Yes Love Is Tapas

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

What do they really mean  when they say love is a tapasya ? Poets, philosophers and saints eulogize love in their songs, speeches and writings. Often I am tempted to ask how many of them have really loved, have gone through the fire test. Tapsaya stems from tapa  that is heat, the heat of the soul, a flameless fire elevates the lover to a new sphere of illumination; a glowing awareness of life makes the lover more life worthy than the nonlover. History records countless episodes of lovers. The high and the mighty kidnap the women they love. The meek and the weak pine away their lives in the tapa  of separation. The star-struck lovers- Laila- Majnu, Shirin- Farhad, Romeo- Juliet, Kedar-Gouri die waiting for things to happen:;for some supernatural agency to magically unite the lovers, and waste away their lives.  What is this love? An emotion, an overwhelming passion, a psychic obsession , a world substitute dissuading  the lover from his natural propensities to fulfill his potentials in the real world he is born into; or a deep craving for sexual gratification with a man or woman he/ she  chances upon in a moment of surrender to his/ her  carnal desires? Or is it a divine inspiration to build and create a more beautiful world of joy, companionship with a person in whom one sees a Being of suprasensory  perceptions than the world he/she  is suffocated in? What is this love at first sight? At a glance you see only external beauty symmetry of limbs or the Being of soulfulness?  

Questions I know are instruments of dissecting logic which will make this divine passion a spectacle of depravity. The man who loves never asks questions, he simply loves and is prepared to wait out  his life in hope, however dark and misty it maybe.  Does he wait  for time's mercy or societal grace and what does he do while waiting?  Again I am asking questions which do not have any acceptable answers. If a man loves a woman it is like Purusha and Prakriti interacting for  creation. Love has a beginning but no end. It is time neutral and value neutral as it is arguably the greatest value in reality. The lovers may not meet. May not play the worldly game of housekeeping. For a true lover love is a meditative  dedication to his love. His love includes beauty, harmony, proportion, music, sculpture, rhythm, which includes  nature, the elements and even the cultural environs in his love. A lover is a true artist, poetic metaphors hang from his lips, his eyes radiate courage, compassion and inclusivity. His love does not vacillate in separation, his determined love  energizes him to create not poetry or art alone, his love attains a  dignity of higher mind. He sees his love as the universal goddess. He worships, adores, pines for her but develops a larger heart which lavishes good things on the deprived. He loves the sorrow of others in his own tears of separation. He works,  moves, sleeps less, projects his imaginative metaphors to awaken dull reality. He has no expectations but gives and gives what he has and what he creates.

But at times he finds his love unresponsive, indifferent if not  selfish and callous. For a moment he falls into the pits of agony and wordlessly howls out his soul, becomes small in his own esteem. In such cases we see some revenge motive entering some lovers who really do not  understand love beyond breasts and buttocks. Yet others hit the bottle and ruin their lives. And a few commit suicide. In 1992 I wrote a long essay in the Samaj in several  instalments where my contention was love is really a yajna in which you alone read and chant your mantra, pour your energies into the cauldron of fire like the priests pouring ghee and enjoy the sight of the rising flames almost  burning your body. Your mind is unwavering. Once you love a woman  she is everything that God has created and more: For you make a more beautiful, more hospitable, bright and soulful universe of your love  by sincere and honest devotion to your universe enshrined in the woman you love. If she is unresponsive , indifferent or alters when alteration finds' that is her choice. Love does not make you falter or change your devotion. If you held her feet once in your heart that is a sacramental contract with eternity. If she tries to break your  yajna it would mean your  fires are not high enough to engulf you in divine light. No Tapabhagna like Urbasi-Menaka can divert your love. Love  her more, desire  her more, bleed for her more and let the heat refine your love  for angels to covet for.