gives a woman an expensive gift at the beginning of a relationship hoping for her love in return, is that not love, even if he truly loves her?
Did the material expression of his love to expect her love in return made the love go away?
Regards,
Himanshu – NY
I read this quote about 5 yrs back and it really made me think deeply about the beauty of the universe, and the deep love God has for us. I hope you like it:
“The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.”
~ James Irwin American astronaut, APOLLO 15 LEM Pilot: Eighth man on the Moon
Regards,
Himanshu – NY
I do believe that only selfless love will withstand all forces of our human life. when we love with complete abandon we are spirited, elevated as humans. We dont let go the god within we become one with god. i think material gifts are not selfless acts of love we crave for more gifts.
Hope somebody does agree
nandini ,
i agree with your first and last sentences! for the rest , we dont know what ‘God’ is – with our limited understanding .
I dont know or see how Love and God are the same – God , if such an entity logically does exist , has to be unbounded – We have Love and Lust inside us – so all that we do is driven by ‘Love’ .
I dont think its correct to assume , entity God ‘s actions , can be defined only by this ambiguous ‘Love’.
can God not hate ? If there is no Hate , then why are there all the bigotries and hatred pedelled by the so called ‘religious’ ? – even a peaceful person reacting to such hatred is labelled ‘hardliner’ ! why is there such a thing called ‘Hate’ in this world ? – Both Love and Hate need ‘Passion’ – Any answers ?
cheers,
Rudra.
Hi everyone,
please check out Osho’s view about Hate and love.I found it on youtube.Its very intersesting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-7JSIDgcLk
Cheers,
sanjay malhotra
Rudra,
true love is unconditional we all know..love like you don’t ever want anything back..telling that person alright i love you then..is wanting that person to not hurt is -hmm for lack of a better word-selfish.You aren’t responsible for another’s actions or even emotions..say it only if you mean it.Better still showing them that the love they crave for from you in within them first is a far better option..
Rudra,
How will you ever know what love is if you don’t have its opposites?how will god experience what he/she is all about if you aren’t there to experience it for him/her…
“why is there such a thing called ‘Hate’ in this world ? – Both Love and Hate need ‘Passion’ – Any answers ?”
Dear Rudra,
Love and hate are two extremes of the same emotion. Contrary to popular belief, hate is not the opposite of love. The opposite of love is indifference. And if I remember correctly, Osho held exactly the same view on this subject……maybe I’ve been influenced by him.
Yes, both love and hate are driven by passion. You go on to ask, “why is there such a thing called ‘Hate’ in this world ?”……….For the same reason as there is darkness in the world along with light. For the same reason there is coldness along with warmth. For the same reason there is femininity along with masculinity. This world runs or rather exists only because of its dual nature. If there was no duality, this world would not exist.
You ask “can God not hate ?”. Yes, God can and does hate, if you percieve God to be an individual. If you perceive God as an all encompassing Force, even then it encompasses hate. The same energy keeps changing forms. Anger/hate becomes compassion when the wheel turns. Compassion turns to love. If there was no hate, love would have no meaning. Day has a meaning only because we know what’s night.
Cheers!
Navin
Sanjay : it was fun listening to Osho , he says , Love cannot be posessed – it cannot be controlled – we come in its possession – so he says , in this world , Hate is Pure ! – which reflects what i was saying , since we make a big deal of forced and enticed Love – but when it comes to the moment – our inner Passion takes over – it could be Love or Hate – like a Switch !
Rashika : Thanks for the perspective – you are so right ! you found the words and the perspective for a condition i have encountered quite perplexing….Many times silence is taken for approval while the heart smoulders in rebellion , it is not healthy Love at all – at the same time kindness and compassion also makes us drag on and on and on and on….
but i did not understand your second part – how can what we experience define God or Love ??
Dear Navin : does God depend on our perception ? is he an individual or an ‘ all encompassing Force’ ? – both are imaginary ideas. so how can we be sure ‘ God Loves us ‘ – something many organised religions claim ? and lastly, i’d like to know which wheel youre talking about – i wish to know how anger can becomes compassion ? – i hope you dont mean ‘the wheel of time’ !
Nice observation Shekhar. The purest form of love in the world that I can percieve is the selfless love that a parent can have for a child, though not all parents demonstrate that. Love with complete abandon – that’s a higher level, I don’t know if any being so far in the history of the planet has been able to get there. But truly, I agree, that is a demonstration of a truth beyond the comprehension of most humans.
