SMILE – It’s time to LOVE!

I have found the most simplest and profound expressions of Love by the epitome of Love and compassion, the revered Blessed Mother Teresa. On Love said she, "Let us always meet each other with smile, for a smile is the beginning of love”. It’s so easy to smile, isn’t it? And in the normal course of our mundane lives we give our smiles to different people – members of our family, our helpers, colleagues, neighbours, absolute strangers, somebody who mean nothing to us. Imagine, by this one quotation, we are sharing Love in the bargain of exchanging that smile. We would never consciously have thought that our smile can be the beginning of Love. Yet, we do it inadvertently. In the process of smiling as we may visualize by our experiences, we can say a lot even without dialogue, it signifies compassion, it signifies happiness, it signifies approval, it signifies forgiveness, it signifies repentance, it has the power to build broken bridges, one can move mountains and it requires no effort, in fact it is believed by many over the course of history that it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. Indeed, a simple smile can create simple love; while in reality we tend to complicate Love!

Everybody I know of is seeking nothing but Love, although expressed in different ways. It is the most significant need that one can desire. My thoughts intend to go beyond the realms of mere romantic love, while it is quite significant too; I believe Love in its core essence is more subtle than it seems, nonetheless ubiquitous and all encompassing. Yet, we live in a world which is Love-deprived. Today, a smile could mean deceit, or a fake expression or a veil one wears to cover the feelings of anger, pride or jealousy – some of the most common vices known to disrupt human integrity. It’s such an irony that sometimes we are bound to become victims of our own intellect and knowledge that we can easily overlook the simplest expression of love in a positive sense. We need to establish a better understanding of Love and that can only happen if we begin understanding ourselves. While it may seem vanity at a superficial level, sincerely loving ourselves first is fundamental to be able to understand Love. We need to ponder over our actions and thoughts and become more sensitive to these. After all we receive what we give and if we cannot give Love (which we ought to have), it’s hard to receive it. We may not realize it, however, most of our actions – good or bad - are motivated by Love or the lack of it. And it has to come from nowhere else but from self-love or self-hatred. Strangely enough, Hatred is the other side of the same coin and it is up to us what we want to give. We would be doing ourselves and those around us a great favour by realizing the Love within. It will help in becoming aware of our marvelous possession and then only can we distribute that which we have. A beggar cannot give because he has not. 

So let us begin by sharing the richness of a SMILE, which is meant to be given during this season of Love. (Although Love should be a 365 days - 24*7 affair!). As a closing thought on Valentine’s day today, I would like to share what I believe to be the most divine passage from the Bible 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 on “what Love is and what it is not” - 

Love is patient, Love is kind.

Love is not jealous or conceited or proud.

Love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable.

Love does not keep a record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Love never gives up, and its faith, hope and patience never fail.

Love is eternal.

There are inspired messages, but they are temporary;

There are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease;

There is knowledge but it will pass.