Q: What Does Love Seek?
According to Sri Aurobindo, love seeks for two things, eternity and intensity. In his chapters on Yoga of Divine Love (ordinarily referred to as Bhakti Yoga in the Indian tradition) in his work ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’ he writes that this seeking for eternity and for intensity is instinctive and self-born in the relation of the Lover and Beloved (CWSA, Vol. 23, p. 569). This relation is the basis of the religion of the Vaishnavas, the yearning of the human soul for the Supreme Beloved.
We see such seeking of love also manifesting in the human lovers. When a person first falls in love with another, that love is highly intense at the beginning. And of course, never for a moment does the person think that this love will not last forever. The common phrase “happily ever after” is reflective of this seeking for eternity and intensity.
Rama’s lament for Sita after she is kidnapped, as presented by Rishi Valmiki in the Aranya Kanda of Ramayana is a wonderful example of such deep intensity and eternity that love seeks.