He wanted to paint the sun in all its possible phases. For one year he was continuously painting the sun. He was continuously standing in the open under the sun. His stomach was empty, he was hungry, and the sun was hot. He was continuously painting because there was not much time left. The sun drove him mad, it was too much. And then he committed suicide, because he had painted the sun from the sunrise to the sunset, all the phases, all the faces, all the colors, all possible clouds. He had done his work; he died contentedly.

Now, this love for painting, this love for art, is something higher – higher than biology, higher than chemistry, higher than physiology. It is not lust, you can’t call it lust. It is as passionate as lust or more so, because very few people die for a woman and very few people die for a man. But this man died for his paintings. This is psychological; this is far better.

But there is a still higher state: the spiritual love, the love of Buddha, the love of Jesus, the love of Krishna. It is totally different. It is not even aesthetic, psychological; it is spiritual. Now love has the expression of compassion; passion has turned into compassion. Buddha loves the whole of existence, because he has too much and he has to share it. He is burdened by the love released in him; the love has to be shared with the trees, with the birds, with people, with animals, with whosoever comes by.

At the lowest when love is just lust, physiological, it is an exploitation of the other; it is using the other as a means. Soon it is finished. Once you have exploited the woman or the man you lose interest; the interest was only for the moment. The moment the woman is well-known to you, you are finished with her. You have used the other human being as a means, which is ugly, which is immoral. To use another human being as a means is the most immoral act in existence, because each human being is an end unto himself.

Psychological love knows how to sacrifice. The art, the poetry, the painting, the music, the dance, becomes the end, they are no longer means. You become a means. The biological love reduces the other to a means; the psychological love raises the other as the end.

But in the spiritual world there is no question of means and ends, there is no question of the other; there are not two. Buddha loves existence because Buddha has become existence itself. There is no question of “I” and “thou,” it is not a dialogue. At the point of the ultimate consciousness love is not a dialogue; there is no I–thou relationship, it is not a relationship. It is pure overflowing of love.

Prem Jyoti, that is the meaning of your name: Prem means love, Jyoti means flame. A buddha is a flame of love, just pure flame with no smoke. The smoke comes from lust. When there is no lust, when you don’t want to get anything out of your love, when you simply want to give, when you feel obliged because others accept your love, the flame is without smoke. It is pure, it is pure gold.