Boys and girls fall in love. Often the parents disapprove of it justifiably. One who has once fallen in love himself will have no heart to dissuade his child from such a course. Worldly wisdom raises the question of a happy future. A heart that loves cannot think of the future because the Present Moment of Love has compressed eternity into it. The emotion of Love can be lived. Whether it is fulfilled or denied fulfillment, it cannot be analysed or argued and win its case in the court of rationality.

One is opposed to the other. Where there is activity, there is no Silence; where there is Silence, there is no activity. Sri Aurobindo says Silence sustains activity. Further, He says all those who have reached a little of that inner Silence know the surging waves of energy that are welling up from that immobile reservoir of SILENCE. During a discussion of the history of the USA along the lines of the Theory of Social Evolution, the author of that study asked the group a question: "We see America is dynamic.

Ireland was known as the sick man of Europe. All these centuries she was poorer than the poorest European country. Her mainstay was agriculture and the main crop was potato. The potato famine decimated the population. There were mass migrations to Australia, Africa and especially to America. She was poor, not as we know poverty, but by the standards of Europe. In the sixties, her per capita income was $10,000 while we were below $200. She was dominated and humiliated by Britain.

Religion, race, and language often become a bone of contention. The Crusades were fought over a sacred religious spot. There is a lot of truth in those forces. But there is always an overriding factor.  In each period MAN is after something -- survival, territorial integrity, living standards, patriotism, honour of the sacred soil, etc. That is the God of that period. All the other things are lip service. Capitalism, socialism, communism are beside the point for the masses, if the God of that period is not honoured. Russia stood for communism.

Historians patiently go after the facts, the true facts, the hard, concrete facts. Their quest has burst many historical myths. As a result, historians are fond of saying that in most of the enduring historical myths, there is very little truth worth the name. We are common people. We have no judgement or even information. We go by leaders, thinkers, the press, and books. When they differ, we look up to great minds for guidance. H.G. Wells and G. B. Shaw were known to be geniuses of the 20th century. We expect them to be infallible.

Love gives. It cannot take. It can only give. Maybe man takes, he can only take and he cannot give is an uncharitable statement to make about mankind. At least in our own personal experience, we would have seen one example of such a person. Having read the words of Sri Aurobindo about the unregenerate vital, not wanting to be under an obligation, I began to collect evidences for it from my readings of history and literature. During the course of my research, I came across precious examples in life and in literature for another principle with which this article opens.

A Russian writer said that an author is made in the crucible of life. An age lives its experience in the writings of a perceptive author. A whole population undergoes an intense experience of love for centuries, which in the process gets crystallised and condensed into a phrase, ‘love is blind'. A great mind expresses it. He is the pioneer of thought. In the minds of intellectual authors, thoughts arise and struggle to acquire a form, first acquiring a shape. The shapeless thoughts filling the outlines of a visible form of an idea is the experience of writing a book.

A young student asked his learned professor why Shakespeare was called a great poet. The professor was impressed by the curiosity of a questioning mind, but in spite of his vast erudition, he had no answer to give. He knew, he said, that Shakespeare was great, but was not able to explain it in rational terms. Samuel Johnson in his famous preface to Shakespeare, compared his works to the abundant wealth of the forest, but did not define what his greatness was due to. Sri Aurobindo in Vol.

Life has a character of its own which simple-minded folk ignore. Meeting with misfortune, we exclaim, "I have not done any wrong, why the punishment?" To succeed in life, it is not enough one has not done any wrong. It is also necessary to be strong enough to handle the forces of life. Edmond Dantes had not wronged anyone. He was incapable of it. Still, he was jailed. When Dantes became a captain at 19 and won the love of the prettiest girl there, Life demanded he be strong to enjoy them.

An idea of Sri Aurobindo in an article of mine made a vastly informed reader of eminence write to me asking for a reference to the original. The original in effect says the unregenerate vital is unwilling to be under an obligation. He who receives a help has a natural tendency to hurt the benefactor. This is a truth known to us centuries ago and is captured in a proverb: if only you take pity on a suffering creature, the SINS of six months will at once land on you. History, literature and life offer copious confirmation of this truth.