"Love is like the fragrance of a flower, there are no demands or expectations, there is only sharing."
That is some thought. I sure would want to be someone like that. Someone that is capable of emanating love unconditionally. Okay what stops me from being that someone?
Let me start with why it seems possible for that flower in the first place. An abstract look at the fragrance thing clearly shows that it sure was not designed to make people happy. It was designed to attract insects that might aid pollination. There goes the motive. Just another derivative of demand or expectation. So if there exists a flower that emanates free fragrance just in the interest that everybody passing by enjoy a good sniff of the aroma, then I would want to be that flower and my love that fragrance.
Pick any living thing. Any character/aspect of it will have something to do with survival; in the present or in the future (gene transformation). That is exactly the way genes work. They are designed to survive. They can do anything to survive. That is the only skill they have been perfecting for billions of years. They can kill, fight, run away, act dead, talk, dance, sing... JUST ANYTHING. And we all are big masses of those little suckers repeated in us again and again, every one of them constantly working every second on learning to improvise their survival skill.
We all have a motive. And lot more motives that ultimately point back to that primary one. In fact, we got created as a by-product of that motive. Human beings are just one of the many ways that genes have chosen to keep themselves alive.
If those genes can learn that sweating can help us escape from danger (by making the skin slippery for the predator) imagine how much learning would have gone into framing our basic character, interests and priorities. And most importantly, imagine how much hard work it would take to identify and unlearn those qualities in us which hinder us from . . . say practicing unconditional love.
The Dialog
Excuse me Mr.Gene I want to emanate unconditional love.
Ohh well, You are a fully functional top of the line most intelligent form of life. I have worked 4 billion years to make you this perfect. Go ahead. You can do whatever you want to do.
But it seems difficult for me to do that and there are a lot of things in me that stop me from doing that. Just as a quick example. . . fear.
I just told you are free to do anything you want. If fear is stopping you, get rid of that. Do anything. Just don't disturb me. I have a lot of work to do.
But Mr. Gene, it is you who put that fear in me. You wanted me to be scared so that I would keep myself alive. It is you whom I should talk to.
(now Mr. Gene is pissed off)
Okay now I've had it...listen, do you have any freaking idea how hard I am working for you? Any idea how many things I am protecting you from? Everything from an amoeba to an elephant, all the different harmful elements in the whole freakin periodic table and all the different combination compounds of them... do you have any idea how many strategies I should come up with for doing this? and above all that. . . how all these things evolve with time and how quickly I should come up with newer strategies? Do you know how many new bacteria and viruses keep showing up daily? First of all... do you know why I gave you intelligence? Itz not for thinking about love but to do something about the your worst enemies like HIV. . . now SHUT UP and let me work.
5 comments:
While I like Suresh's article for its technical detailing of gene and such, I don't agree with him. I believe love is more than just sharing.
Like Suresh, I am also in disagreement of Osho's example. The flower is using its fragrance for attraction.
My definition of Love is becoming one. Doing something or acting in a way as if you both are one.
To this thought comes a question - then why not be just one. Why do you need 2 to become one?
The answer is simple, you need 2 hands to clap...... See More
So you see, sharing is just a subset of love.
that's very very nice, yes, I also believe in unconditional love and altruism.
The question was "Well, is it possible that love always has an inner motive?".
That question is virtually impossible to answer, anything is possible.
I don't think so, but then I don't know everything....
I would like to think no, even if those scenarios may be rare.
Sudar well put and the idea certainly sounds and feels nice but I think we as humans are not cut out for pair bonds like that. I think all those things are layers on top of us. Peeling them one by one deep inside one is just by oneself... Alone. And the interesting part is we all kinda know that. :)
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