We cling to our dearest ones as if they were the realest: a mother, a child, a lifelong companion. Loving them is right. Yet Śrī Prem Prayojan Prabhu says: all of it is shadows. Our ties with parents and children, with husbands and wives, are reflections of prakṛti, the natural world; behind it stands the aprākṛta, the supernatural world, where the original lives. The warmth we catch in earthly love is only its glimmer. And the path leads further: the soul can move past even the reverent, majestic love of God into a bond with Him that is intimate and tender. The highest stage: the experience of love here is the fullest of all. Then our dearest ones stop disappointing us — in them we see news of the original.