What is love? (1)

Nisargadatta Maharaj in «I Am That.»

Questioner: What is love?

Maharaj: When the sense of distinction and separation is absent, you may call it love.

Questioner: In love there must be duality, the lover and the beloved.

Maharaj: In love there is not the one even, how can there be two? Love is the refusal to separate, to make distinctions. Before you can think of unity, you must first create duality. When you truly love, you do not say, «I love you.» Where there is mentation, there is duality.

Questioner: Between the spirit and the body, is it love that provides the bridge? M: What else? Mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it.

Maharaj: What else? Mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it.

Questioner: What can make me love?

Maharaj: You are love itself – when you are not afraid.

Questioner: Why is there so much suffering in love?

Maharaj: All suffering is born of desire. True love is never frustrated. How can the sense of unity be frustrated? What can be frustrated is the desire for expression. Such desire is of the mind. As with all things mental, frustration is inevitable.

Questioner: In all the universe is there one single thing of value?

Maharaj: Yes, the power of love.

Read «I Am That» as PDF here.

Back to Overview

Share this post via