Spiritual love - definition
Definition
In the beginning
love is Attraction.
This is the weakest art of love.
By longer association with the object of attraction,
this grows and becomes Afection .
As the attracting qualities further persist and increasingly emerge
and one has further association with the "object" of afection
than increases the afection and becomes Attachment,
which is one's own consciousness e.g. Krishna Consciousness.
When one is attracted to a certain Person,who is hurt by another Person,
one feels himself hurt, due to one's attraction for the hurt Person,
and this offense act as a barrier for being attracted to the offender.
A bad person, conditioned by the Material Mode of Nature of Ignorance, is never attracting to a good person, who is conditioned by the Material Mode of Nature of Virtue and usually also backwards.
Thus is the so called Love for all a Myth.
When one gets so far to feel himself at the same distance to everyone and everything concerning this world, that means when one has destroyed his False Ego, through which one identifies with the current role one plays in the curent life,
than one has no more attraction for things or persons of this world
and one attains the state of Peace of Mind - Shanti.
In this state of mind one can better turn one`s attention to the Transcendental Lord.
In this Connection Sri Caitanya, a form of krishna said
sādhana-bhakti haite haya 'rati'ra udaya
rati gāḍha haile tāra 'prema' nāma kaya (Caitanya Caritamrita - Madhya Lila, Kapitel 19.177)
Through devotional practice one develops afection (for Krișna) - haite sādhana-bhakti haya ratira
And as this afection is awakened, it becomes thick (consistent) it is called divine love - gāḍha haile tāra rati kaya nāma prema
And so one attains the level when just a moment without the loved one,
seems to be thousands of years of sadness - this is love.
Love expresses itself through the desire to make the loved one happy.
Material love
In the material reality of the world we are living in,
when one says "I love you", the meaning is
"I want you make me happy" and
"You belong to me"
And this is not love but
the desire to use "the loved one" for one's own pleasure,
that considers "the loved one" as
one's own possession
So when one says "I love you",
one declares, I want to enjoy whatever you are and have, and this is the opulence of the object of love:
Beauty (șri)
Wealth
Power
Knowledge,
Fame and
Renunciation.
All these can be found in their complete form in Șri Krișna.
When one is not anymore satisfied by the beloved one, because
- the object of love cannot provide the opulence that one got some time before and/or
- one's own attachment or consciousness has changed
than these lead to inevitable reproaches and scandals.
The spiritual love
Has the transcendental Lord Șri Krișna, or one of His forms as object of love
On this level there are
- neither negative Changes of the qualities of the beloved transcendental Lord,
- nor changes of one's attachment for the transcendental Lord, because one
attained the absolute level of Pure Virtue state (shuddha sattva).
One does not meet the spiritual love. The spiritual love is learned through the process of Sadhana Bhakti.
That part of the Transcendental Knowledge known as Prema Tattva, describes
1. the transcendental beloved transcendental Lord,
2.the tastes of transcendental love,
3. and the way one can attain it.
One of the most important ways to attain progress on the path of love, is to hear
about the opulence of Șri Krișna, or one of His forms.
In Gaudiya Vaishnavism, as Sri Caitanya preached it, is to hear only about the
opulence of Sri Krishna, as it is delineated in His pastimes in Vraja,
as when one gets to the meditational path- raga-anuga-sadhana bhakti.