Is marriage really the end of love?

Socrates had a quarrelsome wife but when disciples asked him whether they should marry, he always advised them to. "If you are fortunate you'll get a good wife. If you get a wife like mine, you'll still be fortunate as she will help you become Socrates!"

But people like Socrates are rare. Most men cannot handle the misery, and either escape or get frustrated. The same goes for women as well. In her marriage, a woman may find the most terrible person who makes life hell for her. In fact, in most Indian marriages, women suffer more than men. What is the way out of this misery?

German politician Gabriele Pauli recently proposed that marriage contracts should be valid for seven years; after that couples who didn't feel the proverbial itch could renew them, else walk away. This may sound radical but it isn't.

People are divorcing faster today and most of the marriages in the so-called first world don't last more than three years. Those that last have little life in them.

Love is like a real flower. It doesn't live longer than it's meant to. But when love is converted into marriage, it starts to lose its tenderness. It acquires a plastic nature; plastic lives for as long as you wish it to but doesn't pulsate with life.

Love, like life, is always insecure. It cannot promise to be forever. That's why it is really very precious. One moment of real love is more valuable than an eternity of plastic life. But most people with deep insecurities go for a plastic marriage rather than wait for the real throbbing life of love, for they are scared to live alone.

Osho calls marriage the ‘coffin of love'. He says: "They all say that love is eternal, never dies. Absolutely wrong. Real love dies sooner than unreal love. Unreal love can live long; it is unreal, how can it die? If you are pretending, you can pretend as long as you want to."

Osho also tells us: "Love needs only one thing, and that is courage. Courage to die into the other, to drop your own identity, your ego. Millions have decided not to love, but then life is misery, life is hell."

"If one really wants to live, one must be ready for insecurity, and love brings the greatest insecurity in the world because love cannot promise tomorrow. Love is of the moment, for the moment, in the moment. Love can only speak for this moment, not for the next; the next remains open, vulnerable, insecure." "Love may be, may not be. Love has no guarantee whatsoever. Which is why people choose marriage over love. Marriage is secure and safe, guaranteed by the law and the government and the society and the church-something they can depend upon. But in that very choice they commit suicide for they will never really live."

"Life itself is insecure. Life knows nothing of security. Death is very secure, so those who are cowardly choose death instead of life. They choose the false and the plastic instead of the real. And those who are courageous, they choose the real. They go with it, wherever it may lead. They surrender to it. They are ready to go into the uncharted and the unknown and the unseen." And they truly live...

WORDS OF WISDOM

"Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry." - Tom Mullen, author.

"Marriage is the alliance of two people, one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other who never forgets." - Ogden Nash, author & poet.

Happiness

"Dad, everyone is looking for happiness. But what is meant by happiness?" This was one of the questions a wise boy in India, Sveta-ketu, put to his father many centuries ago.

"One of the signs of happiness, son, is that a person who has it becomes active. A person who does not find happiness does not feel like being active. His mind is cramped, his will is weak. What is vast and infinite brings happiness. There is no true joy in what is small or finite. I can tell you that the Infinite alone is happiness; but you must desire to understand this Infinite, my son."

"I want to understand it, Dad," said Sveta-ketu.

"Good," said his father. "Then you must listen carefully to what I say and think deeply about it:

"When a person sees that nothing and no one is separate from him, that he is one with all the people, animals, and objects in the universe, when a person sees and hears and knows nothing else -- that is the Infinite.

"But, if one sees or feels some other thing, obstructing him, separating him, then that is the finite. He has not yet found the Infinite.

"The Infinite never passes away; it lasts forever; but what is finite will pass away."

After so many days..

Today in the evening I went IIT Campus after so many days. It was pleasant atmosphere. I went temple along the Powai lake. It was awesome. I enjoyed with fresh breeze after so many days. I just couldn't realize the time. I spent more than couple of hours at lake. I am really missing such a nice and pleasant place.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh.
When care is pressing you down a bit -
Rest, if you must, but don't quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out---
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.