Love is always dedicated to the purpose of liberation, whereas desire forgets the highest and remembers only the object. If, in the process of love, desire, or attraction, you find that you have never lost sight of the Truth — rest assured, you are loving. But if the object becomes so dominant that you have totally forgotten the Truth, know that this is not love.
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Questioner: Being Easter Sunday, a Bible quote comes to mind that “God is Love.” And you also said a lot about love today. So, my question is, one kind of confusion comes to mind, that there is a Buddha story also that Lord Buddha is sitting at the gates of heaven refusing to enter until everybody has entered before him and only then he is going to enter.
So today you also threw light on the difference between Desire and Love. My question, little confusion comes, does love need to have an object? Because for desire definitely there is an object and obviously, I have not experienced that love ever, so it is very hard for me to visualize or imagine love without an object.
Acharya Prashant: Okay, please listen to this very carefully. The difference between desire and love is that for desire the object is the purpose, desire has an object, so has love. But for desire an object is equal to purpose, for love the object is suited to the purpose of liberation. For desire the object becomes the purpose, for love the purpose is always liberation and the object is just the means to get liberation. That liberation could be your own, that liberation could be somebody else’s, liberation is liberation. Liberation is something impersonal, right?
