One can't plan marriage or dating.

When Koena Mitra said, “One can’t plan marriage or dating,” she spoke not as a cynic, but as a sage who has learned the deep truth that love does not yield to the designs of reason. Her words carry the ancient echo of the universe’s rhythm—reminding us that some of life’s greatest joys are not constructed, but discovered. In an age that measures all things by schedules and strategies, this declaration stands like a flame in the wind, illuminating a forgotten wisdom: that the heart follows no blueprint, and that destiny laughs gently at those who try to write its map.

For what is love, if not the art of surrender? The ancients understood this well. The Greek philosopher Plato spoke of love as divine madness, a sacred force that unites souls in ways beyond the grasp of intellect. When one tries to plan it—to dictate when and how affection should bloom—they strip it of its magic. Marriage and dating are not transactions to be arranged, but journeys to be encountered. They belong to that wild realm where chance and fate weave their patterns unseen. To plan love is to build a cage for a bird meant to fly.

Consider the tale of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, whose meeting reshaped empires. Neither sought love; neither planned alliance of the heart. Yet in the meeting of their eyes, politics bowed to passion. History remembers not their caution, but their surrender to something greater than themselves. So too, Mitra’s words remind us that the most profound unions arise when we least expect them. The heart does not obey calendars—it awakens when touched by mystery, by timing only the cosmos understands.

There is also humility in her words. To say that one cannot plan love is to admit that life itself cannot be mastered. Many wish to design every chapter of their lives: to choose when they will love, when they will marry, when they will find peace. But time, the great teacher, humbles such pride. The river of existence flows where it will, and our task is not to dam it, but to learn to swim within its currents. The wise do not control love—they prepare themselves to receive it when it comes.

This truth carries a deeper call: to trust. To trust that what is meant will arrive, even if unseen, and that what departs was never ours to hold. Patience and faith are the guardians of the heart. For the one who tries to force connection finds only emptiness, while the one who tends to their soul with gentleness becomes ready for love’s arrival. As the farmers of old knew, one cannot command the rain—but by tilling the soil and waiting with hope, one welcomes its blessing when the season turns.

So what, then, should one do? The lesson is clear: live fully, and let love find you in the living. Do not delay your growth while waiting for the perfect partner, nor shape your path around imagined certainties. Instead, build your character, your compassion, your art, your laughter. When love comes, let it meet you at your strongest, not your most expectant. And if it tarries, know that even solitude can be sacred, for it is in solitude that the soul learns to love itself.

Thus, let Koena Mitra’s words echo as a mantra for every heart that seeks control over what was never meant to be controlled: “One can’t plan marriage or dating.” Love is not a project, but a pilgrimage. It comes not to those who chase it, but to those who walk their path with open eyes and steady faith. For when the heart ceases to demand and begins to trust, the universe—in its quiet timing—will send the one who was walking the same path all along.