Emotions always have the potential of being unilateral. Many people hate George Bush. But can he hate them? I’m angry with the Indian Government for so many things – to the extent that I might try to evade as much tax as possible. But is it angry with me? It’ll still continue to offer me what it always did – the citizenship of a “free” country. While all around me is misery, I can be the happiest person in XLRI or even on the face of the earth and probably beyond. And the converse – while all around me are partying, I can sit on the table and hope I could disappear or rather disapparate to the small hole, 40 ft below the surface of an ice island, in Tundra.
But wait, all these emotions I talked about were my relations with the group. What about individuals? Can I have unilateral emotions towards individuals? And such Extreme? I could hate, really hate, someone but when they help me, I would not be able to stop the feeling of gratitude. I could be angry, furious, with someone but when they came to me with a sorry written on a sullen face, I will relent though I might not absolve the other person of all their crimes.
But love behaves quite different from these human emotions. It is, after all, divine. I reminisced how many times in history/mythology has love led to people being irrational. Love has caused wars and ended them. It is the single most potent weapon in the hands of a poor soul on the other side of anger. I finally concluded – love – more than most (or should I say, all) other emotions – can be unilateral. Next time, when it comes to it, I won’t hesitate to say, “I love you far too much to be bothered by what you say or do to me.”
