Love and Truth

Hamlet's Castle

"Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love." 2.2

Love and truth...in Hamlet and the Gita. Somebody in our class, I believe it was Mick, mentioned that we rarely ever discuss love in this class, especially as an epiphany. Part of me wonders if this is because love is ruled by passion, not by thought or epiphany: it is more an epiphany of the heart, as seriously corny as that sounds.

But, love can be a spiritual epiphany, as well, as the Gita debates, while Hamlet primarily focuses on the passion, both wonderful and deadly, that can be inspired by love, as demonstrated in this effusive quote:

"I loved Ophelia: Forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum."
- William Shakespeare, Hamlet 5.1

With the Gita, as demonstrated in this quote, love is another religious experience:

"Still your mind in me, still yourself in me, and without a doubt you shall be united with me, Lord of Love, dwelling in your heart."

I believe, that tied to love in all life, is the desire for the truthful experience. After all, love that is not truthful is not love at all. This quote from the Gita actually came up during a Google search of love quotes for a different paper:

"There is neither this world nor the world beyond nor happiness for the one who doubts."

This quote did not immediately scream love for me, but after thought I conceded that love is closely tied with trust, with truth, and that happiness, love, cannot truly be achieved while there is doubt involved.

As I have discovered the Gita as the Book of Useful Bits (Sometimes Big Bits) of Wisdom, this other quote jumped out at me in my search for quotes about truth and love:

"There is nothing lost or wasted in this life."

Another quote that is not immediately love, rather more of a reminder to be grateful; yet, it reminds me of the Tennyson quote:

"'Tis better to have loved and lost,

Than never to have loved at all."

In Memoriam: 27

Finally, another quote, this one from Hamlet, that reminds me of love...and truth...yet is not obviously love and truth...

"This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man." (1.3)

There is no love without truth; that is an epiphany, for me.