I was around 17 years old and this was during the New Year period when my loving grandfather who I was strongly bonded with, passed away after being bed ridden for several months. This certainly made me sad and my not so matured mind started wondering about the fragility of life to which we all are so attached. We completed all the deeds as per the rituals. Things got normal in few days and the grief was forgotten considering the fact that he had lived his life and had completed all his duties as well. I was still not happy within and was trying to pull certain answers.

Now as the last part of the ritual, we were supposed to immerse his ashes into the holy ocean at Puri. I travelled with my uncle and all through the journey both of us were feeling low. I have been somewhat low for the last couple of weeks. Interestingly, the sadness turned into joy, the low turned into high, the inner questions started turning into answers as soon as I looked at the ocean. There were no thoughts, no griefs, no questions but a joy with stillness. I did not run or jump or scream but was happy without excitement. Being a teen, I could not realize what’s happening except one thing that I loved looking at the ocean.

Was it the first time I saw the ocean? No. Do I always feel the same thing when I visit the ocean? No. Then what on Earth caused my grief, my inner questions, my dullness to transform into positivity in an instant? Of course this was Love. A love that the ocean had for me, the love that mother nature has for all of us, the Love that the Supreme Almighty has for the entire creation. This simple word called love has the solution to all the problems in this world.

This Love has several meanings for people: To a mother, it’s the wellbeing of her child, to a lover, it’s the smiling face of her beloved, to an artist, it’s the art, to a solder its the battlefield and to an athlete its the body. There are some ugly interpretations of love too, such as lust – falsely interpreted as love, jealousy – when the person you love doesn’t give you as much attention as you want, Greed – The desire for materialistic things falsely interpreted as love.

Be it the real love above or the falsely interpreted negative thoughts as love, none of them are comparable to the everlasting, never degrading and the true ecstatic Pure Divine Love. It is the Love of the Supreme towards the creation, which is us. The world which runs after greed, passion, lust, insecurity, possessiveness etc. does not capture the essence of love in its true sense. They are bestowed with the mirage that they see as love but in reality it’s the polar opposite.

All of us have the presence of love in our individual as well as collective life. How much of it is love in its truest sense and how much of it is an illusion showing itself to us as love?