In plain words
Worldly Prema expects a return. It brings selfish pleasure; Prema of this kind seeks a result of some other sort. But God's Prema expects nothing else. Only Prema can match Prema. Nothing besides that; no other thing comes up to Prema. So this principle of Prema that nothing can equal is the Prema of God. Now, what is worldly Prema like? You all know it. A young lad was married. On the third day after the wedding they were out walking in some park. But the young man saw a thorn in the park. When he saw the thorn: might his wife step on that thorn? Might some harm come to his wife? With a Prema that thought so, he caught his wife by the arm and pulled her back, crying, ‘Thorn, thorn, thorn!’ For at that time his wife had become his life. That is just why he pulled her back so anxiously. But this same Prema, this same couple: some six months later they are walking in another park. There again a thorn caught the eye of the husband himself. By then this anxiety had eased a little. ‘There's a thorn; watch where you walk,’ he said. A year after that, when they went back to the same park, a thorn was there. But this Prema had dwindled. ‘Can't your eyes see? There's a thorn. Get back!’ he said. This is worldly Prema: as the years go by, it wears away little by little. God's Prema: not merely through the years, not through the ages alone; however many births may change, Prema stays Prema, and nothing else. This is eternal Prema, this is sweet Prema; His words are sweet, His deeds are sweet, everything of His is sweetness itself. That is just why the Gopīs of that day said, ‘Madhurādhipate rakhilaṃ madhuram, madhuram.’ They could not bear that separation from Kṛṣṇa. They wandered all over Bṛndāvana. ‘Where is Kṛṣṇa?’ they asked, searching. Whatever flower they saw: ‘O flower! Have you seen my Gopāla?’ they would ask. They never once thought whether a flower could ever see Kṛṣṇa. What does that mean? The flowers too see God, who is everywhere; the plants see Him, the branches see Him, the twigs see Him.