Second Necessary Criterion for True Love

Having said that the first criterion for true love is that it is not driven by any special quality of the beloved, the second necessary criteria for true love is that there should be no expectation of any sort from the person whom you love.

Expectation is the antithesis of love. If you expect anything from your beloved, then it is what you expect that you love and not the person itself.

There is no guarantee that your beloved one will fulfill all your expectation. They can't fulfill every expectation even though if they want to. Its simply not feasible and possible. Your love may decrease or even cease to exist depending upon the amount of 'love' on your expectation that is not fulfilled.

There is an inverse relationships between the intensity that you expect something and the decrease in love for the person from whom that expectation was denied. This is why I referred expectation as the antithesis of love.

This is another guideline to determine if you are in true love or not. Close your eyes and think what you expect from your love: care, good food, good behavior, security, kids, respect or even love. Will you still love him or her if you don't receive that? If no, then you're not in true love. Its possible that you are attracted or infatuated or...., but not in love. True love is not dependent on anything, at least not on expectations.

Basic Criteria for True Love

Uncountable fine minds have attempted to define love. One of them is Hindu Saint Narad. He has composed a small booklet of 84 verses and named it 'Narad Bhakti Sutra'. The literal translation turns out to be 'Formula of devotion by Narad'. No accurate date has been confirmed for this masterpiece but it is agreed that it dates back to more than a thousand years.Among his verses, this article will concentrate on the 54th one, where he lists various criteria for true love.

The basic criterion for true love is that it is not directed towards the subject due to any special quality. If the love is due to any quality such as beautiful face, attractive personality, wealth, fame, etc, then love will cease to exist if that quality is sheded by the subject being loved. In fact, This sort of situation can just be called attraction or infatuation if anything more.

The conclusion is that any love that is directed by any special quality cannot be labelled true love. It is said that nothing in this world is permanent but change. It is highly probable that one day, the special quality that attracted someone may change. And if this happens, the so called love will also change. The love was towards beautiful face, attractive personality, wealth, fame, etc in the first place and not towards the person who had that special quality.

This criterion of true love by Narad gives us a guideline to determine whether we really love someone or it is just a false alarm.