View source for Actual fact is there is no love in this material world. That is false propaganda. What they call "love" here is lust only, desire for personal sense-gratification

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{{terms|"actual fact is there is no love in this material world. That is false propaganda. What they call"|"love"|"here is lust only, desire for personal sense-gratification"}}
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{{compiler|SharmisthaK}}
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[[Category:Actual Fact]]
[[Category:There Is No]]
[[Category:Love]]
[[Category:Material World (Prakrti)]]
[[Category:That Is]]
[[Category:False Propaganda]]
[[Category:What]]
[[Category:Call]]
[[Category:Love]]
[[Category:Lust]]
[[Category:Only]]
[[Category:Desire]]
[[Category:Personal Sense Gratification]]
[[Category:Pages Needing Audio - SHARMISTHA]]
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<h2>Correspondence</h2>
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<h3>1973 Correspondence</h3>
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You refer to the word "love" several times in your letter, but actual fact is there is no love in this material world. That is false propaganda. What they call "love" here is lust only, desire for personal sense-gratification.
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[[Vanisource:730430 - Letter to Lynne Ludwig written from Los Angeles|730430 - Letter to Lynne Ludwig written from Los Angeles]]
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Actual fact is that this material world is a miserable, negative place, full of danger at every step, duhkhalayam asasvatam, temporary abode of death, birth, disease and old-age, home of suffering and pain only. To come to that platform of understanding of things as they are, that is not a very common thing, and therefore such persons who attain to it, they are described as "great souls":
mam upetya punar janmaduhkhalayam asasvatamnapnuvanti mahatmanahsamsiddhim paramam gatah([[Vanisource:BG 8.15 (1972)|BG 8.15]])

This verse is spoken by Krishna, or God, Himself in Bhagavad-gita so who can be more final authority? That means that anyone who has understood that the material worlds are places of misery and temporaryness, duhkhalayam asasvatam, they never return here again, and because they are mahatmanah, the great souls, Krishna keeps them with Him, having qualified themselves to escape this nasty place by becoming His pure devotees. So the point is that to make advancement in spiritual life, everything material, unless it is utilized to serve and please Krishna, must be viewed with a pessimistic eye. We are not very much hopeful for any lasting pleasure or satisfaction for our deepest cravings within this realm of gross matter.

You refer to the word "love" several times in your letter, but actual fact is there is no love in this material world. That is false propaganda. What they call "love" here is lust only, desire for personal sense-gratification;

kama esa krodha esa, rajoguna samudbhavahmaha-sano maha-papma, viddhy enam iha vairinam

Krishna tells Arjuna, His disciple, that "It is lust only . . . which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of this world." In the Vedic language, their word for materialistic "love" as we call it at present day; "kama" lust for material desire, not love. The word for love, actually love we find in Vedas is "prema", meaning one's love of God, only. Outside God, there is no possibility of loving. Rather it is lusty desire the whole range of human activities, whatever and whenever, so long with this atmosphere of matter, the every activity of the human being—or any living entity—is based upon or given impetus, and thus polluted, by the attraction between male and female, sex-desire. For that sex-life, the whole universe is spinning round—and suffering! That is the harsh truth. So-called love, here, means "you gratify my senses, I'll gratify your senses," and as soon as that gratification stops: immediately there is divorce, separation, quarrel, hatred. So many things there are, going on under this false conception of love. Actual love means love of God, Krishna.

Everyone wants to repose his loving tendency in some object which is in his opinion worthy. So it is a question of ignorance only, poor fund of knowledge, where to find that Supreme Lovable Object actually worthy to accept and reciprocate their love. People simply do not know, there is no proper information. Anything material, as soon as there is some attachment, it will kick you upon the face, deteriorate, disappoint you—it's bound to dissatisfy and frustrate you, that's a fact. So these young boys in your country, and all over the world, they are accepting. "Yes, that is fact," and they are getting the right information from Krishna:

bahunam janmanam antejnanavan mam prapadyatevasudevah sarvam itisa mahatma sudurlabhah([[Vanisource:BG 7.19 (1972)|BG 7.19]])

"After many births and deaths, he who is actually wise surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare." Again Krishna uses the word mahatma, great soul. So these are not ordinary boys and girls, our devotees, that you have met, no. They are to be considered as actually wise, great souls, because they have experienced in so many births the miserable disease of material life and they have become disgusted. Therefore they are seeking higher knowledge, something better, and when they find Krishna and surrender unto Him, they become mahatma, actually in knowledge. This material world is just like a prison-house, a punishing place just to bring us to that point of becoming disgusted and surrendering at last to Krishna, going back to my original mature of eternal life of bliss and complete knowledge. So these devotees, that is their credit, they have done what is "very rare" amongst all men in the human society, sudurlabhah, very rare.
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