What is the difference between love and affection? Osho explained the difference between the two in a viral video.

Osho told what is love and if it is true then why are there conditions in it? There is a lot of difference between love and true love, because love can be expressed on many levels. When love is manifested in its purest form – without reason, unconditional – then a temple is built. And when love appears in its most impure form, like lust, like exploitation and violence, like jealousy, hatred, dominance, possession, then it becomes a prison.

The meaning of prison is: from which you want to get out but cannot. The meaning of prison is: which burdens your personality like a bondage from all sides, which does not give you development, hangs on your chest like a stone and drowns you. The meaning of prison is: inside which you yearn to be free and cannot be free; The doors were closed, there were chains on the hands and legs, and the wings were cut off. The meaning of prison is: above which and beyond which no way can be found.

Temple means: whose door is open; If you want to go out in the same way as you came in, there should be no restrictions, no one should hold your feet; There should be as much freedom to go out as there was freedom to come in. You may not want to go out of the temple, but the freedom to go out is always there. You want to go out of the prison every moment, and the door is closed! And there was no way out!

The meaning of temple is: One who takes you beyond yourself; Where encroachment can occur; Which always gives the facility to move higher and higher. Even if you are in love with someone and the beginning was impure; But as the love deepens, the purity also increases. Even if love is physical attraction; But as soon as the journey of love begins, love ceases to be an attraction of the body but becomes a pull between two minds, and by the end of the journey, there is no longer any pull of the mind, it becomes a union of two souls.

The love in which you can finally see God is a temple, and the love in which you cannot believe in anyone except your animal is a prison. And love can be both, because you are both. You are both an animal and God. You are a ladder, one end of which rests with the animal and the other end of which rests with God. And it is up to you whether you go up or down the ladder. There is only one ladder, the name of that ladder is love; Only the direction will change. You will go away from me by descending the same stairs by which you came to me. The stairs will be the same, you will also be the same, the legs will also be the same, the power of the legs will be used the same way as it is used for coming, everything will be the same; Only your direction will change. One direction was when your eyes were looking up, towards the sky, and your feet were following your eyes; The other direction would be, your eyes would be on the ground, towards the lows, and your feet would be following it.

Generally love reduces you to an animal. That's why people have become so afraid of love; We are not afraid of hatred as much as we are afraid of love; There is no fear of the enemy as much as there is fear of a friend. Because what harm can the enemy do? There is a huge distance between you and the enemy. But a friend can do a lot of harm. And the lover can destroy you completely, because you have given him the opportunity to come so close. A lover can take you down to hell. That's why people in love get their first glimpse of hell. That's why people run away from the world of love, become fugitives. Religions all over the world have taught: Avoid love. What would be the reason? The reason is that it has been seen that ninety-nine out of a hundred only drown and get destroyed in love.

There is no mistake in love; It is the mistake of those who drowned. And I tell you, those who went to hell through love will also go to hell through prayer, because prayer is a form of love. And those who used to come down the ladder of love at home will also come down the ladder of prayer in the ashram. The real question is not about changing the ladder, nor about running away from the ladder; The real question is to change one's own direction.

So I do not tell you to leave the world and run away; Because those who run away get nothing. The one who ran away leaving the ladder, one thing is certain that he will not be able to go down to hell; But the second thing is also certain that how will one rise to heaven? You live in danger, the Sanyasi in safety; He closed his way of going to hell. But at the same time the way to go to heaven was also closed. Because they are two names of the same ladder. Sanyasi, one who has run away from the world will not remain in misery like you, this is certain; But the possibility of happiness that you could have had was also lost. Suppose you are in hell, but you can be in heaven – and by the same ladder by which you descended into hell. Ninety-nine out of a hundred people go down, but this is not the fault of the stairs; This is your mistake.

And blaming the ladder by not changing oneself, criticizing the ladder by not doing one's own self-revolution is a deep foolishness. If the ladder is taking you down towards hell, then know for sure that this same ladder will be able to take you towards heaven. You have to change direction, not run. What will be the change of direction?

When you love someone – be it mother, father, wife, lover, friend, son, daughter, anyone – the quality of love is one; Whom you love is not a big question. Whenever you love there are two possibilities. One thing is that you want to dominate the person whom you love, or the one you love, through love. You began your descent into hell. Where love becomes possession, where love becomes attachment, where love brings dominance, love is no more; A trip gone wrong. You want to be the master of the one you have loved; It was just a mistake. Because whoever you become the master of, you have made him a slave. And when you enslave someone, remember that he also enslaved you. Because slavery cannot be one-sided; That's a double edged edge. Whenever you enslave someone, you will also become his slave. It may be that you are sitting high on the chest and he is lying down; But neither can he leave you and run away, nor can you leave him and run away. Slavery is mutual. You are also tied to the one whom you tied. The bond is never one-sided. If you wanted to dominate then the direction started downwards. Freeing the one you love; May your love be his salvation. The more you free it, you will find that you are becoming freer, because freedom is also a double-edged sword. When you free those close to you, you are also freeing yourself; Because the one whom you freed, you destroyed the way to enslave you. What you give is what you get in return. When you abuse, it rains abuses. When you give flowers, flowers return. The world echoes. The world is a mirror in which you see your own face in thousands of forms.