
Love is the most looked forward emotion on this mortal planet, yet complex and mysterious. Mysterious like the morning fog when you can hardly see or comprehend anything until the day proceeds. Even the most selfish and evil person looks forward to this emotion from others. But the moment when we say love, every person has his way of defining it. Does Love have a name? If yes, are we not limiting it within a boundary? If you ask me, What is Love? It is the journey of a meandering river that sways with the rhythm of life rendering new dimensions as well as new meaning in every phase.
For me, the meaning of this divine emotion has evolved over the years. It’s more than happiness, to love and be loved.
I still remember when I was a child, I loved dancing and reading books most, my first love you can say. When I grew up, I was a seeker for love from a companion, love was friendship then. With marriage, I unveiled another shade of love both physical as well as emotional. Love earlier was desire now it was acceptance, co-existence and compatibility. Marriage helped me to dive deep into the philosophy of life and unveil various hues of love.
As I moved further in life, love for me was longing and hope for motherhood.
With Motherhood, LOVE became nurture, care and a learning curve.
Now, when I look back and reflect, with every phase of life I have seen as well as experienced a different shade of Love. Like a flower, it has shown different layers of hue which had its own charm and significance.
During tough times when my mother was diagnosed from stage II endometrial cancer, love transformed into power to heal. My mother had lost all hopes for life, it was the love of her children and her husband that brought her back. Love shielded her from treacherous clutches of deadly cancer.
Today, at this juncture of life I feel Love cannot just confine itself to just one person or thing, it reaches and boundaries are INFINITE.
But, now my love, has found a new dimension and meaning when I put my soul and creativity in my food art or storytelling session its MERAKI . I find a part of me in my work that renders me a sense of pride and satisfaction. Nothing calms my nerve better, than, when I see reflection of myself in my work.
Love from being mundane is slowly and steadily transforming into divine bliss, for me. Love is limitless, the more you confine its boundaries the more attachment you have and attachment always hurts.
Life perturbs you, hurts you when you fix your boundaries into your identity, social status, wealth and relationship. When you try to sink into the vastness and be one with “SHOONYA” or No-thingness. You unite with universe, you feel YOU ARE COMPLETE.
Our Vedic scriptures have rightly described ;
SHOONYAMADA, SHOONYAMIDAM
SHOONYAT SHOONYAMUDACHATE
SHOONYASYA SHOONYAMAADAAYA
SHOONYAM EVA VASHISYATE
Meaning: This is nothing, that is nothing, nothing emerges out of nothing. Even after taking the nothing out of nothing, that which remains is still nothing.
Our Upanishads, have rightly described , “Shoonya Hi Poorna”.
The ultimate love or bliss can be experienced when one syncs with No-thingness and become a part of that SHOONYA.
The journey to Shoonya or nothingness starts when you start watching gaps between two breaths, two thoughts or two things. Ashtang Yoga, defines this practice as “AJAPA” where you keep an eye and watch your own breath trying to sync with that SILENCE.
The phenomenon of Shoonya, which occupies 99% of ourselves and the whole cosmos and yet it is not in our awareness. We think life surrounding us is everything but we forget our ultimate journey. It all began with nothingness and ends into nothingness, making birth and death as two major events of this timeless space.
It’s Prakriti or Kundalini Shakti, which is personified as Parvati is within ourselves and when that shakti completes the journey to meet Shiva or Sahasrara after travelling through various energy centres, one merges with the Omnipresent.

This is believed to be the epitome of Love that awakens YOU to be one with the Cosmos.
LOVE that shatters all worldly shackles, awakens you and helps you to unite with the cosmos.
The journey from Self-love to eternal love has started.

Life is sweet but merging with You
Is far sweeter.
~ Rumi
Do share your thoughts on what’s epitome of love for you? Do you believe in giving it a name?
This post is part of the blog hop” Petals of Love ” hosted by Swarnali Nath. We, 30 bloggers have come forward to celebrate it bringing in various hues of this beautiful flower called LOVE.
‘Shoonya hi poorna’, how beautiful is that. Love indeed has no boundaries and stretches to infinity. You’ve brought multiple perspectives of love here, Debidutta. This was a very interesting read, enjoyed it a great deal. π
Thanks, dearie .Glad that you liked it. Truly with age and maturity love too evolves in one’s life.
I would struggle to give love a name today… As you said, it has evolved for me over the years… From puppy love to true love, love for the parents and even self…
So true, Love has many flavors. It keeps widening it’s flare at the distinct stage of life. In between of all these we live our life to the fullest, or rather I should say we live our life in solace. ‘Shoonya hi Poorna’ wow so true so meaningful, only, if someone understands it truthfully. Brilliant write up Debi!
