Relationships need to be nurtured

All relationships need nurturing, just like young saplings that flourish and grow into massive trees with beautiful foliage if cared for. Most of us are blessed with families at birth and loving relationships with parents, siblings, or members of the extended family that can flourish if we move beyond ourselves to take compassionate care of those around us.

Very often, we are faced with the experience of looking after someone infirm and vulnerable, which demands emotional strength and empathy. To look after others, we must, for a time, at least forego looking after ourselves. This kind of responsibility becomes a burden in one’s crowded schedule and is seen as an unwelcome duty and a grind. But it is on such occasions that you stand your ground as a compassionate individual who can combine duty with the unselfish love that caregiving entails. It may eat away at your time and involve some sacrifice, self-denial, and readjustment of your life. But all this is worth the sense of fulfilment you receive in the process. No physical reward, but a large giving and receiving of love that redeems our lives and makes them worth while 

The Bhagavad Gita promotes universal brotherhood, emphasising the interconnectedness of all individuals and nurturing harmonious connections. The essence of Krishna’s teachings is to love without condition, to talk without intention, to give without reason, and to care without expectation. That is the spirit of true love. The Gita is fundamentally a social doctrine in which the consequences of one’s actions influence not only one’s next life but the lives of others in the present. Gita teaches resilience in the face of challenges, the impermanence of pain and pleasure, and the real happiness of performing one’s duty. Even beyond the family, in the larger social arena, there are more evolved among us who have devoted love and care to those totally unrelated to them. When Lord Buddha was asked why a man should love all men equally, “Because,”  the great teacher said, “in the numerous and varied life spans of each man, every other being, at one time or another and in one form or another—animal or human—has been dear to him.” . By its very nature, love is reciprocal, and when given in abundance, it is received in abundance, leaving both the giver and the receiver twice blessed.