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No question of love

Bhagavad-gita As It Is

BG Chapters 7 - 12

In this material existence, I may be engaged in some service to some master, but I don't really lovingly serve my master. I simply serve to get some money. And the master also is not in love; he takes service from me and pays me. So there is no question of love.
BG 12.9, Purport:

In this verse, two different processes of bhakti-yoga are indicated. The first applies to one who has actually developed an attachment for Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, by transcendental love. And the other is for one who has not developed an attachment for the Supreme Person by transcendental love. For this second class there are different prescribed rules and regulations one can follow to be ultimately elevated to the stage of attachment to Kṛṣṇa.

Bhakti-yoga is the purification of the senses. At the present moment in material existence the senses are always impure, being engaged in sense gratification. But by the practice of bhakti-yoga these senses can become purified, and in the purified state they come directly in contact with the Supreme Lord. In this material existence, I may be engaged in some service to some master, but I don't really lovingly serve my master. I simply serve to get some money. And the master also is not in love; he takes service from me and pays me. So there is no question of love. But for spiritual life, one must be elevated to the pure stage of love. That stage of love can be achieved by practice of devotional service, performed with the present senses.

Srimad-Bhagavatam

SB Canto 3

In the material world there is no question of love. Marriage is actually a duty performed in mutual cooperation as directed in the authoritative scriptures for spiritual advancement.
SB 3.14.19, Purport:

By the Vedic injunction, the wife is accepted as the better half of a man's body because she is supposed to be responsible for discharging half of the duties of the husband. A family man has a responsibility to perform five kinds of sacrifices, called pañca-yajña, in order to get relief from all kinds of unavoidable sinful reaction incurred in the course of his affairs. When a man becomes qualitatively like the cats and dogs, he forgets his duties in cultivating spiritual values, and thus he accepts his wife as a sense gratificatory agency. When the wife is accepted as a sense gratificatory agency, personal beauty is the main consideration, and as soon as there is a break in personal sense gratification, there is disruption or divorce. But when husband and wife aim at spiritual advancement by mutual cooperation, there is no consideration of personal beauty or the disruption of so-called love. In the material world there is no question of love. Marriage is actually a duty performed in mutual cooperation as directed in the authoritative scriptures for spiritual advancement. Therefore marriage is essential in order to avoid the life of cats and dogs, who are not meant for spiritual enlightenment.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

CC Adi-lila

The predominated gopīs were bound to Kṛṣṇa in such pure love. For them there was no question of sexual love based on sense gratification.
CC Adi 4.165, Translation and Purport:

The desire to gratify one's own senses is kāma (lust), but the desire to please the senses of Lord Kṛṣṇa is prema (love).

The revealed scriptures describe pure love as follows:

sarvathā dhvaṁsa-rahitaṁ saty api dhvaṁsa-kāraṇe
yad bhāva-bandhanaṁ yūnoḥ sa premā parikīrtitaḥ

"If there is ample reason for the dissolution of a conjugal relationship and yet such a dissolution does not take place, such a relationship of intimate love is called pure."

The predominated gopīs were bound to Kṛṣṇa in such pure love. For them there was no question of sexual love based on sense gratification. Their only engagement in life was to see Kṛṣṇa happy in all respects, regardless of their own personal interests. They dedicated their souls only for the satisfaction of the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. There was not the slightest tinge of sexual love between the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa.

Other Books by Srila Prabhupada

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Unless there is realization of the transcendental form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no question of love of God.
Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 23:

Unless one is freed from the influence of material energy, he cannot understand the Supreme Lord and His different energies. Nor can one who is captivated by the spell of material energy understand the spiritual form of the Supreme Lord. Unless there is realization of the transcendental form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no question of love of God. Unless one can realize the transcendental form of the Supreme Lord, he cannot actually attain love of God, and without love of God there is no perfection in human life. Just as the five gross elements of nature—namely earth, water, fire, air and ether—are both within and without all living beings in this world, the Supreme Lord is both inside and outside this existence, and those who are His devotees can realize this.

Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead

Kṛṣṇa said, "My dear friends, persons who simply reciprocate the loving dealings of the other party are just like merchants. They give in loving affairs as much as they get from the other party. Practically there is no question of love. It is simply self-interested or self-centered business dealing."
Krsna Book 32:

In answer, Kṛṣṇa said, "My dear friends, persons who simply reciprocate the loving dealings of the other party are just like merchants. They give in loving affairs as much as they get from the other party. Practically there is no question of love. It is simply self-interested or self-centered business dealing. Even those without a tinge of loving affairs are better than these merchants. Better than the first class is the second class of men, who love in spite of the opposite party's contrariness. Such sincere love can be seen when the father and mother love their children in spite of their children's neglect. The third class neither reciprocate nor neglect. They can be further divided into two classes. One comprises the self-satisfied, who do not require anyone's love. They are called ātmārāma, which means they are absorbed in the thought of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and so do not care whether one loves them or not. But another class comprises ungrateful men. They are called callous. The men in this group revolt against superior persons. For instance, a son, in spite of receiving all kinds of things from loving parents, may be callous and not reciprocate. Those in this class are generally known as guru-druhaḥ, which means they receive favors from the parents or the spiritual master and yet neglect them."

