People become clingers, and the more you cling to the other, the more the other becomes afraid. The other wants to escape because there is a tremendous inner need to be free. The desire for freedom is higher than any other desire, deeper than any other desire. So one can even sacrifice love, but one cannot sacrifice freedom; it is not in the nature of things. Nothing can be done about it. Hence the real bliss can happen only in your aloneness.
Aloneness is an art, the whole art of meditation. To be utterly centered in one’s own being without any desire for the other, without any hankering for the other; to be in such a deep rest with oneself that nothing else is needed, is aloneness. It brings eternal bliss. Once you have it, you can enjoy your love also because then you need not depend on the bliss that comes through love — you already have it. Then love has a totally different dimension, a different flavor, a different quality to it. It is sharing, it does not create bondage.
Hence meditation is first and love is second.
