What do attachment and expectation do to love?

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

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, the main two enemies on the path of love that always stop one from moving forward are attachment and expectation, and they both lead to suffering and it takes a lot of guts and effort to stand up and walk again on the path of love.

Acharya Prashant (AP): Is it really so difficult? Why have you come here? You haven’t come here to reinforce your attachments and expectations, have you? You very well know that when you come here, attachments will dissolve, expectations will be exposed. Right? But you have still come here, haven’t you? So, there is something bigger than the preservation of attachment and expectations, and that is why you are here. Your very presence here is proof that you value something more than attachments and expectations. Right? So why aren’t you talking of that real thing? Why are you talking so much of A and E?

Had you really valued A and E more than the real thing, then you would have proven your inclination through your absence. Your absence from this place would have proved that you are determined to preserve your A and E. After all, this is not a place to cultivate A and E, is it? But you have arrived here, right? And in arriving here, you have overcome something. Now, why are you glorifying that which you have already overcome?

It’s like defeating somebody and then wondering aloud, “How overpowering the enemy is?” Hello! The enemy is lying broken and defeated at your feet. Why are you singing his paeans and thereby resurrecting him? In fact, if A and E get to hear that they have a big fan in this hall, then they will rise from the ashes. Like the boxer motivating his fallen opponent, “Come on, get up! Please!”

It’s been around an hour now, you have not only tolerated what has been said but probably also reveled in it. Right? If nothing else, then the last one hour is proof sufficient that there is something beyond the little insecurities, the attachments, the clingings, the cravings, the ego, and such things. So why must we unnecessarily stoke small fears?

Q: It’s a process of life…