UPBUILDING THE SELF

The Misunderstanding of Love

Most of us think we have a pretty good idea about what love is. After all, we have all been seeking it our entire lives. And yet, the reality is that most of us don’t really understand it at all. Inspired by recent insights from the Upbuild weekly program Remembering Who We Are, Vipin, Rasanath, and Hari Prasada delve into the concept of love as the highest form of motivation. They shed light on why most of us misunderstand love, how we tend to reduce or dismiss love, what we use as our substitutes for real love, and the conditions that need to be present for the experience of real love.

Podcast Hosts: Vipin, Rasanath, and Hari Prasada

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform

Highlights

  • [01:40] The Four Levels of Motivation

  • [07:30] Level 4: Love

  • [08:40] The rampant misunderstanding of love

  • [12:00] Our motivations for love 

  • [14:40] Defining love according to the Bhakti tradition

  • [18:00] Qualifications for talking about love

  • [19:30] Unmotivated, uninterrupted and unalloyed

  • [23:00] What most of us think love is

  • [27:00] The unconditional nature of love

  • [31:40] Cheapening our experience of love

  • [36:40] The dismissal of love

  • [39:10] Radhnath Swami

  • [41:30] How to experience true love

  • [42:30] Hari Prasada’s fight against Soren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death

  • [50:10] Love as a spiritual subject

Quotes

  • “This desire to love and to be loved is [always] there. It's…present in a very abstract way, moving us to form relationships, to form connections, to do things…It's so primary.” - Rasanath

  • “We possess a love that is buried deeply in our hearts, and no one will argue that the purpose of life is to love and to be loved.” - Hari Prasada

  • “Love is not for the ego. It's not for the mind. It's not for the body. It is for the self.” - Hari Prasada

  • “It's said that every act is a crying out for love. Even the most horrible violence is a crying for love. And there's truth to that.” - Hari Prasada

  • “We are unwilling to pay the price of what it takes to achieve pure love, which is the complete dissolution of the ego.” - Rasanath

  • “What is love? It's actually selfless service to all living beings out of boundless affection.” - Hari Prasada

  • “Most people, including myself, don't always think about love as a spiritual subject. And what I'm really taking away from this conversation is that love is only a spiritual subject.” - Vipin

For first timers, welcome to Upbuilding the Self

About the podcast: Two former monks, a former startup founder and CEO, and a former equity derivatives trader dive into how to be our best selves, free from the ego. Our egos are the identities we create for ourselves and wish the world to validate, but when we are not seen as we want to be, we feel insecure. This podcast lives at the intersection of leadership and spirituality. It will help you understand your ego and shed light on your inner world so that you can act with greater clarity, compassion, and the freedom to be your best self.

We also have three upcoming programs. Please reserve your spot ASAP.