Lectures

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

We have forgotten our relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Therefore there is no question of love at the present moment. But we can develop this love by this process, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam.
Lecture on BG 9.27-29 -- New York, December 19, 1966:

This śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam (SB 7.5.23), the class which we are holding, that you are hearing and I am speaking, this is the beginning of love of God. Unless we hear of God, ādau śraddhā. You gentlemen, ladies, you come here with some faith. So this faith is the basis of developing love. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo 'tha bhajana-kriyā tato 'nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt (Cc. Madhya 23.14-15). So we have forgotten our relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Therefore there is no question of love at the present moment. But we can develop this love by this process, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam. Bhajanti. Bhajanti means bhakti. Bhakti. The beginning of bhakti, or devotional service, is to hear, is to chant and hear. Unless there is chanting, there is no question of hearing. Hear means somebody must be chanting. Either we chant with musical sound or we chant by lectures of Bhagavad-gītā, this is all chanting. And the others, they are hearing. So this hearing and chanting is the beginning of bhakti, or devotional service. Here it is recommended, ye tu bhajanti māṁ bhaktyā. Anyone who with devotional love begins this service of hearing and chanting...

Then there is no question of love, that is another thing, but if you actually want to love Kṛṣṇa, where is the difficulty?
Lecture on BG 9.34 -- August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French farm):

Prabhupāda: Happiness means also love. Either you love your family or your country or your society or your wife, your children, by loving there is happiness. But this loving process is not giving us happiness. We are becoming frustrated. Therefore the real lovable object being Kṛṣṇa, if we make progress to that point, then we shall be happy. This is the point. Mām evaiṣyasi asaṁśayaḥ (BG 18.65). So if this is concluded, then where is difficulty to execute Kṛṣṇa consciousness? That is my point. Now it is concluded that if we come to Kṛṣṇa and love Him, then that is the highest perfection of our life. Now to attain that highest perfection of life, where is the difficulty? That is the point I am asking.

Bhagavān: Only if one is envious of Kṛṣṇa.

Prabhupāda: Huh? Then there is no question of love, that is another thing, but if you actually want to love Kṛṣṇa, where is the difficulty?

Devotees: There is no difficulty.

Prabhupāda: That is my point. (laughter) If you don't want to love somebody, then there is no question of process. But if you know, by loving such and such person you'll be happy, then there is process and the process is very easy. And open to everyone. That is my point. Now discuss on this point.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Kāma means lust. There is no question of love. And love ... Prema and kāma is described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta.
Lecture on SB 2.3.1-3 -- Los Angeles, May 22, 1972:

This very word love, prema, is specially reserved for Kṛṣṇa. Premā pum-artho mahān. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's preaching, that the highest perfection of life is to evoke one's dormant love for Kṛṣṇa.

The love is there. It is reserved for Kṛṣṇa, but due to our foolishness, we are distributing that love in so many ways, up to the dog. This is called illusion. We do not know where to apply love. If you see, all these words is touched with the word kāma, kāma. Kāma means lust. There is no question of love. And love ... Prema and kāma is described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. What is prema and what is... prema and kāma. Ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā tāra bali kāma (CC Adi 4.165). Kāma. What is lust? Ātmendriya-prīti, to satisfy one's own senses. That is kāma. Here, a boy and girl love. They say "love," but no, it is not love. The boy wants to satisfy his senses, and the girl wants to satisfy her senses. That's all. Therefore, ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā. Everyone is trying to satisfy her own senses. That is kāma. Lust. And then, what is prema? Kṛṣṇendriya-prīti-icchā dhare prema nāma. When the same propensity is transferred for satisfying Kṛṣṇa's senses... just like gopīs.

The word "love" can be engaged only in relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, there is no question of love.
Lecture on SB 7.6.3-4 -- San Francisco, March 8, 1967:

Devotee: Swamijī, seeing as how sorrow and happiness are there by nature's law, wouldn't these be an impediment to our devotional service?