Rudra,
let me show you another thing about GOD. thats again on you tube .this fuckin.. internet is a even more weired discovery than than the wheel. check this out on you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6mBYZIZx1k
but Rudra I’M not saying this is my point of view ,OR WE SHOULD force it to anyone,..but we are here to just listen what ever everyone is saying ..Again I feel it very interseting and would like to share it with everyone .That gives the answer of “WHAT IS GOD?”
“does God depend on our perception ? is he an individual or an ‘ all encompassing Force’ ? – both are imaginary ideas. so how can we be sure ‘ God Loves us ‘ – something many organised religions claim ?”
Hi again, Rudra.
If I use my brain, I’d have to agree with you that God only exists in our imagination. Every newborn is burdened with the concept of God, which I think is the hardest conditioning to get rid of. And I don’t think much of organized religion. They are just running their business, like any other.
But I do sense a higher presence in my life at times. I can’t define it.
Everything is a wheel. Most things move in a circular pattern. Seasons are cyclical. The water-cloud-rain transition is a cycle. Time is a cycle. Birth-Aging-Death-Birth is a cycle. What you give to the world comes back to you. If you’ve been nice to the world, the world will be nice to you and vice versa (in the long run).
Similarly, your state of mind is always in a flux. You can’t feel the same emotion all your life. Haven’t you ever seen your anger towards someone turn into compassion once the heat of the moment is gone? I have. I used to get angry at people who I considered on a lower level of existence than me. No longer. Now I only feel compassion for them. This change comes with an understanding that they too are in the process of evolving into better human beings like me. If there are some people ahead of me, then there are also some people behind me and I have to treat them both equally.
Cheers!
Navin
but the object of such love is difficult to find. there are more than million chances to be misunderstood and misinterpreted.
people like to define you with their limited intelligence.
When you love with complete abandon, you know God, then you realise that the object of your love is nothing but a human. Despite this realisation if you can love selflessly, it’s indeed an act of courage!
Sanjay – the link you sent, what was the point?
As far as I can tell, it’s a guy who is totally stoned, partially incomprehensible with a funny accent, telling a particularly ribald joke that is not that funny since he messes up the punch line frequently.. however there seem to be a bunch of folks in the audience who just crack up everytime he says something 🙂
It just amazes me how many ‘gurus’ have taken kaula tantra and used it to their advantage.. the list is endless..none of those ever read the original texts, it would frighten them 🙂
French story(told to me by a friend)-
a blind beggar on the road… no one is paying any attention to him…he is so poor that he cant even afford tears…he has not cried for years…
a writer who is broke in his life…
its spring…
the writer leaves his home to wander with out a penny in his pocket.
he notices the beggar and his miserable state…
there is a slate and a chalk kept beside the beggar…
the writer approaches the beggar and says
‘ dear friend, i am a writer who doesnt have a penny but i have an art…i have power of words…i can give you that…please allow me to write on the slate which you have…’
Beggar’ sir…hardly any one speaks to me…i am a poor blind beggar…you are free to do what ever you want to do with the slate’
the writer writes something on the slate and walks away…
as writer leaves, the beggar could feel that every person passing by him is stopping and throwing coins at him…
after few minutes there is a heap of coins in front of him…
he becomes uneasy…the heap keeps raising second by second…
he becomes so restless that the next man who throws a coin in front of him, the beggar grabs his hand and says
‘sir, sorry for misbehaving…but i am a poor blind man…please do me a favor and read out to me what has been written on the slate?’
the man takes up the slate and reads out
‘ ITS SPRING AND I CANT SEE! ‘
tears roll down the old blind beggar’s cheeks…
end…
this is compassion…
who understands life better?
the writer who wrote it? or people who read it and offered coins? or the beggar who cried after so many years?
this story suddenly brought tears to my eyes, kedar. Thank you, Shekhar
Shekhar Kapur, those words will forever offer guidance.
Thank you.
yes dude…
whenever i want to cry, i recall this story…
every time i recall it, i feel jealous… why the hell i didnt write this story…!
there is a poem by Nida Fazli sung by Jagjeet Singh… that poetic song produces the same emotion when ever i sing it…
Song( if you have heard it, its very easy to sing but sing it in its original RAAG rather than reading it as a poem…that RAAG produces KARUN RASA)
garaj baras pyaasii dharatii par phir paanii de maulaa
chi.Diyo.n ko daane, bachcho.n ko gu.D-dhaanii de maulaa
do aur do kaa jo.D hameshaa.n chaar kahaa.N hotaa hai
soch samajh vaalo.n ko tho.Dii naadaanii de maulaa
phir roshan kar zahar kaa pyaalaa, chamakaa na_ii salibe.n
jhuuTho.n kii duniyaa me.n sach ko taabaanii de maulaa
phir muurat se baahar aakar chaaro.n or bikhar jaa
phir ma.ndir ko ko_ii miiraa diivaanii de maulaa
tere hote koii kisii kii jaan kaa dushman kyo.n ho
jiine vaalo.n ko marane kii aasaanii de maulaa
I agree with you Rashika. If it is charity then it cannot be love and if you are telling person that you love them only out of pity then that’s criminal towards both. Rudra, one has to take a stand, destroying two lives would be a bigger adharm than breaking a heart. It will break eventually and may be it will get fixed too.
