What is True Love

The concept of "True Love" is as hard to define in words as any other mighty concept such as truth, beauty, and even God. This is because you can never see it with your eyes, you can never touch it with your hands, your physical senses fail to perceive it; but you know it exists.

Infatuation or mere attraction involves care for one's own self-interest. You feel attracted to some one who has got something that interests you. So you want to get closer to that person in order to enjoy more and get more pleasure in their company.

The problem is, once you find someone even more interesting, you will naturally feel more attracted to him/her. This is why so many people nowadays don't want to get into marriage and try to live together without any societal bond till they either find true love in that person or find someone better.

True love on the other hand, involves sacrifice of self-interests for the sake of comfort of the one you love. Actually you don't need reciprocity in a relationship to expect LOVE. I mean, it doesn't need two to share the feeling or return mutual feelings of care to each other in order for it to be called "love". That would become trade of interests or feelings (you love me, I love you.... you no longer love me?, we better separate...). A single soul is enough to experience true love. And believe me, one person can share true love with all the living or inanimate things of the universe and still remain single.

Sounds strange? That’s because we have become so accustomed to taking “love” in the same meaning as the act of “lovemaking” which requires a couple. But that’s not true. Remember that true love is not…is never… a trade. Its not “give and take”, its giving without any expectation of taking something back in return. For humans, true love is rare but not impossible. And often times it does get triggered by initial attraction towards someone. But there is a difference of life & death between initial attraction and true love.

Somewhere down the road to attraction there’s a wall of fire (any problem that comes your way). You have to pay a big price in order to get past this wall of fire: “YOUR SELF”. Some people find that they can not afford to pay such a great price. They turn back and try to find some one else.

Very few accept this challenge. The fire burns their whole existence; every impurity, every earthly desire, every self-interest; every thing dirty. What comes out on the other side of the wall of fire is purity and selflessness. The person is the same, but altogether different now. Pure, honest, free, whole! This is the state of true love.

True love is not merely having some good time, its LIVING after sacrificing oneself. Its not mere enjoyment, it is FINDING JOY IN PAIN. Its not like a bed of flowers, its like a burning coal that burns eternally but GIVES OFF SCENT NONETHELESS. Love is the most beautiful of all the human feelings and experiences. It transforms a person and takes him/her to a higher level of existence; a level beyond physical limitations of mortals. True love LIVES forever.