Page:Love in Hindu Literature.djvu/95

 LOVE IN HINDU LITERATURE. SX

How many times we see one of the handsomest of men love a very ugly woman. Where is the attraction to them ? • Those that are standing aside see the ugly man, or the ugly Woman, but not the lover. To the lover they are the most beautiful beings that ever existed! How is it? The woman who was loving the ugly man took, as it were, the ideal of beauty which was in her own brain, and projected it over this ugly man. ,,,.

What is it that makes atoms come and join atoms, molecule, molecule, sets big planets flying towards each other, attracts man to woman, woman to man, human beings to human beings, animals to animals, drawing the whole universe, as it were, towards one centre ? This is called love What is manifesting itself as attrkction in the sentient and the insentient, in. the par- ticular and the universal, is the love of God

Thus sang the royal Hebrew sage, thus sang they of India. "O beloved, one kiss of Thy lips! One that has been kissed by Thee, his thrlst for Thee increaseth for ever. All sorrows cease, and he forgets the past, present and future, and only thinks of Thee alone." That is the madness of the lover, when all desires have vanished. Who cares for salvation ? Who cares to be saved ? Who cares to be perfect even ? Who cares for freedom ? So says the lover.

I do not want wealth, no,, not even health. I do not want beauty, do not want intellect ; let me be born again, and again, .amid all the evils that are in the world ; I will not complain, : but let me love Thee, and that for love's sake."

The prophet of neo-Vedantism, the apostle of super-