love

[Guest guest]

Camp: Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Persian Gulf, Transit lounge.

 

> Well I had a question for you Maharaja. I was wondering if there is love

> in the material world? Like between Household couples. Or is it all

> mundane? Some devotees have told me it is complete maya and others have

> told me that there can be love as long aa they keep Krsna in the center.

> I was wondering your opinion on this matter.

 

It is said the love of a parent for the child is the closest thing to pure

love. Especially Mother to child. The problem there is that still it is

based on bodily consciousness. When the identification is based on the body

then even if sometimes a very selfless kind of love develops it is also not

fully pure since it is also a kind of illusory thing. The person really

isn't the body! Usually some mix of personal sense gratification is mixed

with it and in some cases there is practically no love but only desire for

personal gratification. The attachment between household couples can

contains some degree of selfless affection and love, but as we can

practically see it varies from one relationship to another. When it is

based on Krishna consciousness then the purity of the love can be deeper

since one actually cares about the person and sees the person as an embodied

soul. Of course, since there is also physical attraction in marriage and

physical desires these add a whole aspect of material lust to the formula.

Now that lust or love or attachment in marriage isn't forbidden. Rather it

is promoted since that is the whole process of marriage. Put that attachment

to one person in a bond of marriage and not let it be uncontrolled in lusty

relationships with many partners. In that relationship on can have an

optimum level of spiritual concern and love for the person also and to

varying degrees these attachments can be somewhat selfless an pure. That

training is unfortunately lacking in Krishna consciousness and often the

relationship is allowed to degenerate to something very physical and lack of

sense gratification directs someone to another partner out of marriage or

divorce.

 

So something can be there to different degrees, but hard in relation to Lord

Sri Krishna and His devotees it is possible to have pure love based on total

reality since there is no conflict of interests. What is good for Him is

also good for us. We can be totally trying to please Lord Sri Krishna

without any personal desire for material sense gratification, but

spiritually since we are part of Lord Sri Krishna we are satisfied fully.

Also we the soul love Lord Sri Krishna the Supreme Soul which is an eternal

reality. The body's are changing, but our eternal relationship with Lord

Sri Krishna never changes.

 

It is said that the love of the spiritual master for the disciple is purer

and more selfless than the love of a material parent for the child. It isn't

something so extraordinary for a parent to care about his/her child since

some bodily relationship is there, but the spiritual master as the spiritual

father caring about his disciple isn't limited or conditioned by a material

bodily relationship and its motive isn't some bodily attachment due to

relationship of parenthood or something. It is simply based on pure love

and mercy to bring the conditioned soul out of material nature and back to

Lord Sri Krishna's lotus feet.