Only the ego loves; only love kills the ego || Acharya Prashant (2019)

Acharya Prashant

18min

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Only the ego loves; only love kills the ego || Acharya Prashant (2019)

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, Pranam, “Love is an egocentric manifestation: The Essential Oneness of all life has no room for love.”

~Wei Wu Wei

Acharya Ji, kindly shed light on this quote. In my first camp, I asked ‘How to be loving’, without knowing what that word meant. Now, I know what my definition of love is: ‘Give me what I want'. As situations change, my love, too, disappears. It comes and goes according to the fulfilment or rejection of my demands. The cycle continues. Now, a little sensitivity has arisen towards people around me. Acharya Ji, please put some light on what I should do, so that I feel the same pain as I feel for myself whenever I do something selfishly. It's not right to expect or burden others to act according to my will.

Acharya Prashant (AP): So, two things: First, the quote, “Love is an ego-centric manifestation: The Essential Oneness of all life has no room for love.” And then she says, “What should I do so that I feel the same pain as I feel for others, whenever I do something selfishly?”

Love is an ego-centric manifestation. The Essential Oneness of all life, there is no love. So, what are we referring to here? We are talking of the usual, normal, ego-centric love. The author is simply saying that the ego cannot love. The ego can want, cling, extract, exploit, expect, hurt and get hurt, but the ego just cannot love.

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