What Is Love?

Love is a beautiful emotion of affection which evolves over time, although there may be rare cases of “love at first sight”. As many say, we do now know when and on whom it will occur, or why it will occur. 

“Love is blind” said Shakespeare, but it is worth wondering “Is true love really blind?”

True love is not totally blind, it brings us closer to the heart and soul of another person. It is infatuation/attraction which is blind. We don’t “fall in love” with beauty; we form an “attraction”. What we “fall in love” is the inner soul.  There is a thin line of demarcation between attraction and love”. When anyone says “He does not treat me well, but I love him”, it is most probably not love, but a strong attraction which is confused with love.

By saying “Love is blind”, the inherent meaning is that true love treats all people as equals. The blindfolded statue displayed in a court room can be used as a perfect simile here. It does not distinguish between caste, creed or the descent of that person. The person we love is acceptable to us in spite of his/her physical shortcomings, if any. However, that does not and should not cloud our reasoning power. As we want our loved ones to be “the best”, we try to make them recognise their weaknesses, if they do have any, so that they can correct themselves and be better human beings. Therefore, true love is never blind to the inner defects of the person, however, passionate we may be towards him/her.

It is similar in the case of true friendship and true parental love.  In both cases, we don’t hesitate to even resort to anger or being a little harsh to improve and develop our loved ones. We try our very best to prevent them from getting spoilt in any way.

Characteristics of true love

·         Respects the feelings of the other person.

·         Treats the other person’s joys and worries as own.

·         Looks at the inner soul of the other person with passion and tries to read his/her mind.

·         Shows a steady growth; never fades with time or with petty quarrels.

True love always makes us to be true and faithful to those we love. True love is not blind, it enables a person to see more clearly the things in his/her beloved what other persons have failed to detect.