The Hermit – Love

The old hermit walked towards the tree under which he usually rested, when suddenly he is stopped by a young
man in 20s. And the old man looked at the young man’s face and it looked familiar; the same curious eyes and
eagerness. The young man said he had some questions and he wanted answers. The old hermit was too irritated.
It was his time to rest after a long day but this young man disturbed him. But the pestering young man wanted
few answers and wouldn’t leave till they were answered.

So the young man asked “what is love? I have seen beauties, from all 7 continents. I like them all. But I don’t
know what love is.”

The old hermit smiled and said, “Love is a simple term for anything you like a lot and there need not be a reason
for it. Just like the way you like a colour or maybe a dog or a person. ”

The young man, disappointed by a simple answer asked,” I know that but I am talking about love between a
woman and a man. How does one figure what they love? Can we love two women like loving two colours? ”

The old hermit understood where the conversation was going towards and looked at the young man’s face. He
seemed to be some sort of dilemma. “Son, you can love a lot of things in this world. You need not possess
everything. Its human nature to aspire for more than needed and you are doing the same. ”

“So I could grab all the colours if like all of them and I could love more than one woman? “asked the man.

“You can love as much as you can. Love has no limits. You can possess as much you can. Humans keep
acquiring like I said it is their nature. But there is a limit in bonding. We cannot bond with two humans the same
way. And this bond cannot happen by acquiring. This bond happens with mutual understanding.”

The young man was silent and looked as if he understood the hermit. He understood he could bond only with
just another soul fully. He couldn’t cut his soul into pieces then how can he love more than one woman. He
could never do that. Love needs giving of self fully to another. Just like the way his pair of eyes moved together
and saw the same thing, his better half would do that. And this was love.