The secret thing about love

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Love has nothing to do with

the five senses and the six directions:

its goal is only to experience

the attraction exerted by the Beloved.

Afterwards, perhaps,

permission will come from God:

the secrets that ought to be told will be told

with an eloquence nearer to the understanding

of these subtle confusing allusions.

The secret is partner with none

But the knower of the secret:

in the skeptic’s ear

the secret is no secret at all.

~ Saint Rumi

Questioner (Q): (Question read by Acharya Prashant) Acharya Ji, kindly explain this.

Acharya Prashant (AP): It is very clear right in the beginning that, limited or sensory or worldly attraction is not being talked of. The verse begins with a negation, a clarification, a qualification; it says:

Love has nothing to do with

the five senses and the six directions

What are the five senses? The world. What are the six directions? Space. So, we are not talking of mundane, corporal, bodily, brick and mortar love here; we are talking of the very defining property of who you are, we are talking of the essence of who you are. Who you are, is thirsty; the one, who is listening, talking, is seeking, is desirous.

He is called living but he is actually dying to quench his thirst. The one that you are, had he been material, then material could have quenched his thirst. To half a circle, add the other half and the circle is complete. It is possible to bring completion to material by adding to it, more material, suitable material. But the thirsty one is not really of this world; his body arises from soil and…