Prabhupāda: No, for a devotee that is not impediment, because he's transcendental to distress and happiness. Spiritual activities are transcendental, ahaituky apratihatā. Ahaitukī: spiritual activities is not done under any cause. We love Kṛṣṇa not with a cause. Just like here in the material world, I love a girl for sense gratification, or I love a boy for sense gratification. There is a cause. And as soon as the cause is disturbed, oh, the love is disturbed, there is impediment. But love of Kṛṣṇa is without cause. It is spontaneous. Therefore there is no impediment. Because the word "love" can be engaged only in relationship with Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise, there is no question of love. So when the love, love of Kṛṣṇa is transcendental, there is no material impediment.

You may be rascal, you do not believe, but those who are dhīra, they believe. They believe. If you have love for Kṛṣṇa... There is no question of love or no love. This is the fact.
Lecture on SB 7.9.54 -- Vrndavana, April 9, 1976:

So if we are sincerely Kṛṣṇa conscious, if we believe Kṛṣṇa... We have to believe. You believe or not believe, the words of Kṛṣṇa cannot be false. That's a fact. You may be rascal, you do not believe, but those who are dhīra, they believe. They believe. If you have love for Kṛṣṇa... There is no question of love or no love. This is the fact. So one has to become... This is the ultimate goal of life, that one has to become dhīra, not like cats and dogs, jumping here and there. That is not human life. That is dog life.

yasyātmā-buddhiḥ kuṇape tri-dhātuke
sva-dhīḥ kalatrādiṣu bhauma-ijya-dhīḥ
yat-tīrtha-buddhiḥ salile na karhicit
janeṣu abhijñeṣu sa eva go-kharaḥ
(SB 10.84.13)

These classes of men, yasya, whose life is bodily conception... "I am body." "I am a Hindu," "I am Muslim," "I am brāhmaṇa," "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am..." The whole world is fighting on this because they are all crazy, not dhīra. This is the modern civilization. Yasyātma-buddhiḥ kuṇape. This is a bag of bones and flesh and blood, and they are thinking that they are, they are this body. So wherefrom the living force coming if you are this body? Because as soon as the living force is gone, the body is useless, a lump of matter. So do you think this lump of matter is giving life? But they are not dhīra. All rascals, they cannot understand. The word is very important. Dhīras tatra na muhyati. How the rascals will understand? Therefore our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to educate the rascals, that's all.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

The Supreme Lord is person, and His innumerable lovers, living entities, they are also individual persons. Love means there is person, individual. Without individual person, there is no question of love.
Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 22.11-15 -- New York, January 9, 1967:

So those who are eternally liberated, they love Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they are perfect in the spiritual world. 'Nitya-mukta'-nitya kṛṣṇa-caraṇe unmukha, 'kṛṣṇa-pāriṣada' nāma. They are all associates. The Supreme Lord is person, and His innumerable lovers, living entities, they are also individual persons. Love means there is person, individual. Without individual person, there is no question of love. When I, when the word "love" is used, there must be two lovers. Then the word is applicable, love. If there is no person, love is not with the air. There must be person. So the Supreme Lord is person, and the lovers, the living entities, they are also persons. They forget who is God, who is not God, but the central focus is in Kṛṣṇa. Everyone loves Kṛṣṇa. Without seeing Kṛṣṇa they are mad. This is the position in the spiritual world. Simply love Kṛṣṇa, that's all. Bhuñje sevā-sukha. And by loving, as we have got a little perverted experience of love affairs, so just imagine when that love is pure and true, how much pleasure there is. So that thing is there in the spiritual world, pure love. And object is Kṛṣṇa. Therefore they are so much in bliss...

General Lectures

If I do not know you, you do not know me, when we live ten thousand miles away, there is no question of love. Love means when there is intimacy. So to understand God is very difficult.
Sunday Feast Lecture -- Atlanta, March 2, 1975:

So every human being should accept this mercy of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and that is the purport of the verse Rūpa Gosvāmī first offered to Lord Caitanya, that namo mahā-vadānyāya: "You are the most munificent incarnation." Why? Now, "You are distributing Kṛṣṇa-prema, love of Godhead. People do not know what is God, and You are distributing love of Godhead." One cannot love anybody unless he knows the other party very well or very intimate dealings. Then there is question of love. Love, there is no question of love. If I do not know you, you do not know me, when we live ten thousand miles away, there is no question of love. Love means when there is intimacy. So to understand God is very difficult.

Philosophy Discussions

If you want to love God then you must accept God is a person; otherwise there is no question of love. Therefore for the Māyāvādī philosopher there is no question of love.
Philosophy Discussion on Jacques Maritain:

Śyāmasundara: He says that this is..., because of this spiritual personality that he can know and love God.

