370. Attention Matures into Affection

Affectionate husbands, when the intensity of affection comes down for any reason, never slacken their attention. As attention matures into affection, affection dilutes itself into attention. It is never so with an affectionate mother. Her affection is unvarying. Over the years it only grows richer, knows no dryness or bleak void. It is mostly expressed in an expressive tone or engaging looks. Affection grows in intensity to acquire the shades of love. It is said love is the one of the three ways in which divine Ananda of Sachchidananda reveals to the human personality. Ananda being what it is, the human mind, vital and soul try to get a glimpse of it. Nerves catch Him as joy, while to the mind it reveals as beauty. The lines of Ananda in the mental eye assume the form of Beauty. The man who yearns for a beautiful face really aspires for the Ananda of Sachchidananda. Love is the form in which the soul touches Ananda.

Life experience is frustrating for many people. A few of them are disillusioned. They may say in ripe age, "There is no love or affection. It is all the illusion of the youth whose passion carries one over the brink of the precipice." If you really know any person deeply affectionate and if she or he is willing to take you into confidence, he will reveal his heart saturated with affection and love. He who has loved once has not learned to cease loving. It may be received or not or different people may receive it. Maybe no one receives it. But the heart that knows love is always in love. It needs to give. There is no need to receive any return though such a return enriches the hour of that experience. Love, as every other thing, has several versions.

An affectionate person crushed by the burden of life may seem to others less expressive of that infectious richness of emotion. When he or she takes to the Spirit, the old fires will revive with the enthusiasm of the Spirit transporting him to the climax of human fulfillment. Friendship is sacred. Wise people never allow their temperament or swabhava to interfere with that sacred relationship. People anchored in Spirit keep their friendship untrammeled by the vicissitudes of circumstances. Affection is above circumstances, even as it is above the vitiating vibrations of unstable temperament. A relationship where affection has cooled off to attention is inspired by a revival of it by the Touch of Spirit in any part of its expression.