★ The spirit of true love – the unconditional love There are many people in this world who serve their family, friends and relatives in a spirit of love and dedication. However, there are times when the individual that’s serving becomes possessive and vehemently attempts to maintain the dependence of the recipient on him forever. In the name of love, he may exercise his power over him and exploit his dependence on him. Directly or indirectly he may point out that the service he has done has not yielded him any return. He may even expect to be thanked profusely time and again for the help or service rendered. Service rendered out of an expectation for recognition is certainly not based on the grounds of love and compassion. Such service always has an ulterior motive and cannot be regarded as noble. True love is one that expresses itself without neither affecting the self- respect and freedom of the person loved nor expecting anything in return. And the individuals who get the closest to rendering selfless love in this world are MOTHERS! This is an old story that beautifully illustrates a mother’s love for her son. The mother had only one eye and the son hated her because he was always referred to as the ‘son of the one- eyed woman’ or ‘One-eyed woman’s son’. A young boy that he was he obviously didn’t like being tagged that way and felt a deep sense of remorse for having been born to a mother with one eye. He used to be embarrassed when his mom would visit him in his elementary school and would simply ignore her. His friends made fun of his mother by shouting “Eeee, the single-eyed woman!!” And this irritated the boy even further. Another time he too joined his friends in ridiculing his mother. He began to detest his mother even more. So, she stopped seeing him in school because she didn’t want to be a source of embarrassment for her child. When the boy grew up, he secured a job in the city and was happy to leave his mom and the village once and for all. Now a married man with children, he lived happily in the city without thinking of his old mother even once. He even refused to see her when she came to visit him once. Many months later the son received a letter from his school on a reunion. After the reunion the son, out of curiosity went into the old shack only to see that it was empty. Neighbors told him that his mother had died and handed over a letter to him. For the first time the son shed tears for his mom, for in the letter it was written that his mother had donated her eye to her son who had lost his vision in an accident as a child. “The whole world is eager to receive pure love. We should spread it without expecting anything in return. Give it, with no desire for reciprocation”, said Swami Vivekananda.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 04:45:54 +0000
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