Man is charmed by a beautiful feminine face which initiates romance. The handsome masculine appearance of a tall man is of instant appeal to the feminine heart for which the woman is willing to die. This romantic charm is, the scientist explains, because of the smell of a hormone secreted in the armpit. Whatever it is, the spell of the charm is inescapable and endless. At the altar of marriage, all this is sacrificed or buried, if not at once, after a while. Still the one thing for which the heart finds a ready answering chord is its permanence. Eternal romance is an ever-living ideal of the human heart and the human soul.
When married people find ardent youth utterly giving themselves to the pursuit of romantic ideals, they say, "You are outside and are eager to get in; I am inside but am anxious to get out." When for any reason such as the wife's death a man is outside again, he is equally anxious to get back in. The truth is what attracts is not the pretty face but a true heart. A true heart never dies or grows old, rather its intensities of longing grow with age. Even in countries where marriage as a valid institution does not exist anymore, the longing of the unfulfilled heart is alive.
We know of Romeo and Juliet; Laila and Majnu; Dante and Beatrice. What is it that actuates them? It is not even the true heart, but the true Spirit in the heart. Why has man not ever attained it? Is the failure only of Man? Has woman succeeded in the effort? Is Romance, eternal romance, ever attainable? Civilisation as well as its whole, the creation, is sustained by the evolutionary energy generated by the eternal aspiration for the Eternal. In the Mind it dawns as the attraction for Beauty. In the heart, it emerges as fullness of rich emotions for which one is willing to die. It is life giving. When sour, the same emotions can take another's life. In the Spirit, it is Love. It can give itself wholly. It revives the dead heart. It lives for Love as it energises Life. It is consummated at the level of the Spirit.