“The ghost of love” is a poignant metaphor that encapsulates the ache of longing and the bittersweet feeling of the lingering presence of the one you loved the most and lost at some point in life. This metaphor resonates with the emotional weight of true love, like a ghost, a presence that is felt but not seen, that lingers in the heart’s quiet corners, whispering of a cherished relationship that was once alive but has now passed away.
Memories, like the first kiss under the starry sky or the laughter shared over coffee, are not just memories. They are emotional residue, a complex mix of joy, sorrow, longing, and gratitude that lingers long after the relationship ends, a testament to the depth and complexity of love’s impact.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld said – “True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about, and few have seen.”
Many people pursue and claim to have experienced true love in life. Yet, they often fail to grasp its true nature. True love is not a common occurrence but an extraordinary and profound connection, as rare as a precious gem. Like a diamond in a sea of pebbles, its rarity makes it valuable and unique, a treasure to be cherished and revered.
One day, while humming my late mother’s favourite old Hindi song while sitting on her bed, I felt a faint rattle in the bed. I looked at her picture on the wall, smiled, and continued singing after a brief pause. Did the ghost of love make me feel her presence, or was it just my imagination? I don’t know. But yes, I felt that vibration and energy, and my tears rolled down. This unique feeling reflects love’s elusive, almost mythical nature, which seems mysterious, intangible and rare yet is often idealised. It also highlights imagination’s profound and influential role in our experience of love and loss.
Different forms of literature, art, and films have metaphorically interpreted ghost stories as accurate and affecting the living in good and bad ways. It explores the idea of love transcending death, time, or physical reality, often with haunting or ghostly overtones. Bollywood has frequently blended romance and the supernatural, making these themes popular in genres like Karz, Om Shanti Om, Bees Saal Baad, and Mahal. Let’s not forget the famous Hollywood movie Ghost, in which love transcends physical death, and the dead hero stays with his beloved until he helps bring his murderer to justice.
Regret can indeed feel like a ghost of love. It lingers in the heart and mind, reminding us of what once was or could have been. It often haunts us with memories of past choices, missed opportunities, lost love or moments we wish were in our hands to change. Just as love leaves a deep imprint on the human psyche, regret can remain a shadow, reflecting the enduring emotional weight of what has been lost or is left unfulfilled.
Memories can feel like ghosts in the sense that they may linger in our minds, often appearing unexpectedly and haunting us with past emotions or events. Like ghosts, memories are intangible but have a profound emotional impact. They may bring comfort, nostalgia, or sometimes even a tinge of pain over something unresolved.
Those crumbled paper notes found randomly in cupboards, those dried flowers found in the pages of old books, Deja vu of places, memories of an old song reminding a romantic alliance, etc, are like ghosts that enchant the mind and heart and push us back to the times shared and revered.
The people we love become ghosts, and we keep them alive inside us by repeatedly caressing them. These ghosts do not scare us but remind us of our strength to accept them without fear.
We place pictures of our deceased beloveds on our walls –
*This is out of Remembrance and Honour.
* For Comfort and Healing.
* To cherish your Legacy.
*For Inspiration and Motivation.
Their memories won’t fade away like a ghost in the mist—it will endure.
“Love isn’t where we hide our ghosts – Love is where we release them.”
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The blog”True love, a ghost-we talk about, Do we see? is scripted empirically on observations that one may find true as per one’s understanding. Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains-a quote written by Rousseau, symbolises bonding of a human being in all directions since his or her birth. Bonding becomes so thick and intense that it’s inseparable. Then, when one fine morning, if a close friend or a relative like parents, brothers or sisters leave us suddenly, it becomes unbearable. The bonding of love is so intense that it becomes difficult to think of anything without his or her absence. We start thinking that the deceased soul, whether it may be your close friend or some blood relative, is standing in front of you or sitting by your bed side. You immediately started a conversation with the soul.. It’s so natural that the person who has left this world is erased. You start thinking that he or she is alive and is listening your appreciations or complain if at all it’s there. A feeling of ghost who has taken the shape of your loved one, who has departed appears. It’s such a phenomenal experience that you try to stay in the mystic world for ever. But really it’s not happening.. The soul after sometime requests you that he or she has to leave inspite of your repeated requests to stay back.. In fact it’s presumption of mind that your loved one in the shape of a ghost is standing or sitting in front of you. Any other person may not see him or her. It is your feeling that makes you presume that your loved one is sitting as a ghost in front of you.. One thing is for sure that such soulmates or ghost are not making any harm to their relatives or friends.. They’re not evil souls Or ghosts.. Too good Sir..
Only a person who has experienced this feeling and the love can write such beautifully. I can totally relate to your thoughts after the loss of Radhika didi. No one can understand how deeply the loss of the loved one touches. The Feelings haunt like a Ghost in the true sense of it.
regards