Thanks Archu, while writing this piece I felt I was connected to my inner self and the chaos outside is so meaningless. We have so much inside but we hardly peep in.
That’s such a different take on love. This awakening into the cosmos and being aware of the self is a long journey, which we are all finally aiming at, aren’t we? But until that happens I think we will have to make do with mortal love. Thankyou for that piece on nothingness. It was a different approach and I enjoyed reading about it.
Thanks, Sonia . Glad that you liked it . I wanted to write more on N0-thingness but thought it might get deviated from the prompt so kind of restricted it.
Glad a philosophical touch yet blissfully simple loved your perspective towards nothingness. ?
Thanks, Sivaranjini. Everything ultimately merges into that nothingness.
It’s hard to name or set any epitome of love for me but yes after my daughter Kalki’s arrival she’s the one who has my heart, life n soul. β€ A very powerful post Debi ?
Thanks, Niddhi. I loved your daughter’s name. Glad that you liked it.
Oh Thank you ?
Wow wow wow. I so so loved the write up Di. I personally believe in this thought of taking a journey of mundane life with materialistic world to the epitome of love, grace and light. This life is nothing but a pursuit of the divinity within and spreading love to this world, selflessly and abundantly. I am awestruck reading your outstanding description of the journey of love. Beautiful and serene. Thank you so much Di fle joining us in the blog hop and taking us on the ride of love. I am grateful to you. Best wishes always. ??β€β€
So true.. the meaning and significance of love keeps changing with time, our expectation from this one word keep changing.. and how amazingly you connected this to divinity..it was such a different read (different good*)
Thanks, Payel . Glad that you liked it π
Such a beautiful, profound, and transcending post.
I believe that unconditional love which stems from spirituality is the highest form of love. Spiritual love as described by Rumi, Kabir and Tagore is the deepest form of love that can liberate us from body consciousness.
Your post transcended me to a spiritual realm. I will read it again, so bookmarking it.
Thanks, Purba. In fact i was waiting for your comment as i know you are a kriya yogi and you will understand it better. Though i have written my post in a restricted manner as its difficult to cover the vastness of no-thingness.
Strong… That is what I feel about your post after reading it. There are parts which left you thinking deep. You define love amazingly.
Thanks,Neha. Glad that you liked it.
True that our understanding of love evolves as we go through different phases of life. Loved the journey of your love that started finding its existence in dancing and reading and has metamorphosed into a definition that relates it with the synchronization with Shoonya.
This is not only a very powerful post, Debi but one that has given me food for thought. I used to think that i have labelled and categorized love, but reading this has made me rethink my choices. Thank you for writing this.
Thanks, Mayuri for stopping by and giving it a read. I have written about Shoonya or No-thingness in a very restricted form but our Puranas and Upanishads have much more to offer. Even Kriya Yoga exlains it beautifully.
What a wonderful take on love. Loved the way your article has so many different aspects of love, the shunya and the divine. Wow will be visiting this piece again for sure. Beautiful writing.
Deepika Sharma
Thanks, Deepika for liking it. All sacred scriptures direct us to this nothingness which is more meaningful than anything that surrounds us. But this has to felt deep inside. The silence is always golden.
The journey from selfless to oneness…. Wow such a profound take on the prompt. Loved reading this profound and inspirational morphing of love over time. We all reach there at some point or the other…. And the sooner we reach there the more closer we are to experiencing that divine love. Very rightly worded by you ?
Thanks, Ira for liking it. True, the sooner we reach there we can feel that pure and divine love.
What a brilliant post this is ! I loved every aspect that you have highlighted here and Shoonya hin Poorna concept just blew my mind . It was amazing to read the mythological aspects of love combined with your personal experiences. Thank you for sharing this with us !
Thanks, Chinmayee for liking it. Its deeply explained in our Puranas and Upanishads. Even Kriya Yoga explains it beautifully. I have just started walking towards it.
Thanks for sharing this and enlightening us ?
How wonderfully discribed.. You touched almost all the accepts yet a very different take on love!! Love that poem! Amazing!
You have given a different perspective about love. Yet an amazing one.
That poem is awesome!
An angle of love
That’s going into a lot of depth to explain Love. I haven’t really tried tying Love to one thing and so I cannot say what epitome of Love is for me. I know for a fact that I’d be lost without it
Merging into nothingness is the ultimate form of love one can feel. For me that also means zero expectations and giving what you can selflessly. Such a profound way of expressing love this was.
