Swati Chopra

In recent times the date February 14 has become synonymous with Valentine’s Day, which has, for all practical purposes, become a day for celebrating romantic love around the world. As has happened with festivals like Christmas and Diwali, Valentine’s Day, too, has become increasingly commercialised, with everybody from lingerie manufacturers to jewellery companies and restaurants launching aggressive marketing strategies to turn the expression of love into yet another consumerist extravaganza. The deluge of advertising encouraging one to buy something — a diamond necklace or a chocolate cake or flowers... as a mark of love deafens us to the many interesting possibilities the day offers us.
Historically, several early Christian saints named Valentine were collectively commemorated on February 14, but gradually the myth of one came to overshadow all others. In the 3rd century AD, when the Roman Empire was attempting to suppress Christianity, St. Valentine was a priest in Rome who secretly performed marriage ceremonies for Christian soldiers forbidden from marrying. He was eventually executed. Though one can conjecture that this was one way in which he, along with other early Christian martyrs, resisted persecution of their faith, but it was his enabling of marital unions, at the cost of his own life, which led to his being associated with romantic love in the centuries that followed.
In the mystical literatures of the Indian subcontinent, romantic love has often been wrapped in layers of meaning that elevate it beyond the mundane and into the realm of cosmic consciousness. In epic folk poems like Shirin-Farhad and Laila-Majnu, offshoots of a medieval cultural milieu steeped in Sufi and Bhakti ideals, devotion for the human beloved can be seen as a metaphor for the soul’s yearning for union with the Divine. The obstacles the human lovers face are but enumerations of the travails that any spiritual seeker must undergo to reach the ultimate goal of sublimating the self in the larger Self — cosmic super-consciousness.
Often, devotional poetry is written from a feminine perspective, even if the poet is a man. A case in point is the 13th-14th century poet Hazrat Amir Khusrau, an ardent follower of the Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya. In his famous poem Chhaap Tilak, he speaks eloquently of the miracle of communing with a spiritual friend, in this case his guru Nizamuddin Auliya, using the metaphor of marriage. “Mohe suhagan kini re, mose naina milaike” (“You have made me your bride, just with a glance”), says Khusrau, indicating the depth of mystical communion with an enlightened master that was greatly valued in Sufi thought as a link that would ultimately enable a direct connection with God.
Quite fortuitously, February 14 comes at a time when north India heralds spring, or basant — a festival much loved by the Sufis and celebrated at all Sufi shrines with poetry and music. So this Valentine’s Day we have the option of celebrating love in all its dimensions — human as well as divine.

Swati Chopra writes on spirituality and mindful living. Her most recent book is Women Awakened:
Stories of Contemporary Spirituality in India.
Website: www.swatichopra.com