Love and Hate (raag aur dvesh)

Our souls are tied to love and hatred since time immemorial....
These are the two kinds of 'mohneey' bonds (मोहनीय कर्म) that are most dangerous to our souls...
Love (राग) means the love you harbour for your family, friends and relatives, etc. but not necessarily animate, it also means your attachment to inanimate objects such as your new cellphone perhaps or the watch your father bought you on your 12th birthday. This love does nothing but draws your attention and focus to more towards outside (the worldly things) and less towards inside (your soul). And as such, is gets your soul tied with more karmas...

Hatred (द्वेष) is the negative emotion you harbour towards anybody, like the boy who beat you up in school today, or the iron where you burnt your hands yesterday. Your hatred is similar to your love in that it draws you away from inside.

Though it might be easier thinking that hatred is harmful for your souls, it is more diificult to think that love is too. And let me tell you, it is a bigger one, much bigger...
Love and hatred are two types of bonds. Of these, the bond of love is more fierce. Hatred is like an incoming bullet, you can see it, but love is like a hidden bomb; it is invisible, and even then, seems nice, and that is why, is more dangerous. Comparatively, its easier to remove hatred from one's life than it is to remove love. Most people live off their lives loving others and being loved.
Please note that here I do not imply the absence of love as hatred. When I say, the love towards your family, I do not mean that you should hate them. The ultimate feeling of 'samta' is the absence of both love and hatred, where you treat every living being in your life as another soul, with no love or hatred towards them whatsoever. That's why you should not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, etc. ever because all those people are souls just like you.

Allow me to illustrate a little more. A bee sits on a lotus and sucks on its delicious juices (nectar) to satisfy its senses. This bee 'loves' the nectar. The day goes by... as sunset draws near, the lotus slowly closes itself. The bee thinks... just one more sip, and then I'll fly away, just one more sip, just one more, just one.... And ultimately, due its love towards the nectar, gets itself entrapped in the lotus. Though it can make a hole through even wood, but it cannot make a hole through the lotus to come outside, because it loves the lotus, and it loves its juices. In the meantime, an elephant comes, plucks the lotus and eats it. Due to the fierce bond of love, the bee gets killed. Similarly, you are loving the worldly things, the things outside, getting yourself more and more attached to this world. Even if the bond is relatively weak first, you increase this bond of love over time so much, that it becomes too strong to come out of.
Another example... Daas loses his 20 year old son. The parents are heartbroken and crying out. This guy Bheem comes to sympathise.... "What are you doing Daas? You are an intelligent guy. Whoever takes birth has to die someday. Everyone is a passenger in this world, whosoever's station has come will have to get down. To cry over it is not advisable. A soul never dies. It is immortal. You could not have saved your son, so why cry? "

I hope this post was not too radical to you. After all, it is the truth, said by the ominscient tirthankaras. Please don't hate me... :-)