Prabhupāda: Yes. Without person how there can be love? There is no question of love. You cannot love air or sky; you must find out a man or woman in the, under the sky. So therefore if you want to love God then you must accept God is a person; otherwise there is no question of love. Therefore for the Māyāvādī philosopher there is no question of love. They merge. They want sāyujya-mukti, to become one. They have no other conception, because they cannot conceive personal God. So there is no love. Therefore they manufacture an idea that in the material condition of life, you just imagine any form of God and love Him, and ultimately you become one. That is their philosophy.

These are all imagination. When woman, when she is misguided, she becomes dangerous. There is no question of love.
Philosophy Discussion on Auguste Comte:

Hayagrīva: And he considered woman, or all women, to be what he called "The spontaneous priestess of humanity. She personifies in the purest form the principle of love upon which the unity of our nature depends." So the woman is to act almost like the brāhmaṇas, in being a priestess or in charge of the, of the religion of man, being that she's dominated by the heart.

Prabhupāda: These are all imagination. When woman, when she is misguided, she becomes dangerous. There is no question of love. But one thing, according to Vedic conception life, that women and children are on the same level, so they should be given protection by men. In childhood the protection is from the father, in youthhood the protection is from the husband, and in old age the protection is from the grown-up sons. So they should never be given independence. They should be given protection, and their natural love for father or for husband or for children, then that propensity will grow very smoothly, and that will establish the relationship with woman and man very happy, and both of them will be able to execute their real function, spiritual life, by cooperation. The woman is known as his better half, so if she looks after the comfort of the man, a man is working and he is looking after the comfort, then both will be satisfied and their spiritual life will progress. Woman is meant for certain duties; man is meant for... Man is meant for hard working, and woman is meant for homely comfort, love. So both of them, if they are situated in their respective duties under proper training, then this combination of man and woman will help both of them to make progress in spiritual life.

Conversations and Morning Walks

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Just like a shopkeeper does also like that. He flatters the customers in so many ways to sell goods so that he can make some profit. So there is no question of love.
Morning Walk -- April 22, 1974, Hyderabad:

Satsvarūpa: The other important point is that we love God not for getting some reward. You say that the other important thing is that this person claims to be pious, but he approaches God for material reward.

Prabhupāda: Yes, that is business. That is not love. I go to somebody and flatter him to get something. Just like a shopkeeper does also like that. He flatters the customers in so many ways to sell goods so that he can make some profit. So there is no question of love.

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

My wife was eleven years. So in this age there is no question of love. It is not that the husband and wife lives together, no. Unless the girl is grown up, she is not going to the husband. She remains with the father and mother.
Morning Walk -- November 2, 1975, Nairobi:

Prabhupāda: My eldest sister, she was nine years old, older than me, and she was married before my birth. And my mother-in-law was married at the age of seven years, and my father-in-law was eleven years. I was married... My wife was eleven years. So in this age there is no question of love. It is not that the husband and wife lives together, no. Unless the girl is grown up, she is not going to the husband. She remains with the father and mother. Sometimes they meet, and the wife is taught, giving some sweetmeat to the husband-official. Official. The parents of the girl: "Just go up to your husband and offer this." So she comes as obedient servant. But gradually they get the connection. In this way the love develops, and when they are fifteen, sixteen years old, they are allowed to live together. Because both of them have already developed that "She is my wife," "He is my husband," psychologically.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

A boy, a girl or a man, a woman in relationship of love but it breaks as soon as the lusty desire is not fulfilled. So here there is no question of love. It is all lusty desire. Real love can be achieved when it is exchanged with Kṛṣṇa, or God.
Evening Darsana -- July 13, 1976, New York:

Prabhupāda: There is an example. In a water tank you throw one stone. It becomes a circle. And the circle expands, expands, expands unless the circle comes to the shore. Similarly our loving affair begins from personal self to family, from family to society, community, nation, international. But still, it is imperfect unless the circle reaches to the lotus feet of God. Then it is satisfied. Svāmin kṛtārtho 'smi varaṁ na yāce (CC Madhya 22.42). Here, any loving affairs, that is more or less lusty. A man or woman love each other with some desire, not without desire. That desire is sense gratification. But actually that is lust not love. Pure love can be exchanged in relationship with God. Here there are temporary... A boy, a girl or a man, a woman in relationship of love but it breaks as soon as the lusty desire is not fulfilled. So here there is no question of love. It is all lusty desire. Real love can be achieved when it is exchanged with Kṛṣṇa or God. Premā pum-artho mahān, that is the recommendation given by Caitanya Mahāprabhu. That is the highest (indistinct) when we come on the loving platform with God, then we are satisfied.

Page Title:No question of love
Compiler:Labangalatika
Created:05 of Apr, 2011
Totals by Section:BG=1, SB=1, CC=1, OB=2, Lec=9, Con=3, Let=0
No. of Quotes:17