I was watching “Never Have I Ever” on Netflix about teenage love(why I watch it at fifty is a story for another time), and a particular scene made me realize how easy it is to confuse Love and Attachment, and I am not talking about teenage kids. I am talking about grown-up adults who think of both as the same. The source of confusion lies in the fact that to an inexperienced person, they both feel the same. The heart swells in Joy, and we feel this adrenaline rush making us feel high on life, etc., but attachment is not Love. It cannot be — because the former is a human emotion, and the latter is divinity itself.
‘Love is God.’ I am sure we all have heard but probably never experienced it as such. Love is an all-encompassing entity. It sure gives us a high like attachment does, but that’s where the similarity ends. Love, as does attachment, doesn’t bring us down violently and crush us ruthlessly. Attachment is born out of selfishness, and Love out of selflessness.
Love in its true sense cannot be experienced by most people. It is not a feeling, as most of us have understood it to be. Only genuinely spiritual people, far removed from the pettiness of being a human, having scaled the heights of selflessness, are capable of experiencing how Love and God are one. This means if you realize what love is in its true sense, you realize God. That’s why God-realized saints are so loving. They know how to truly love without the boundaries of ‘me’ and ‘mine.’ If you can pinpoint a person you love, then know it’s not love. Love cannot be condensed to a person, place, or thing. If there is such a thing as an object of your love, it’s not love. This means that you are attached and will be heartbroken once this object you seem to love is taken away.
If one is attached, one is always fearful of losing one’s object of attachment, as this loss can be devastating. One can lose something without, but not something that springs spontaneously from within, which is why Love doesn’t give us a low. It simply cannot be taken away from us. Love is not something we do. Love is something we are.
The only way to know Love is to become selfless. A selfish heart cares only about what it can receive and starts loving an entity temporarily since that particular entity is currently the source of what it wishes to receive. The recipient considers this Love, but that soon turns into bitterness once the reception is blocked. Attachment is a two-way street. It needs reciprocation to survive. Love is one-way; it’s only about giving. Love is freedom; attachment is bondage. Love takes us to God; attachment leads us to hellish misery.
Attachment is the inter-play of our senses with our chosen objects, while love is divinity playing with itself. Attachment is weakness; love is strength. While attachment leans on the other to exist, love exists on its own.
Amazing post, Love is strength concludes it well