Kedar, Thanks for sharing that wonderful story. Now days we hardly get to see this kind of senstivity.
Regards
Dear Kedar
Re #21 and #24:
Beautiful indeed!
With love
DK
DK Matai
The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net
hahaha…dude… DK is here…
hello Dk…
Mr. Holistic relativity!
welcome to awaaragardi!
lots of love…take care…tata…
Matins
(poem by Louise Gluck)
Unreachable father, when we were first
exiled from heaven, you made
a replica, a place in one sense
different from heaven, being
designed to teach a lesson: otherwise
the same–beauty on either side, beauty
without alternative–Except
we didn’t know what was the lesson.
Left alone
we exhausted each other. Years
of darkness followed; we took turns
working the garden, the first tears
filling our eyes as earth
misted with petals, some
dark red, some flesh colored-
We never thought of you
whom we were learning to worship.
We merely knew it wasn’t human nature to love
only what returns love.
Thanks Sanjay…
i will find the name of the author…
there is another french book…ammm …Novel…
again told to me by my friend ( he is a writer himself…)
the novel is ‘LITTLE PRINCE’
what a story!
grab it…its just 100 pages…!
Pratik, That link was in context with the preception of God ,that god, what we created for our convienence..and whome we can use it according to us…and every religon uses that word with their own convienience..Like he used that particular “F” word for many situations…And what ever accent he speaks in has no importance. Important is a thought and its essense,Could you please explain about Kaula Tantra(what is that?)and the context of it, you used here. Where did that come from?
sanjay
Kedar,This sort of flavor we use to get in the work of Munshi premchand,Anton chekov, R.k Narayanan and Saddat hassan manto to some extent.I wonder where that essence and sensitivity has gone now..where is that magic gone which use to exist in the stories beyond the words,. And use to speak, talk and interact to us .
Regards
“why is there such a thing called ‘Hate’ in this world ? – Both Love and Hate need ‘Passion’.Can God hate? – Any answers, ?”
Dear Rudra,
Much has been said about this in this post, thanks to Shekar for bringing up profound topics for discussion. I have read many of your comments on this blog and I think you writing comes of much deep convictions and thoughts.
I would like to say a few things. Like Navin said, hate and love are two faces of the same coin. God cannot love or hate.He is beyond both.He is beyond goodness and evil, darkness and light. If you feel one, at some other you feel the other emotion. God, whether he is an individual or Omnipotent Enery, whatever each of us conceive Him to be cannot be bound my emotions that rule a human heart.
Love and hate both are expressions of the ego.Different in tone and effect. Once both are destroyed,the ego is also annihilated and gives way to compassion for the whole of creation without bias. Maybe this is the state all of us are trying to reach. Kahlil Gibrans’s thoughts on love,hate, good and evil helps.
http://www.columbia.edu/~gm84/gibtable.html
Thank you and hope somebody agrees?
Love, hate, intellect, stars, thoughts, fear, space and everything that comes to mind are manifestations of primordial vibration. This primordial vibration is known and felt as the vibratory energy during sexual excitation. (If you ever pause [hmmm…just a bit] to observe sexual energy or orgasm, you will notice it has an extremely extremely fine vibratory quality that is intensely pleasurable.) By meditating on this energy one can understand the basic building block of thought as well as all matter and feelings. Love, as an emotion, is another manifestation of this energy. So is everything else.
The organization of this energy into different states of matter and thought is beyond the grasp of any mind or heart since mind and heart themselves are a creation of it. However, becoming one with this energy in one’s lifetime can mean the difference between knowledge and truth. It requires one to balance intellectual energy (in the head, conditional and learned) with primordial vibrations felt at the genitals–an impossible task in a society that denigrates the genital as much as it celebrates the intellect.
For example, all discussions on this page here are intellectual in nature, springing from trained minds, while there is not a single post that deals with the primordial energy in whose embrace were conceived all these minds (during the act of lovemaking between our parents). Complete understaning therefore is not possible, not until the intellect sinks down to meet its primordial fuel– which I think is an impossible task (for cultured people) since the mind that reasons has been completely cut off from the pure energy whose abode is far below (rhetorically as well as visibly) the mind.
