Sunday, April 25, 2010

Love :)

Born in a family where everyone is a Krishna devotee, i grew up listening to Krishna stories in my childhood. There was one thing about him though, that bugged me too much. Everyone said that Radha and Krishna are incarnations of love, born on earth to teach mankind the essense of love. It made no sense to me, as Krishna left Radha forever, went on to become a king, had a sixteen thousand wives, but never thought of calling his girl friend back. To me, it looked more like a teenage fling than an attempt to teach humans what love is.

However, one year back, I went to Gokul and Vrindavan, the place where Radha and Krishna grew up. While we were doing a pradakshina around the Govardhan Parvat, I asked a rickshawallah the same question about the relevance of Radha and Krishna's love. What he said illuminated me more than ne pandits ever had.

"Radha's love for Krishna was not just the love of a woman for a man as we look at it today. She loved him like a woman loves her lover, like a daughter loves her father, like a sister adores her brother, like a student respects her teacher, and like a devotee worships her god. Krishna was everything to Radha, and He understood that. Who says marriage is the ultimate expression of love? It wouldn't have been so for Radha and Krishna for sure, because the love they shared was so much more than that. This was the message they wanted to give to the world - a nameless non-judgemental love."

I understood what he meant. We always try to name love, to analyse it, explain it. But we forget that the real beauty of love is in its mystery. There's no rationale behind it, and no boundaries ahead of it. We always try to reason about every relationship.

'He's a very good friend, you know, just a friend.'
'But u spend so much time with him!'
'I know its weird.'
'No but you should explain... there has got to be something. What exactly is it, you are what? friends, lovers, friends wanting to be lovers, friends trying not be lovers, what??'
'I have no idea.. '

Thats perfectly 'lovely'. We don't have to give love a name, and make it some kind of 'relationship'. Love is just... it. Its Love :)

10 comments:

wolverine said...

_/\_ how i wish the world understands it as well

Kartik Ukhalkar said...

nicely put :)

Sweta Agarwal said...

nice post radha :)

Nani said...

whts the name of the guys ? :p

vasusen said...

No wonder you were named Radha! Awesome thoughts :)

:| said...

Thanks for the Radhika-Krishna perspective !

Ram said...

"Love" in the English language is used for a whole range of feelings. That is where the problem lies. What a mother feels for a son, what a father feels for his daughter , what an elder brother feels for his kid sister, what a man feels for his best friend, all of this are very different emotions that cannot be compared yet they are all called LOVE. That is the main mystery of love... it has so many different forms and invoke so many different emotions in us that we get confused. The power of love and also the curse of love is that it can never be analyzed completely simply because we cant even define it properly

KK said...

i just wanted to applaud this one for one thing - as most things have already been praised above - "Krishna was everything to Radha, and He understood that. Who says marriage is the ultimate expression of love?"

now HOW many people you know or i know will remember (is remember the correct word?) to write the word "He" with a Capital H!? Grammar has taught us that, since it refers to a God. but really, how many people remember this school grammar!? *cheers*

Radha said...

@ Wolverine, Kartik, Sweta, Vasusen, :| : thanks! :)

@ Ram: you kinda wrote another small blog on the same topic, using different words :)

KK: Seriously! Of all the things you could like, you like the He with capital H!?!? Im soo honoured! :D

Ram said...

Sorry... first blog comment ever!! :P