There are two kinds of love: one, the love of a slave; the other, which must be acquired by work.
The first has no value at all; only the second has value, that is, love acquired through work. This is the love about which all religions speak. If you love when “it” loves, it does not depend on you and so has no merit. It is what we call the love of a slave.
You love even when you should not love. Circumstances make you love mechanically.
Real love is Christian, religious love; with that love no one is born. For this love you must work.
Some know it from childhood, others only in old age. If somebody has real love, he acquired it during his life. But it is very difficult to learn. And it is impossible to begin learning directly, on people.
Every man touches another on the raw, makes you put on brakes and gives you very little chance to try. Love may be of different kinds.
To understand what kind of love we are speaking about, it is necessary to define it. Now we are speaking about love for life. Wherever there is life-beginning with plants (for they too have life), animals, in a word wherever life exists, there is love.
Each life is a representative of God. Whoever can see the representative will see Him who is represented. Every life is sensitive to love.
Even inanimate things such as flowers, which have no consciousness, understand whether you love them or not. Even unconscious life reacts in a corresponding way to each man, and responds to him according to his reactions.