Dear XYZ,
You are correct. All talk about God and Love is just that……..talk. And we all know that talk is cheap. If you have a delicious cake in front of you, would you eat it or would you talk about it? Neither God nor Love can be defined. They are much bigger than any of us. They are beyond our comprehension. That’s why all philosophising must end in silence.
Cheers!
Navin
life is sad…because today i am sad…
now i have to walk…tomorrow…? …let me just walk…
yes rudra thats life we go on … even if we are sad or happy we just walk on..if we are sad world seems sad and we make our loved ones sad as we are sad, the same way when we hate we imbibe our words into other make them hate others. so let me happpy and spread happines and love.
life is sad…because today i am happy and i am stuck to my yesterday…
now i have to walk…tomorrow?…let me just walk…
ALmost everyone knows what life is 🙂 lol
I dont knw love, ive been hurt too many times
i dont knw god, ive seen too much life
(sorry for the oozing ‘pretentious’ hehe)
Mother Teresa’s words ‘how can you love someone if you judge?’. I believe in that.
dude…
scene from MR. India- kids dont have food to eat. Anil Kapoor is trying hard to get it. Shri Devi comes home and is surprised ‘ why children are not making any sound?’…and she is shocked to see the state in which children are! she brings food…NO ONE EATS!!! ……….SAME EMOTION
Masoom – Dont call me Mother! ……..SAME EMOTION
BANDIT Queen- ab ghumti rahegi jindagi bhar…(father to phoolan after she returns from Sasooral) …..SAME EMOTION…….
Elizabeth – hollywood drama
Four feathers- hollywood drama…
PAANI- is it making you cry? …… does it need studio backing to convey what you want to say…?
if not fuck them…simple cuts…great story…make us cry!
actually i wanted to say this out when i posted that story under LOVE AND ABANDON….
those four lines have all the knowledge of the universe hidden in them…but no emotion…
where as Zen koans are weird but the rhythm of the sound produced by the words create the SAME EMOTION and if one gets the meaning then its DIVINE feeling!
does PAANI have it? if not…throw all the pages you have written and write again…
CHILDREN OF MEN… no emotion… only technique…end result- kheech taan ke emotional climax…
PS: (my cozy zone)
dont want to offend you!…
i once heard your interview where you were asked ‘ how does it feel to be at such a height of glory’
your answer ‘ feels good…now i can buy all the DVDs i always wanted to buy’
even today if you can then dont compromise even with your self…
this doesnt mean you are compromising… just that i am drunk! 🙂 i hope i havent hurt you!
your fan! lots of love….take care…kedar…
Dear Kedar,
Would you please translate the following in English, I’d like to take in the fragrance of its meaning as well…thank you.
Dear Shekhar,
The story does move one to tears…this evening I was also with the same emotion while watching “Amazing Grace” at the cinema.
It was when John Newton became blind then he realized what it was like to really “see”
Beautiful sharing from many here!
In Spirit,
Cinda
hahahaha…Cinda…Dear…i thought i was typing in english…but my english is so bad that i didnt realize that it is not making any sense…
sorry….
translation of two lines which are in Hindi as per my capabilities-
Film-Bandit queen – now you will keep wandering through out your life ( father of a girl protagonist says to her when she returns to her parents home leaving behind torturous married life. but father is saying to her that she has committed mistake by returning…because even today in india, in villages it is considered bad if a girl returns back to her parents home… the reference is very regional but the emotion is universal…the blindness of the system towards basic human emotion-compassion and treating other person worse than animal…)( watch the film with subtitles…)
i gave the reference of a film called CHILDREN OF MEN. it is made by a mexican director Alfonso Cuaron based on P.D. James’ novel.
why i gave the reference of that film because i was talking about PAANI…the futuristic film which Shekhar is planning to make…and Children of Men is also a futuristic film where the maker has shown futuristic England…but the basic plot is so simple, the basic story is so simple and the maker didnt realize this because may be he was counting on the futuristic world he has created…and he has taken extra efforts in creating futuristic world and he has not paid much attention to the emotional graph of the story…it certainly does not create the emotional impact the maker was intending to create…
so i said – keech taan ke emotional climax… which means ‘ the climax is pretentious! it doesnt create the desired effect! some how it has been made to fit in the whole frame!’
