In response to a question about the difference between love and romance, Acharya Prashant begins by asking what similarity there is between the two. He states that the romance of a 14-year-old is almost the same as that of a 34-year-old. He defines love as being sacrificed for the truth, whereas romance is making a lie your life, and questions what could possibly be common between them. Acharya Prashant explains that what people understand as romance is based on fleeting, cinematic images. It is a fantasy where a special person, like an angel or a fairy, is expected to bring immense happiness and erase all of life's shortcomings and sorrows. This feeling is a compensation for a life full of flaws, inadequacies, and unfulfilled desires. He describes the life of a common person as being filled with suspicion, timidity, weakness, and violence, and romance is seen as the cure for this. This entire concept is a mechanical, pre-conditioned behavior. People are taught from a young age what romance is supposed to be, and they follow a script. He humorously illustrates this with the line, "If 'I can't live without you, darling,' then happy," pointing out the programmed nature of such interactions. He traces the origin of this thinking to the philosophy of Romanticism, which emerged in Europe as a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment. Romanticism prioritized emotion and imagination over reason and fact. This philosophy, he argues, is a reaction against the Industrial Revolution, yet romance itself is a highly mechanical act. It is based on a pre-determined set of actions and dialogues. He further explains that romance is inherently violent because it thrives on the differences between two people, particularly gender differences. The more you see the other as different, the more violence arises. This is why a man doesn't eat another man but eats an animal, seeing it as a different species. In contrast, love is when you see in the other what is exactly like yourself. It is based on recognizing the fundamental sameness and shared existential restlessness. He offers a formula: love is when you sit with someone and forget their gender. If someone's presence makes you more conscious of your gender identity, it is not a good relationship. The person who arouses your sexual identity is not good for you, and this is precisely what romance does. He concludes that romance is the feticide of love; it doesn't even allow love to be born. Most people live their entire lives, even through marriages and affairs, with romantic memories but without a single moment of love. Romance is merely licking the dust off the surface of an entity, while love is about discovering the treasure within.