Abstract themes are best expressed whenthey are defined in their own terms, and any attempt towards their material andlimited interpretation not only reduces their canvas, but also makes themdevoid of their universalism, real essence and multiplicity of interpretation.Each particularization conceived by human thought entails differentiation andinevitable contradiction. Thus, an attempt to particularize God to a specificform gives birth to the existence of idols, which are nothing but God definedby the limited human mind. Likewise, when truth is particularized andassociated to specific forms, we come face to face with the problem offalsehood, beauty versus ugliness, and alike. Love is an essential and a themeof primary importance in this jargon of abstractions and vast space ofimmaterial concepts. But the human instinct of concretization has not sparedeven a delicate and subtle issue like love, without particularising it inspecific forms and defining it in terms of certain predefined binary interactions.Though this particularization has brought with it a number of rewards, but ithas simultaneously given birth to an entire spectrum of undesirable andmistaken narratives about love.
The modern mind has restricted love to somespecific categories and associated it with some absurd manifestations of thehuman behavior. This practice has proved so derogatory and disturbing thatpeople find themselves in a reluctant and hesitant state while using this word(love) in their common parlance. Unfornately, this rich and a word of diversemeanings and manifestations, has been painted like a monolithic picture withoutpaying any attention to its diversity. Love has been, at least in our times,identified with specific and often sub-ethical attitude primarily thriving onthe concept of gender bipolarization. We fail to understand that love is thealchemy of existence and a firm thread connecting the man to the man and to thedivine. We have often neglected the higher dimensions of love and utterlyfailed to realize that it is love which is in essence Aristotle’s primummobile, Plato’s demiurgus, Anaxogoras’ nous, Spinoza’s natura naturanus,Hegel’s Absolute idea, Fitche’s Absolute Ego, Fechner’s Universal Soul,Bergson’s Elan vital. The basis of all existence in one form or the other ismotion, and again the key to this motion is love. To quote Dante,
“Like a wheel
In even motion, By the love impelled
That moves the sun in heavens and stars alike.”
But this universal notion of love hasvanished from our mind and sight, primarily because of the attitude ofclassification of existence into the sacred and the profane, the terrestrialand the heavenly, the human and the divine. The medieval concept that positsthe body as profane, and the soul as sacred, has to an equal extent, done agreat damage to the holistic understanding of love. More importantly, thedivision of love into vertical and horizontal categories, usually identified asIshq-e-Haqiqi and Ishq-e-Majazi, has well performed its part in doing untolddamage too. Primarily, it projected the human and the divine in terms ofcontrario, and secondarily, this classification shadowed the all embracingnature of love. These classifiers overlooked the fact that the love of thehuman which does not culminate in the love of the divine is nothing but afiasco and likewise, the love for the divine that does not inspire in us thefeeling of love for fellow humans, is nothing but an emotional redundance.Centuries, and still we fail to understand that love has no category like thatof horizontal and vertical; it only has levels and a hierarchy where love forthe human and the divine keep exchanging their positions and thereby existingnot in parts, but as a single whole. This hierarchy of love, the level to whichan individual belongs to, indicates the psycho spiritual state of anindividual. For some, love begins, evolves and ends in physical dimensions, forthey fail to look behind the form into the reality. There are still others whoget engaged in love at the plane of psychology, and to them, love serves thepurpose of either the narcotic of euphoria or the hemlock of life. But thosewho transcend these bio-psychical levels, ultimately enter the pristine ofspirituality where they discover new dimensions and higher functionalities oflove. It is here that love becomes the panacea of existence.
It is because of this realization thatenlightened men of all times have emphasized love and its aspects in one way orthe other. To quote Khalil Gibran, who in one of his beautiful passages aboutlove writes that,
“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, ,” rather , ” I am inthe heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love , if it finds youworthy, 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 desire;
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.”
To understand love in this perspective isto get absorbed and synchronous with the superstructure and frequency of life.This is how Deepak Chopra quotes Nisargadatta Maharaj and writes,
“Life is love and love is life. Whatkeeps the body together but love. What is the desire but love of the self … andwhat is the knowledge but love of truth.
The means and the forms may be wrong but the motive behind is always love- loveof the me and mine. The me and the mine may be small, or may explode an embracethe universe, but love remains.”
If we succeed in importing this love whichis in fact a cosmic scent into our lives, we will be discovering higher valuesand objectives of life. Loving fellow humans turns this otherwise ordinaryaspect of life into a symbol of sanctity. To love our work turns it intoworship. To love our own selves rightly puts us in a position which brings uscloser our creator because to love our own selves means to discover our originsand purposes and both these queries bring us closer to our creator. To love ourenemies transforms our baseness into sublimity. Love means surrender to thecall of the divine, to the order of nature, to the essence of existence, to thepre-eternal covenant when we all replied to the call of love in one voice QaluBala. Love not only transforms our individual self, but this transformed selfhelps us to see the universe as a singing cosmos where each particle respondingto the divine decree appears in eternal prostration and an act of praising theultimate. Love is our guide in a journey in which we start as humans andprogressively keep absorbing and accumulating angelic and divine attributes.
In every religious discourse, it is lovethat has dominated the religious metaphysics, that is why this love (hub inArabic), appears in Hadees-e-Kanz as the primary cause and source of existence,ranging from sub microscopic particles that reside inside atomic nuclei to theentire structure and stability of the universe itself. Everything is heldtogether by this all pervasive and ethereal phenomena of love. Prophets,Preachers, poets and other men of vision have always knocked at the door ofhumanity to awaken in our hearts, the feelings for this all encompassing love,but man being forgetful in essence, paid deaf ears to these supreme voices.What is ruling the present world is the opposite of love, i.e hate, discord,enmity and rivalry. This shift has given birth to all disorders and ills of ourtimes from family rivalry to frictions in the world order. Love is the basicinheritance and instinct of humans, and if we try to substitute this love byits binary opposite of hate, we will never secure a safe planet for ourexistence.
Amir Suhail Wani works as R&D engineer with SA Power Utilities, besides being a student of Comparative Studies.