( the simple reason of the earlier comment was to put forward the different points in Shekhar’s earlier films which made me cry and asking him whether he is doing the same kind of justice to his next film? )
‘ life is like a foreign language…where you know that it has a grammar of its own which you dont know!’
take care…tata…kedar…
Shekhar,
My question is irrelevant to your current post. I want to know why so many of us who claim to be very spiritual lie and deceive about the most basic things?
They regularly quote from Gita or Gurbani but once they come out of this mode, it is back to lies and deceit again. Lying to make themselves interesting to other people.
I have been trying to figure this out since last 11 years, and recently an episode in my life has brought this question back very strongly.
They visit Durga temples, come back home and turn their mothers out of home, beat up or cheat on their wives, lust after neighbours’ wife or daughters.
Shekhar:
Just strolled here since I hadnt seen you at Intentblog…
Why have any adjectives to love? to add adjectives to a noun makes it distinctive in different states.. is love any different in a different state?
I think Gulzar Saab said it the best.. Pyaar ko Pyaar hi rehne do .. koi naam na do!”
cheers,
desh
drishtikone.com
Hi Desh,
I’m the one guilty of posting the first very cynical post at the start of this discussion. After having read everything from complicated esotericism to idealogical ramblings, I actually went back to Mr.Kapur’s original entry just to make sure I hadn’t missed out on some highly complex, arcane theory concealed in the four quite simple lines. And then just as I was about to doubt my own budding intellect you simplified matters. I often wonder why eclectic and verbose discussions are associated with acumen when the real genius lies in unbinding the knots in a tangle. There is no greater antidote to analysis than simplification, is there? 🙂
I liked your blog and was planning on leaving a comment on your blog but thought my response would be more relevant if posted in this chain of comments.
Nav,
i completely agree to you. It has really become common. The words like Love, Commitment, Long term loving relationship, Honesty, Loyalty.. have lost its meaning. All I see around is infedility, broken hearts, tears. Science and Technology has brought the world closer. It has shrinked the world. But the spaces in between two individuals in love , or in a relationship is filled with suspicion, hatered, anger, disloyalty. When this makes its room in a persons head and heart, no spirituality or philosophy can change a person.
Even I wonder many a times, why do people behave in this manner?
Kedar…sorry, the order of some of these posts sort of threw things out of perspective.
What I was after was
“garaj baras pyaasii dharatii par phir paanii de maulaa
chi.Diyo.n ko daane, bachcho.n ko gu.D-dhaanii de maulaa
do aur do kaa jo.D hameshaa.n chaar kahaa.N hotaa hai
soch samajh vaalo.n ko tho.Dii naadaanii de maulaa
phir roshan kar zahar kaa pyaalaa, chamakaa na_ii salibe.n
jhuuTho.n kii duniyaa me.n sach ko taabaanii de maulaa
phir muurat se baahar aakar chaaro.n or bikhar jaa
phir ma.ndir ko ko_ii miiraa diivaanii de maulaa
tere hote koii kisii kii jaan kaa dushman kyo.n ho
jiine vaalo.n ko marane kii aasaanii de maulaa”
Maybe now it would make more sense.
Cinda:)
Desh –
Sorry to nitpick – but it was an adverb, not an adjective that modified love in the poem. It was about ‘loving’, the verb, not ‘Love’, the Universal noun you have assumed in your comment. There’s a big difference: the former is about humans, the latter is about God.
Nav: why don’t you invert your question. Why do people who are very human, who ‘deceive’, ‘cheat’, ‘lie’ according to our standards of what a human being ought to do, why do they still wish to be spiritual? Why don’t these base, selfish folks just go on with their hedonism and die like dumb animals, instead of trying to resurrect themselves through a different plane of thought?
Do you see yourself better now? Do you understand what humanity is all about?
want to share —Kahlil Gibran on Love
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
Kishore,
Thanks for the perspective. I have another question on your comment below.
“Why do people who are very human, who ‘deceive’, ‘cheat’, ‘lie’ according to our standards of what a human being ought to do?”
Using Nithari killings to make my question simpler, would my horror or the killer’s pleasure be a “standard”? Is everything that goes on this world “chalta hai” and unquestionable? What is right and what is not?
I studied sanskrit as a language till the 12th standard. I used to be all agog when the teacher translated the verses. One word that I can still remember is “Acharan”. Looking at the way the world is operating, I think I should have just stuck to the “language”.
Each Dusshera I would think to myself, why are they burning Ravan? Going by this standard half of the people watching him explode should be burnt. He did not touch Sita against her will, as the story goes. Nor did he lie that Sita was kidnapped by somebody else to save himself. But today’s “spiritual intellectuals” have no such qualms.