Date: January 11, 2024
As part of the Annual Youth Camp 2024 organised by AuroYouth, Dr. Beloo Mehra, Editor, Renaissance Journal, was invited to conduct an interactive session with the participants. The 1.5-hour-long session on January 11 focused on the topic ‘Rethinking Love and Relationships in a New Light’.
Love and relationships are the root of all human life as lived in our familial and societal contexts. But ordinarily, most people do not take the trouble to examine and understand the nature of these two things. Life situations generally have a way of making people experience several different aspects of human love and relationships, in the process creating a variety of emotions in them, ranging all the way from pleasure to pain, from passion to indifference, from happiness to sadness, from calmness to rage, and so on. Such ups and downs cause much turmoil in people’s lives – outer and inner, and also lead to strained and troubled relationships.
The purpose of this interactive session was to highlight that significance of examining the nature of human love and relationships using a deeper psycho-spiritual view of human nature, given to us by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother who had not only explored the depths of human nature but had also raised themselves to the highest heights of consciousness.
It was emphasised that no human experience is insignificant in their integral view of life and existence. And that is why we can find relevant insights on almost all aspects of life in their writings and teachings. Some relevant quotes from Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s writings were also shared with the participants to stimulate some reflections and discussions.
Throughout the session, based on the questions raised by the participants, Dr. Mehra also brought in relevant examples and stories from Indian cultural traditions, which throw some deeper insights on love and human relationships. She also focused on the Mother’s discussion on the various rungs of love, and highlighted how through our experiences in life and in our relations with others we slowly work our way up through the different rungs of love.
The session also brought to light that by becoming deeply aware of the nature of human love and becoming more conscious of how this human love expresses through different relationships in our lives we can prepare ourselves more effectively to deal with the changing life situations which are inevitable. The role of egoism in human relationships was discussed, and several examples were brought in to keep the discussion more practical and relatable.
Through a wide range of questions put forth by the participants, the discussion spanned from concerns related to parental love, romantic love and friendships, to deeper topics related to Divine Love and its relation to human love, difference between Divine and Gods, and more.
A specially designed 2024 Renaissance calendar was also distributed to all the camp participants. The discussions carried over during lunch time as well because several participants had specific questions related to the topic.