Love and It's Journey
Long before I read Shakespeare’s sonnets, I had mine written when the undue happened, I was born. In the pursuit of love, I have had a good run from pillar to the post, but this love concept is very treacherous. How do we find someone? There are no set rules, guidelines even if they exist are very subjective in nature. The person who is searching this vague concept of love is determining the whole journey of the process. It’s utterly impossible to judge a human through subjective changes in behavior that are brought about in the process of pursuing the love. Consider a person going through these processes who is consciously altering behavior for the person of interest, now real nature of the very person may alter to an extent, that too have varying degrees. Psychology defines love as infatuation, a mere attraction, it’s species inherent abilities to reproduce and evolve, without which we all might get extinct. Spirituality compares love with that of an interaction of spirits that are residing in us and as per what a cosmic rule or something that is in existence beyond this world is helping us find the one.
Love has been around I guess since the time, first caveman winked his eye for a cavewoman. Well that might be little what we say pervert, but yes coming together of species to reproduce is the baseline factor. It’s the most fundamental basic instinct, of any species for that matter, regeneration. As the people started wandering and then settling into civilization. The concept of family came around this time. Any civilization in its earlier phases was polygamous and matriarchal to a certain degree. That was the need of the hour. More members meant the more chances of survival. Though fire was invented the fire of love was yet to be discovered. Many wars and battles were fought in ancient history are result of females in the human species. I know one such incidence when the Romans attacked a certain civilization as they were falling short of women. The concept of woman and her rights is yet to be conceived. How the society changed from matriarchy to patriarchy is unknown to historians but they all guess the same. The advent of human settlements brought forth the role of females as they were the farmers, weavers and fishers, the hunting and protection was left to the males but as the settlements started to grow into civilization the society was deliberately changed from matriarchy to patriarchy as the rise of civilizations meant wars and wars need people. The role of females changed from farmers to mothers who will breed males to fight wars. The very nature of a female and her pregnancy period changed her status from the decision maker to just a breeder. Love was not around yet. People needed to create a society in which it will thrive, but attraction was present like I said before. Peace is the time that is between two wars. Peace brought laws since there was no one to fight outside, to settle the fights within laws were created. This fight resulted mainly for the possession of property and most importantly females. The laws that were established were mostly very crude in their forms but they shaped societies and were the need of the hour. Civilizations gave birth to cultures, though the culture pre-existed civilization it was crude it got its importance as the civilizations emerged and that brought the laws related to marriage. Polygamy still existed and a need to have a female with the approval of society changed the history of civilizations. It was around this time that the Epics “Gilgamesh, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Iliad etc.” were scripted. Exact chronology does not matter for this discussion. What really came into existence is love is resonated from almost all the epics, these epics besides being ballads of love also depicted then current society, its laws and doctrines which are upheld as basis for some of the important religions today. Abraham Maslow’s pyramid defines this journey. We have since come from physiological needs to safety needs and now as we enter in to needs for love and belonging. Though the word love is yet to come to fore and females still considered as property of males. Females gained somewhat importance is some cultures and hence we shed the biological nomenclature “females” to Women. Centuries spanned and the women though getting importance still were considered as property and were also sold and bought as other items that come under property are sold and bought. Until the time when the holy scriptures gave a more refined note on women, with the advent of Adam and Eve, the role of women gained prominence as equal half. The society that enjoyed patriarchy for a long time never really wished for the emancipation of this private property. The seeds of the trouble and labor were then taught to have come into existence of women. Oh! how Eve would wish she would not have had that bite. Alas! done is done, Eve did have had a bite and the misery of men and women continued and particularly that of women. Imagine you are standing on a stage chained to a pole and a member of your species barking at the onlookers asking for a better price for you but then no one really cared about them for it was not that important, as long as the women were reproductive and able to satisfy the sexual urges. Exactly when women got little more prominence and shared a seat of royalty among civilizations is a matter of debate but certainly, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese and Indians do have examples of women as state head but where is our love that we are chasing so long from the cavemen. It’s around now, slowly as women got prominence and status, the concept of monogamy and love started taking roots, the concept of having many wives or concubines still existed and the love was only around not received yet. Freud said, if we had been half conscious of what we are there would not have been the concept of love and family. Many myths and legends are scribbled along the way, are we conscious of what we are? No one can definitely say except for the sages who say they are enlightened. Science does not really support the existence of God and neither we understand the concept of God completely. We fear what we don’t understand. We are in awe of a thing that we might not have envisioned before. Imagine you having a happy ride in a car in front of a caveman, who would run miles to get away from a wild beast at speed not more than nine to ten kilometers per hour. What will be his reaction? will he be in awe at a car running 0 to 60 km in 3.5 seconds. Yes, he will. So, when we don’t understand we fear, and our dear love to suffered from the same fate. Initially the concept of love was so new that it was abhorred in cultures and tribes. The concept of choosing a partner still depended upon approvals of society and elders. Rise of nations and renaissance helped this concept of love to take a form and then the prose and poetry started oozing love. Still the woman, who got rid of the biological nomenclature, did not get rights, the world wars busied men such a way that women needed to assert that they have rights making revolts and revolutions, certain states offered them the rights but those were not enough what was required was that equality in opportunity, education, faith and most important determination. The last one was the final battle and it was subsequently won as there were no major wars and peace existed, but battles are fought even today, be that of child abuse, female feticide, flesh trade, prostitution.
Enough with the history lesson, the love took a long trip from civilizations to today’s globalization, but it is still considered as emotion vague not in form, but in kind. We all have our own definition of love and they are all true. As stated earlier love is very subjective. Why a man or woman decides to spend an entire life with chosen partner and be with him or her until the end is the essence that we have evolved from caveman to modern humans. Basically, the very existence of love defines us and separates us from animals, not only romantic but love for fellow human being after all the turmoil of evolution is the best-received gift from our consciousness. We are still fighting battles around the globe in the name of religion, caste, race, ethnicity, and creed but as long as we keep faith in ourselves and our fellow human beings we will do well in future too. Future is uncertain but it's not a crime to wish good things in future. For what we wish and envision defines us.
Today, love particularly romantic love is found in almost 38 percent of globe’s population, but that should not limit us. For love should not be in form. It can be a mother’s love which is no doubt very pure and same everywhere on the planet. It can be that of mother Teresa's where it would transcend the religions and boundaries.
And as we have evolved, the love must evolve too, there will be a time in future where love will transcend boundaries, from person to family to society to a country to the world and that be the day when we all would have achieved universal love and harmony.
Comments
Post a Comment