Here goes one of the famous Love sonnets by the bard –
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
William Shakespeare
(1564 - 1616)
Going by what Shakespeare has to say about love, love is something which is eternal. It is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove! Given the transient nature of the existence of humanity, this claim of the bard appears a paradox. But when he claims so strongly in the last line – “If this be error and upon me prove, I never writ, nor no man ever loved”, it is too difficult to ignore his claim.
As Erich Fromm succinctly puts forth in his writings, happiness can be achieved only by being able to realize the self and bridge the separateness with man and nature. He theorizes that entering into a creative spontaneous activity enabling one to express one’s own self, and simultaneously enabling the other to express their own self, enables one to bridge the gap between men and nature, and get back to the lost one-ness. He states further love is the foremost component of this spontaneity. But, “love” that Erich Fromm formulates, is different from what generally people understand the word. Fromm states –
“..all attempts for love are bound to fail, unless he tries most actively to develop his total personality, so as to achieve a productive orientation; that satisfaction in individual love cannot be attained without the capacity to love one’s neighbor, without true humility, courage, faith, objectivity, concern and discipline..”
Certainly love that is subject matter of this discussion is not just the popular romantic love. It is the love binding man to man, and man to nature. Shakespeare has been hinting on this capacity of human love in his sonnet. Certainly love is eternal, and lives an indelible mark on the person having the capacity to love. This not an emotion, rather it is a capacity, a faculty of expressing one’s personality as a whole. It aids a person to express being human. It enables one to discover and express one’s own real self. This is a means to realize Godliness being in human form. It is not tied to a personality, or an object of love. It is an innate evolution of the lover, to grow his awareness of who he is, and redeem his connection to humanity and nature. It transcends time and form. It is an invisible energy, in its highest form, which enables man to get a glimpse of what it feels to be a human. Being a human is the utmost goal of a man’s life.
To be able to realize love in its true form, to be able to love one’s neighbor, transcending the apparent narcissistic aberrations of one’s own mind, is a big challenge. That is what Shakespeare expresses by saying, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds, Admit impediments”. The idea is to achieve victory over the seeming impediments, through knowledge, contemplation, thought, reason and faith. The extensive availability of judgment, hatred, separateness between humans, countries, regions, expresses these impediments in daily conversations, news, media and stories. Shakespeare labels these as the “tempest”. Love certainly is an “ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken”. Given all the inconsistencies and narrowness of mankind since ancient ages, love, fellowship and fraternity still holds strong, and has transcended the dark ages, coming to its heights in the period of renaissance, and again raising it invincible head, again and again in today’s neo-middle ages – an age in the darkness of utilitarianism, capitalism, and materialism. Each time the likes of Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and the recipients of the Nobel peace prize every year, come to mind, one reminds oneself of the faith in love and peace!
Certainly love has lived through eternity, from the age of Socrates and Buddha and their pre-historic ancestors, in their love for virtue and ethics, giving it more importance than their own lives, to the present day of Yemen’s iron woman, Tawakel Karman. It is so very true when Shakespeare says,
“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
William Shakespeare
(1564 - 1616)
Going by what Shakespeare has to say about love, love is something which is eternal. It is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove! Given the transient nature of the existence of humanity, this claim of the bard appears a paradox. But when he claims so strongly in the last line – “If this be error and upon me prove, I never writ, nor no man ever loved”, it is too difficult to ignore his claim.
As Erich Fromm succinctly puts forth in his writings, happiness can be achieved only by being able to realize the self and bridge the separateness with man and nature. He theorizes that entering into a creative spontaneous activity enabling one to express one’s own self, and simultaneously enabling the other to express their own self, enables one to bridge the gap between men and nature, and get back to the lost one-ness. He states further love is the foremost component of this spontaneity. But, “love” that Erich Fromm formulates, is different from what generally people understand the word. Fromm states –
“..all attempts for love are bound to fail, unless he tries most actively to develop his total personality, so as to achieve a productive orientation; that satisfaction in individual love cannot be attained without the capacity to love one’s neighbor, without true humility, courage, faith, objectivity, concern and discipline..”
Certainly love that is subject matter of this discussion is not just the popular romantic love. It is the love binding man to man, and man to nature. Shakespeare has been hinting on this capacity of human love in his sonnet. Certainly love is eternal, and lives an indelible mark on the person having the capacity to love. This not an emotion, rather it is a capacity, a faculty of expressing one’s personality as a whole. It aids a person to express being human. It enables one to discover and express one’s own real self. This is a means to realize Godliness being in human form. It is not tied to a personality, or an object of love. It is an innate evolution of the lover, to grow his awareness of who he is, and redeem his connection to humanity and nature. It transcends time and form. It is an invisible energy, in its highest form, which enables man to get a glimpse of what it feels to be a human. Being a human is the utmost goal of a man’s life.
To be able to realize love in its true form, to be able to love one’s neighbor, transcending the apparent narcissistic aberrations of one’s own mind, is a big challenge. That is what Shakespeare expresses by saying, “Let me not to the marriage of true minds, Admit impediments”. The idea is to achieve victory over the seeming impediments, through knowledge, contemplation, thought, reason and faith. The extensive availability of judgment, hatred, separateness between humans, countries, regions, expresses these impediments in daily conversations, news, media and stories. Shakespeare labels these as the “tempest”. Love certainly is an “ever-fixed mark, that looks on tempests and is never shaken”. Given all the inconsistencies and narrowness of mankind since ancient ages, love, fellowship and fraternity still holds strong, and has transcended the dark ages, coming to its heights in the period of renaissance, and again raising it invincible head, again and again in today’s neo-middle ages – an age in the darkness of utilitarianism, capitalism, and materialism. Each time the likes of Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu and the recipients of the Nobel peace prize every year, come to mind, one reminds oneself of the faith in love and peace!
Certainly love has lived through eternity, from the age of Socrates and Buddha and their pre-historic ancestors, in their love for virtue and ethics, giving it more importance than their own lives, to the present day of Yemen’s iron woman, Tawakel Karman. It is so very true when Shakespeare says,
“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.”
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