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Love and Hatred

Watched "Main Vaapas Aonga" movie on Netflix. A wonderful movie. The movie is all about love. Love, which is timeless and does not fade by even one per cent, even while the hero of the movie is on his deathbed. This movie is also about hatred in the minds of people at the time of partition. How millions of people were killed and how so many people were tortured during that phase. Probably all of us have certain shades of both love and hatred within us. In a few of us, love is so strong that it trespasses the boundaries of time, and our hearts carry love despite the worst of circumstances. While in some of us, the hatred is so strong that when the situation turns bad, we show our most inhuman face and even brutally kill others.

Love has its source in awareness of reality. Reality that is one and not divided. That's why love does not recognise any boundaries between nations or religions. That's why love is so complete and fulfilling. That's why all the achievements appear futile, devoid of love. But at the same time, love demands complete attention. It's not available for the weak-hearted. It is not available to those who calculate. They can have workable relationships. They can live life with comforts and ease. They can also get thrills occasionally. However, love is something very different. Love is not a possibility for a mind with "ego".

On the other hand, hatred is the worst manifestation of ego. Ego divides. I am different, and the other is different. So long as the other is on my team, I say I love you, and the moment the other has a different opinion, a different way of living, or a conflicting interest, I hate you. The love and hate of an egoistic person change like the weather. We see many such incidents in this world. A boy loves a girl, and when that girl denies his proposal, he throws acid on her face. Two people spend many years together as husband and wife, and then, when one of them refuses to listen to the other, all kinds of allegations arise. An egoistic mind may claim that he loves, but actually, a fragment can never understand the whole. It is not possible for the ego to love. At best, it possesses somebody as its extension or holds on to somebody for support and security. When this ego is extremely insecure, it takes the form of hatred, and hatred is blind. It makes people worse than animals. 

I don't think that a divisive mind can ever be happy. That's why it keeps running after pleasure so desperately. Unable to plan vacations, people get depressed. Unable to dine out for a few weeks, people feel sad. Threats to any of our possessions make us feel anxious. We need moments of "high" to keep us happy and alive, but no "high" ever makes us happy, even for a few days. A life driven by ego can never be happy because the ego is rooted in ignorance. Consciousness takes birth in the form of a human being because it wants to manifest its fullest potential in some form of the other. Divisive ego suffocates consciousness, and that's why, when our existence is driven by ego, we become desperate to get that 'high'. Sometimes, we become sadistic and seek pleasure by making people around us sad.

Consciousness wants to manifest itself freely, without any border or boundary. Would a poet like to confine his poems to a country or religion? Would a scientist like to confine his research to a community? We may stoop to any low because of our fixation on ego, but that will never connect us to the whole. That is never going to make us happy. Human beings are here to be aware of that whole and manifest that in some form, and that's what makes the world so beautiful. The world is not beautiful because of dictators; rather, it is beautiful because of the lovers who love despite everything, the artists who create works beyond time, the writers who write epics, and the scientists who push the boundaries of the known. Until and unless we allow that consciousness to manifest without any ego boundary, we will keep craving pleasures and "highs," and these "highs" will keep pushing us into a further "low". It is strange that humanity has not understood this despite so many crises and disasters this ego has created. I wish we all understood the meaning of freedom and celebrated true independence from the play of ego. Happy Independence Day

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