Attachment Is Poison, Love Is Nectar
A Sadhak's Question - What is the difference between attachment (āsakti) and love (prem)?
Shri Maharaj Ji's Answer -
Within the body are the ten senses, the mind, the intellect, and the soul. Collectively, the senses, mind, and intellect are referred to simply as "the mind."
At every moment, your intellect, according to its present state, determines the direction of your mind. The mind then directs the senses, which act accordingly. As a result, the traveler - the soul - moves in that same direction.
There are only two possible directions: one towards the East, the realm of God, and the other towards the West, the realm of Māyā.
The realm of Māyā includes the entire material world, which is of two kinds:
- Inert objects - such as food, drink, wealth, possessions, and other material objects.
- Conscious beings - such as one's mother, father, spouse, children, relatives, and all living beings who are themselves bound by Māyā.
When the mind becomes attached to anything belonging to either of these two categories, it is called attachment or āsakti. The result of such attachment is endless wandering through the cycle of 8.4 million life forms, accompanied by sorrow, restlessness, dissatisfaction, incompleteness, and bondage. It is like poison. Therefore, it is condemned in the scriptures and is called 'preya' - that which appears pleasant but ultimately leads to suffering.
The second realm is the divine realm, consisting of God and God-realized saints. God's names, forms, pastimes, qualities, abodes, and His saints all belong to this realm. When the mind becomes attached to any of these, it is called love or prem. This love is nectar. Through it, one attains immortality, eternal divine knowledge, and everlasting divine bliss. This is called shreya - that which leads to one's highest welfare.
The difference between attachment and love is immense - they are complete opposites.
As Gaurāng Mahāprabhu said -
kāma aṃdhatama, prema nirmala bhāskara
Attachment is like the deepest darkness, whereas love is like the radiant sun.
People in the world often say to one another, "I love you," yet they do not even know the true definition of love. Love is the very nature of God. What people ordinarily experience is not love but attachment - and that too directed towards the wrong object.
The human birth is exceedingly rare, even for the celestial beings.
Think about it: even when your meals are prepared and waiting for you at home, you still experience sorrow. Then imagine the suffering of a dog, cat, or donkey. Animals spend their entire day wandering merely to satisfy their hunger. They have no permanent home, no protection from the heat, cold, or rain, and no certainty of finding food. Despite enduring such hardships, human beings capture them and exploit them for their own comfort, using horses, bulls, cows, and buffaloes for labor, often beating them to serve their selfish ends.
You have passed through these very life forms countless times. If you do not practice devotion in this rare human birth, you will once again have to enter those same species. Reflect on the magnitude of that suffering.
Loving God is no different in principle from loving someone in the world. Lailā loved Majnū; Meerā loved Shri Krishna, and the Gopis loved Shri Krishna. They possessed the same senses that you do.
If you surrender your body, mind, and soul to the material world, you will receive only worldly results. But if you offer them to God and His saints, you will transcend Māyā and attain eternal divine bliss and divine knowledge.
The act of surrender is the same. Only the object of your surrender changes, and therefore the result changes. You gradually acquire the qualities and power of the one you love. It is as simple as that.
Every soul is bound to love someone. If not today, then tomorrow, you cannot escape this. The mind cannot remain without attachment. Whatever or whoever your mind is attached to at the time of death, that is what you attain after death.
Therefore,
śreyaḥ ādadānasya sādhu bhavati
He who chooses shreya - who directs his love towards the divine realm - attains the supreme goal. The fruit of such love is eternal divine bliss.
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