We might love someone so much, but then death separates us, inevitably it’s like that. At a wedding ceremony this is declared, “I promise to love you until death do us part. So, it’s already built in, “I love you until we are parted by death.” So, it’s temporary and it doesn’t fulfill us completely anyway. And then we’re so sad when our loved one leaves, which is normal, yes, of course. But in the life or realm of spiritual love, true spiritual love, which is filled with vision, true wisdom: I don’t see my wife, or my husband, or my children, or my parents, or my friends as an object of my pleasure, I don’t see them as the bodies.
Another dilemma arises. Say I am attracted to a person because their body’s very beautiful but time takes that beauty away. That body that was so beautiful before, now is losing its luster. It starts getting fat, wrinkled, can’t perform the functions it used to, “Oh, I used to love you. Now I don’t. I’m not attracted to you anymore.” Everybody’s in anxiety about that, “How can I keep that attraction so my husband won’t run away for some young thing?” You see, it’s a very, very big source of anxiety, because it’s all lust.
When there’s love, it’s not a problem; these things are not like that because you’re not loving the body, you’re loving the spirit soul in the body. So, if you have two people both receiving the love that they need from their relationship with the Supreme, sharing that relationship with each other, they’re happy. They’re happy because their hearts are filled with happiness. This person is not the source of happiness. Another person, another jiva soul (or spirit soul) cannot make us happy, they can’t. Only the Supreme Lord makes us happy. So, it’s all a losing battle: they can’t make me happy, I can’t make them happy.
See, in the beginning here’s a person, “Oh, this object is so beautiful.” So we play our game, “I’ll make you happy. Don’t worry, you will be with me – you will be happy, I’ll take care of you. But it’s not true. And then we’re disappointed, “Oh, I thought you were going to make me happy. Hey, I am not happy. Come on! What?” So, then there’s anxiety, problems.
But if we know the truth and we’re honest, we tell the truth, “Look, I can’t make you happy but you and I together can connect to the source of happiness. We’ll both be happy and then we can happily have our life together.” This is on a spiritual level. This is real. Death comes – no big deal, no problem. They’re not your source of happiness. It’s not like, “I’m going to die without you!” No, I’m not going to die without you. I’m going to die but not because of that. We’re all going to die.
It makes life so different.So, so different! Relationships – so different, families – completely different. Everybody’s fulfilled, everybody’s actually satisfied with life. We’re not walking around burning with lust. And, again, lust starts so, so sweet. But it ends like poison, becomes so poisonous. Whereas true (spiritual) love is ever increasing in bliss, in happiness. This is what we need.
The drug manufacturers on the street, they’ve tried to have a substitute for this, “Let’s make a drug that will make it so we feel so very happy and we’ll love everybody.” So, they put the chemicals together and came up with the drug that so many young people very much like now called ecstasy, “Ecstasy! I am in ecstasy, I love you…” You see, there was a town in America where this drug became very popular early. people were taking ecstasy and falling madly in love. So, somebody made a bumper sticker, it said: “Do not get married for at least three days after taking ecstasy.” “I love you, I love you!” and then the drug goes away, “Oh, man… Good bye!” You see, there’s no substitute for spiritual love, no substitute.