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Don't let love turn into a relationship || Acharya Prashant, archives (2013)
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3 years ago
Love
Relationship
Mind
Society
Expectations
Freedom
Insecurity
Marriage
Description

Acharya Prashant responds to a question about love turning into a relationship and causing problems. He begins by stating a fundamental truth: whenever anything turns into a relationship, it goes bad. He explains that love is a particular quality of relating that happens in the present moment. It is not a concept of the mind but something absolutely new, unplanned, and without a background. When love happens, it is like a tornado that throws you off your feet. It is something fresh that rejuvenates you and makes you feel young and beautiful. However, this beautiful experience of love is often turned into a relationship by giving it a name. A relationship, unlike love, is dependent on the past and is limited. The moment you declare a relationship, such as husband and wife, you already have a concept in mind, and the relationship becomes dead. The speaker quotes, "Lovers die, and on their corpses, husbands and wives are born." Love cannot have a name or be a fixed relationship. The mind, being insecure and unable to tolerate the freshness and uncertainty of love, seeks to formalize it into a relationship, thereby killing it. This process of turning love into a relationship is what causes suffering. Society hates lovers but loves husbands and wives, encouraging marriage even if love is absent. Once a relationship is established, it brings expectations and a definite code of conduct. For example, a wife is expected to take care of her husband, which is a duty, not love. Love is absolute freedom; you are not compelled to love. In relationships, individuals are lost, and only the images or roles, like 'father' and 'son', remain. This is why there is so much suffering in relationships, as they are not between two individuals but between two roles. The speaker advises to let love be like a wild flower that grows freely, without trying to capture, freeze, or limit it, because doing so will only leave you with a dead skeleton.