Loved your take on how love changes as we evolve …love is everything yet it is in the nothingness we are complete. Beautiful.
Thanks Ruchi. Glad that you liked it.
Youβve meta morphed love into magic, power, divinity and self evolution!! This was a spirited, spiritually enriching post that showed me the widest spectrum of the emotion called love. The journey from mundane to divinity and self love to evolution is a worth following rigorous path of contemplation and self awareness. Iβm so glad to have come across this postβ€οΈBrilliant!
Thanks, Daisy for appreciating my work. Your words are so inspiring and enriching. Glad that you liked it.
This is such a beautiful write-up Debi. I loved the way how you have woven love through all the stages of your life. As we enter this world, we tend to yearn for materialistic things and gradually when we experience life as it is, we learn and realize how simple things can be. When we stop expecting and let things be as it is, we experience peace and tranquility leading us to self-realization. Only then we realize the true power of love.
Nicely articulated Debi. It felt like a roller coaster ride reading about all the loVe and how love changed over the years.. and your description of self love and bliss was so relevant..
That’s such a lovely post giving meaning to love in our life through different stages, love is essense of our life
Forgot to mention lovely choice of pictures
I totally agree that love is something which changes with time and it is divine. Happy to read this beautiful post. Loved it!!
wow Debi. I am speechless. How flawlessly you walked us through your definition of love seeing the Spirituality intact. I have heard the Shoonyamada verse. We practice it at our Sunday school. When we can see the essence of Shoonya then we become One with nature then its like eternal bliss. When our “Aham” is eliminated, we understand the power of Shoonya. Would like to have a conversation with you on this topic.
Thanks, Alpana for liking the post. It’s as vast as ocean I have shared just the superficial meaning . And more than saying it has to be felt within that comes with practicing through the control of your breath. Enlightenment is a state of mind when it merges with nothingness and no more waves of thoughts emerges it’s that calm and undisturbed . The ultimate meaning of Shoonya or nothingness.
It is difficult to define love. I loved them way described it so beautifully. Every stage we realised the different flavour love offer us.
Yes love is such a beautiful and powerful emotion and as a blessing of god, we get a chance to feel it in various form in our life. I really liked the spiritual description of shiva and shakti, you had mentioned in the post. it was a unique information on theme of Love.
thanks Surbhi. Its very deep also but going deep might not have interested many so kept things very superficial.
As life goes on the love also go through many up’s and down phase and yes expectation also gets more but everyone has different ways and definition.. Lovely post thank you for sharing.
Very lovely post on love. Various types of love yet the feeling is the same in any relationship. Thanks for this. Will be forwarding to those who have mistakenly referred to their feelings as LOVE.
Thanks, Cindy. I am happy that you liked it. Love is most of the time misunderstood and definitely it varies from person to person.
Shoonya is only Poorna. You have explained the phases of life and with time how Love changes its meaning. I liked the way you have step by step made readers understand the importance of Shoonya.
Just reading through your post had such a calming effect on me ! I could feel myself feeling light and happy. But coming to your question , this is something I never really thought deeply, it is certainly something I need to explore and understand.
Thanks Preeti and yes, try exploring this there are several books that can give you a more detailed explaination which i have done superficially. Shoonya philosophy is a deep philosophy and Samadhi or the enlightenment is that state of mind when it merges with nothingness. There is no wave of thought its that calm and undisturbed.
Such a beautiful post on the journey of love. I would love to read the other posts from this blog series.
Thanks, Rakhi that you liked it. It was a single post but after getting overwhelming response on this post I think I should write a series now.
This is a beautiful read for me on Sunday morning. Every relationship needs live not just between humans but also with nature and every living being. We need to grow our horizon.
True love has many dimensions and forms… from loving a bag to loving a person, it can be perceived in many ways. Again for a person, love can have multiple forms from love for parents, love for kids and love for your partner, love has a different face for all.
This is such a beautiful post. I love the line “Shoonya hi poorna”. I love your choices of quotes and the photos. Love is so fulfilling, so is self love. Liked reading this post.
Thanks, Tina. Our Upanishads are treasure house of knowledge and this deep philosophical line comes from there.Glad that you liked it.
I have to say this is very beautifully written. Love has a different meaning and feeling for everyone. For me personally love has definitely evolved over the years itβs very different from what I used to feel earlier. Totally loved your post
Thanks Taranpreet for your kind words. I am glad that you liked it.
How absolutely beautiful it was to read this blog. Love is an emotion which has no limit and since I became mom, it had an absolutely different meaning to it. The pictures are so apt for this post π
Thanks for liking the post.