  Romance/Love
This week: What's Love Got To Do With It? Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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Sometimes, while reading, I find myself saying, 'Oh, (that character) LOVES (something)!' ... and I'm not referring to romantic love at all.
So, I interviewed the author of a work of historical fiction, to find out what love has to do with it. |
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Amazon's Price: $ 12.99
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Dear Reader,
I present an interview with Kalyanaraman Durgadas, author of a historical-fiction novel, Songs of the Cauvery.
1. What are the types of love found in Songs of the Cauvery?
The primary form of love that is found in Songs of the Cauvery is a love for something that is greater than oneself.
Panju loves his country so much that he believes that his life or even the life of another person is a small price to pay for the welfare of the country.
Janaki loves the idea of duty — stemming from an idea that one must do what is good rather than what is convenient, an idea that she has inherited from her father, Sambu.
Sambu loves the idea of ‘Tyaga’ — loosely translated as ‘sacrifice’ but more accurately as ‘letting go’. He aims to reach the absolute state of peace, or Liberation. He constantly subordinates his own preferences and decides on issues based on what is good rather than what he wants.
Ranjitham loves Panju, But she loved the ideals that Panju stood for even more than that.
Arul loves Janaki for the woman she is — so much so that he is willing to let go of what were his greatest desire and true vocation.
2. Are all these forms of love obvious (to the characters and to the reader)?
They are obvious to the characters. As to whether they are obvious to the reader, well, you must answer that.
3. What is the ultimate sacrifice a character / characters make, in your book, for love?
The ultimate sacrifice as far as the book is concerned is giving up one’s own life for what one believes. However, I do not believe that this is the ultimate form of Tyaga (letting go). In all the cases above, there is no Absolute purity of purpose. In my view the absolute purity of purpose is one of non-purpose. Let me explain.
The highest form of Love is one where there is no object of love.You love because you are Love. A tree doesn’t give shade to anyone in particular or even for any specific purpose. It is its fundamental nature to do so.
When you have an object of love rather than, in a sense, radiating love impartially, you are involved in a transaction: 'I give you love, you give me love or some benefit in return'. Or in a more subtle case, you get some conditioned satisfaction out of it. True love means not expecting anything in return. Not even a feeling of cozy warmth.
A deeper form of Tyaga is connected with the deepest form of love. In this form, you don’t even feel you are sacrificing something. There is no sacrifice because you have let go of everything.
4. Can two different types of love create conflict within an individual?
Certainly, as has been shown above. For instance, the conflict between love of a partner and your country or the conflict between the love of one person and another. If there is no object of love, then these conflicts disappear.
5. Where does love for oneself fit in to love for others?
That’s a great question. If you are embarked on a course of Love:
The first thing that you learn to love is yourself. All the senses, the senses of proprioception,
For example: If you don’t love yourself, there is very little possibility that you will love others. Nature starts you off with an assist here. As you get older, different senses kick in and you start being aware of yourself as an individual.
There are two paths on this course towards true love. One can be called a path of expansion and the other that of contraction. Let us examine the path of expansion first.
Starting with the love for the ‘I’ you expand the ego to include your family, your partner (Romantic love is an expression of this expansion of identity.)
This can expand further to include an extended family, your country, all sentient living beings, all life, your environment — getting broader and broader till it encompasses the universe.
The path of contraction could be a meditative inward path where you examine what you truly are. Are you your body? Your thoughts? Your emotions? The answers may be ‘No’. It may be possible that you arrive through this process of negation at a single point after which the point too disappears, thus encompassing everything. (All differences between ‘I’ and the other disappear.)
In essence, you reach the same place following a diametrically opposite path.
I understand this is is a somewhat long explanation for the question that you have asked, but it does tell you that in the path of love, the love of oneself its the first step.
Thanks, Kalyanaraman, and thanks, dear Reader!
- Sonali
Here's a trinket celebrating the book!
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For the love of reading -
Current entries to "Project Write World" -
A sampling of entries based on a quotation or image prompt.
Note the different types of love found in each, sometimes in the form of yearning.
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Look!
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And this one just makes me laugh! 
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All time favourites!
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Thank you for the responses to "Romance/Love Newsletter (December 21, 2016)" !
I loved this newsletter! I think that going to a person, and not letting it fester, is some smart advice. I also loved the quote you included about fixing the roof while the sun is shining. This is good information to keep in mind to check the ego tothe curb and fix things before they get worse. Thanks for a great newsletter! SB Musing 
Miscommunication is the very basis of the majority of romance novels. Without it the story might be over in 25 thousand words. Quick-Quill  |
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Romance/Love: January 18, 2017 Issue [#8066]
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