Love evolves upon earth like everything else. In its origin it is Divine but in its manifestation it is conditioned by the instruments and circumstances of earthly life. It is easy to see, for instance how love differs between the lower animals where it is primarily of the nature of mating and devouring. But in higher animals there is a sense of sacrifice, of care and attachment. In human beings again it begins with lust and attraction, possessiveness, jealousy and hate, then climbs towards attachment and affection. Going further it changes into sacrifice and even a complete self-giving, not just to a human but to an Ideal and eventually to humanity and to God even while He is unseen.
Thus love evolves growing in power and potency until it is restored into the original purity of Divine Love.
Sri Aurobindo describes it beautifully in Savitri:
And Love that was once an animal’s desire,
Then a sweet madness in the rapturous heart,
An ardent comradeship in the happy mind,
Becomes a wide spiritual yearning’s space.
A lonely soul passions for the Alone,
The heart that loved man thrills to the love of God,
A body is his chamber and his shrine.
Then is our being rescued from separateness;
All is itself, all is new-felt in God:
A Lover leaning from his cloister’s door
Gathers the whole world into his single breast.
Then shall the business fail of Night and Death:
When unity is won, when strife is lost
And all is known and all is clasped by Love
Who would turn back to ignorance and pain?’
