The Mathematician and Love

Once there lived a man,
A brilliant mathematician,
His world was full of logic and equations.
He loved everyone around him,
Loved everything around him,
He kept loving… and loving…

But soon, a worry crept in—
Was his love being returned?
Was it all one-sided?
“What a fool I’ve been,”
He thought to himself.
His love turned to pain,
The pain became agony,
And agony, in time, became hatred.
Liking turned into disliking.

He tried solving the puzzle mathematically,
Tried deriving an equation
To balance “Love,”
To make LHS equal RHS.
He applied all the theorems he knew—
But nothing worked.
No Pythagoras, no differential calculus
Could solve this.

Then, by chance, he saw a child smiling,
Smiling at every stranger who passed by.
Some smiled back, many did not.
Intrigued, he turned to non-mathematical things
To solve his puzzle.
A smile… care… sympathy… empathy…
Generosity… tears.
They made sense,
But none of these fit into an equation.
None of these expected anything in return.
None sought reasons or justification.
They were simply soft connections
Between the giver and the receiver—
In some cases, the receiver didn’t even know the giver.

Now, he had his answer:
Love, by its nature, is unconditional.
It demands nothing in return,
Not even love itself.

Love is love only when it’s free of expectation.
It’s true identity lies in non-reciprocity—
Like God’s love for mankind,
Like rain falling on everything and everyone.
True love, therefore,
Is known only to the one who loves,
But never to the one who is loved!