Devotees think about that term ‘prem’ (Divine love) very differently than ordinary people do. In the same way we think about friends, (devotees think) from a very different perspective than an ordinary person in the world does.
Regarding prem, we know that true prem, true love, is ‘dena dena’ (to give, to give). True love is to desire to see the happiness of the Beloved. And the type of love that we practice in the world is ‘lena lena’ (to take, to take). We desire to take; we desire to gratify ourselves through our association with the Beloved. We want to get our happiness by being with our Beloved. Sometimes, or a lot of times, we also have to give, but we give in order to take. We give because we know they also want to take. And if they’re not getting anything from us, then how are they going to give anything to us?
This is the love in the world, and we all know it. This is part of the tatva gyan (knowledge of spiritual truth) of being a devotee. You have to understand these things, because just knowing that there is true love in Radha Krishna is not enough because our mind is already attached to the world. So the mind also has to divert itself or get diverted from the world towards Radha Krishna by understanding the true nature of worldly love as well as the ultimate nature of Divine love.
So in the world, we know this type of romantic love. Well, it’s not even correct to call it ‘love’. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Ji says, the two are diametrically opposed.
अतएव कामे प्रेमे बहुत अंतर, काम अंधतम प्रेम निर्मल भास्कर ॥
Ataev kāme preme bahut aṁtar, kām aṁdhatam prem nirmal bhāskar.
Worldly love: Shree Chaitanya is not even putting the word ‘love’ on it. He calls it kām (selfish desire), his personal desire. That’s it. And ‘prem’ means ‘love between the devotee and Krishna’. So he says
“Worldly love, which is none other than personal desire, is like darkness, and the true love of Krishna, that is like pure sunlight.” ‘Nirmal bhāskar’ निर्मल भास्कर (pure, radiant illumination). So true love is only found in the Divine world.
