On love

….contd….

“they dislike you and bad mouth you so many times because you say what they don’t want to hear, can’t you atleast stop doing that? It’ll atleast stop them from talking ill of you” Rahul pleaded. He never liked when others talked ill of her. But he had never voiced this to her. And today he was trying to do away with the cause to some extent.

“Surely I can do that if my aim or desire was to make friends and admirers here. But it is not unfortunately. Moreover, if even I don’t tell them the truth, who will and how will they come out of their ignorance?” she replied with a smile.

“But why do you do that Guruji and so repeatedly too?” there was pain in Rahul’s voice. Pain that she was not understood by others. Pain that her love and hardwork was returned with ill-treatment, anger, resentment, hatred and what not.

“Have you even seen a mother who pushes bitter medicine down the throat of her child – the most precious of all in the world even when he is kicking her stomach and chest vigorously and she is in terrible pain because of that? Does she stop giving that bitter medicine because of her pain. Her pain is nothing when compared to the pain she is suffering because of her child’s ill-health. For her at that point of time only thing that matters is to cure him. She is not bothered that he spits on her face or calls her ‘a bad mother’. I’ve even heard some children asking their mother ‘to die’. And yet mother does ‘what she ought to do’. Her purpose in his life is complete only when she plays her part so.

I won’t come this way again. So let me play it the right way this only time I have” she explained handing out one rose to each one of us.”

We were dumb-stuck. ‘aah’ cried Priya. We looked at her and she showed her finger and said ‘thorn of rose’. We all laughed. This has happened so many times with us. We knew that feeling. We all had been there some time or the other. 

“And yet you didn’t throw the rose away. It pricked you and you changed it to your other hand but did not abuse it or throw it away. With beauty comes a thorn too. With love comes pain too. You can’t have one and leave the other. And you would be a fool to leave the rose for its thorn. Similarly, because it pains, I can’t let go off my love can I or should I?” she asked as she looked into our eyes.

We sat beside her. We smiled. She knew our answer. We knew what she meant. But more than that we knew we need to look into our relationships. I know for sure that she didn’t say all this to talk about herself.

Just like me even Rahul and Priya must have come with complaints about relationships and she as ever without embarrassing us showed us where the problem was and how to see it, heal it and live it. We had complaints that Love hurts. But here she taught us that love IS because you want to contribute something good, meaningful, beautiful, useful in others life. You love not because it removes your pain but because you can't see the other in pain and are desperate enough to remove that pain from their life. Well, I and others need to meditate on love and know it......and yes, it's a huge subject.......but for now.....

Talk continued and laughter filled the atmosphere till late night and bright moon shone so brightly as if sharing our happiness. When we took leave our faces and hearts matched the brilliance of moon above…… 

concluded....