What is Love??

This is an extract which represents the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda about LoVe. It goes like this:

I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with some water and held it before me, and said this: "You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love." This was how I saw it: As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to remain there, it will always be there. However, if you attempt to close your fingers round it and try to posses it, it will spill through the first cracks it finds. This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet love ... they try to posses it, they demand, they expect ... and just like the water spilling out of your hand, love will retrieve from you. For love is meant to be free, you can not change its nature. If there are people you love, allow them to be free beings.

• Give and don't expect.
• Advise, but don't order.
• Ask, but never demand.
  

It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a lifetime to truly practice. It is the secret to true love.To truly practice it, you must sincerely feel no expectations from those who you love, and yet an unconditional caring." Passing thought .... Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by the moments that take our breath away. --Swami Vivekananda

I was immensely touched when I read it in somebody's blog and hence thought of incorporating it in my own blog with my views on it. I wonder if many people know what it is...for many it is just a fantasy.Love for say a house,friends(by and large),job,society or anything related to an individual lasts only till it is paying something or the other (say money,emotional or financial help, blah blah).Not many people care about there older friends if they find better newer friends who can be more useful to them, neither they care for parents who have nurtured them with all the love and affection when it comes to their career prospects.Such individuals think that they love their parents for they are providing them with the financial assistance.The definition of LOVE has changed for a lot of people in modern times.Every other individual in modern times is committed to someone belonging to the opposite sex assuming that they are truly madly deeply in love with each other which is surely not the case with more than 90% of the cases.It is just an infatuation to fulfill their physical needs.They are together for a period of time n then they depart for some reason.Soon they find somebody else and again the same vicious cycle. starts. Such individuals don't really know the meaning of love for LOVE is very pure and eternal.It is not a feeling which just arises out of no where and and you think you are in love.It requires time..time to understand each other and giving time to each other without any expectations.A certain level of expectations do arise which is essential also for a strong bond but excessive expectations is obsession which leads them nowhere.LOVE has got a very short term meaning in today's materialistic world.An individual is in love with his work,parents,girlfriend/boyfriend,friends till the time he derives something or the other from them.
Such people leave their loved ones bereft for they have lost their meaning in his life.I wonder how can such people ever exist and when I see them my heart really sinks.I hate to see misery and sadness around and am sure no one else likes it too but many just dont bother.
I am thankful to God to give me the power to think in favor of my loved ones.I am grateful to Him for he has given me the best of people around who care for everything that comes across in their lives.My first and foremost aim in life is to keep my parents and all those who love me, happy!!I strongly pray to God to give me enough strength to make my most awaited dream com true!!