Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati says, “The discovery of love is more understanding what it is and what it is not. Once you know what it is, it can be guarded and nursed.”
Ramifications of Love
Love undergoes different ramifications. It becomes compassion when the object of loves requires consideration, some consolation or help from you, and you respond because that person deserves help. From compassion, love turns into service. It creates a condition within you to help you understand yourself. There can be love only when there is understanding, otherwise love cannot sustain.
You may marry because you love someone, or marry and discover love later. Either way, marriage will be rewarding only if there is understanding. Love is the basis for understanding. Love is only when you free yourself from your agenda for the other. Unless you drop your agenda, you cannot understand another. Loves paves the way for this understanding.
Unfortunately, we do not understand what love is, not even relative love. In absolute terms, love is ananda. It is a manifest form of atman, the wholeness of atman which is why love accommodates, because it is whole. Since it accommodates, any omission or commission on the part of the other does not cause concern.
- Excerpted from – Discovering Love—Swami Dayananda Saraswati