(The principal of a large school in Bombay gave us a list of frequently asked questions by 13 year old children in her school and asked us whether we can prepare answers in the light of a spiritual perspective. When we looked at the question we found that they are not mere “kid-stuff.” Most of them are either fundamental and existential questions related to world and God or psychological problems faced by most of us. This series is an attempt to answer these questions from the children’s perspective in the light of a spiritual vision of life. We don’t know how far we have succeeded in communicating to the children. Nevertheless, we hope these answer may be of some help to teachers and parents who have to deal with children. There are around thirty questions with answers given in the light of a spiritual vision of life. We will post these questions at regular intervals.)
Why it is said once loved, Never forgotten?
Project your memory into the past. List out how many things or people you have loved or thought you have loved, do you remember with such a depth of feeling or intensity that they are “never forgotten” or unforgettable? They will be very few, rest of them are vague and weak, easily forgettable memories. Only those things which you loved deeply linger as “never forgotten” or unforgettable memories. But what does it mean “deeply?” it means something which you loved not with your constantly changing and fickle surface emotional being, but with something more inward, from the very depth of your heart, a feeling and a joy which is timeless, beyond memories which pass. Whenever we love something or someone from the depth of our heart, without ego, attachment or seeking for anything in return, a seed of something timeless and eternal is cast into our consciousness. If you have loved with this deeper heart then they are never forgotten, because it is a feeling beyond memory, beyond time. All other “loves”, of the surface being, however intense and passionate it may be as it rages, are forgettable memories.
