Crab, Centipede and Love

There is a famous Aesop parable about a centipede. A crab saw a centipede and could not believe his eyes. One hundred legs! – how could one manage? Which one to put first and which one next and next and next? You have to continuously remember otherwise they will get intertwined, entangled in each other, knotted into each other and you will fall! The crab must have been a great philosopher. He asked the centipede ’Sir, can I ask a question? How do you manage? – one hundred legs! It must be a constant trouble and puzzle for you. I have been watching you. Just looking at you walking I became so puzzled: which one to put first and which one to follow?’ But the centipede had never thought about it. He said ’I have never thought about it and nobody has asked me about it. I will think about it and then I will tell you.’

He started thinking; but then he could not take a single step! He wavered and fell. He was very angry at the crab and he said ’You fool! Now I will never be able to walk, I will be worried which leg to put down first. It has never been a worry: things were being managed somehow, nature was doing the trick. Now you have made me self-conscious, you have destroyed my harmony!’

It is a beautiful parable. This is what has happened to man.

The more man becomes civilised, the less loving he becomes, because civilisation is a discipline of calculation and love cannot exist with a calculating mind. Civilisation is an effort to improve upon yourself. There are a few things which can be improved, and there are a few things which are already perfect and cannot be improved; and love is that kind of thing.

The mind can be improved: one can go on improving the mind and polishing it, and one can go on accumulating information; there is no end to it. It is said that a single human brain can contain all the information that is contained in all the books existing on the earth this moment. A single human brain can contain all the libraries of the world. That immense possibility is there. Hence man can be educated as far as the mind is concerned.

But love is already perfect. It is a perfect gift, there is no way to improve upon it. If you try to improve upon it you may destroy it; that’s how it has been destroyed. You cannot teach a fish a better way of swimming – or can you? It is already perfect. You cannot teach a bird a better way of flying; it is already perfect. If you try to teach a fish how to swim and you send her to a school to learn swimming, every possibility is that you will kill the fish. The poor fish will be killed by your education; you will confuse her.

Love cannot be improved upon, it is already perfect. This has to be understood. You need not learn loving. All that is needed is: forget all that you have been taught about love and you will be able to love.