Anyone who has lived long enough will know how our perspective on life changes along with the changes in our emotional stability, how we feel about ourselves and within ourselves strongly decides how we see the things happening around us. Happiness, sadness, fear, melancholy and many other shades of our emotions largely impact how we see the world.

And Love — being in love, is one such magical mindset, a beautiful state of mind that intensifies the magic in every moment of life, being in love makes us both forget the world and truly live in it all at once. Even death seems reasonable when its with the one you love.

“To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die…”
- The Smiths

(Yes, I just quote a song to prove my point…)

Now, love as a focused subject is very vast, very complicated and is completely hard to comprehend easily. Yet, it plays a central part in our lives. A mother’s never-ending love for her child, a dog’s faithful love for its owner or a young man’s blind love for someone who snatched his heart away from him. Love captivates us in many shades, makes our life both joyful and miserable at the same time, gives us both the pleasure and pain, the pleasure of being in love and being loved, and the pain of letting go of the one you love when time demands it. And inevitably time will demand it.

But that moment, that one particular space in time when your heart is filled with an unfathomable zeal, something that is completely new to your soul, you will see the world in a whole new perspective. There would seem to be a new sprinkle of freshness added to the nature around you, the colors of the leaves and flowers, rocks and rivers, skies and seas will look as if the Gods sent angels down from heaven to paint your surroundings anew. The rabid dog that always disgusted you will earn your sympathy for the first time, your will start to be grateful for being alive in the same world as the person you love.

And then as the love deepens, every little danger starts to scare you, not for your own safety but for the wellbeing of your loved ones, you know you will risk your life to save theirs, all your adventures will suddenly feel pointless, all your friends seem distant, and all the world seems as if it was just built to keep you in the same physical space as your loved ones.

You’ll see a whole world woven in the depths of her eyes, as if not looking into them will leave you paralyzed, when you hold her hands, you feel your soul stepping out of your body for it knows it can’t be contained within the constraints of your physicality. And the assurance that she feels the same when she holds your hands will make your heart leap up with joy.

Your life will seem fulfilled, all your dreams are aspirations get a new meaning and you work towards them with a different yet renewed enthusiasm than before. You know you have found your reason to be motivated, to stay inspired. There will be a constant bell ringing in your heart, reminding you that your existence is not pointless after all, though your never felt your existence to be pointless in the first place, there seems to be a new meaning added to the life you lead.

Finally your heart will no longer seek for the silence of the solitude. You will no longer feel the need to keep yourself happy for you have found someone who will be the source of your joy, an your feel an undeniable pride in being her source of joy. You know there will be heartbreaks but knowing her, you decide its a risk worth taking. For all you know, your heart would feel content by being in love and have your heart broken than leave behind any hope of the love that has knocked at your door.

For most part you’ll not even know its love, your mind and body will drown in its ecstasy though you are confused to make sense of all the reactions your heart and soul are having. You try to figure it out by yourself yet you fail miserably. You suffer at your lack of hold on the situation, yet the new found joy will finds its way to overshadow your baseless suffering.

Eventually as the time passes the magic seems to fade, all that which felt out of ordinary will seem normal again, all those blue skies will fade into insignificance, the flowers that were same as ever will lose their brightness, you will walk along hand in hand with the normality of your life. But then again, on a special occasion or during a tired evening when you are back from work, you look at your loved ones and feel grateful to them for being a part of your life.

The magic will rise again, the enchantments will take form and play with your mind, her eyes that you almost took for granted will go on in keeping you captivated.

Yes, life will be boring, life has become lifeless with the modernity of our choiceless existence, with the term ‘love’ turned into some superficial phenomenon, and being in love became a social status. But to those who have found the old school love, and still have your hearts uncorrupted by the modernity and are staying responsible towards the ones you love and the ones who love you, the world will seem entirely different than it is to others.

But this is not about being in love throughout your life, this is on that moment of epiphany, that moment which enlightens you. That moment which decides the course of your entire life…

And to call this post to conclusion I’d like to share my favorite sonnet of Pablo Neruda’s which is almost like a love’s anthem for its readers…

Sonnet XVII ― Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way than this:

where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

And this has been my love anthem for a long time!

~ C. Madan