On violence, the death penalty, the Buddha, love.. and the tragedy of love..

The terrorist Kasab was hanged in India recently. Was that the right thing to do to him? Philosophers have debated both sides of the death penalty question for centuries, from Kant onwards.. but they have all missed the point.. (all except One, that is..) because they have asked the wrong question. The right question to ask is: was that the right thing to do to ourselves? The Buddha saw many centuries ago that the perpetrator of violence is always punished, not in the next world, but then and there – he becomes less of a human being, than which there can be no greater punishment. It is not out of compassion for the other person that we should abjure violence, it is out of compassion for oneself. The experience of love, of being in love, provides a different view of the same phenomenon. Whom does love benefit? It is the lover who is transformed, who is exalted, who is touched by the divine – not the one he loves. To the other person, it makes no difference whatsoever – if anything, it is an embarrassment and a burden. Which is why it is rightly said that the joy of love is in giving, not receiving.. Now to the tragedy of love.. what is the tragedy? Not Romeo and Juliet killing themselves, that is mere stupidity. The tragedy of love is this – what the lover wants is to make a difference to the one he loves, to make him/her feel the same joy/exhilaration he feels as a lover – and he can’t, because it is not up to him at all. That is tragedy, real tragedy, because it is irredeemable..