Question:Is it that love is already there? It has been forgotten, covered and perverted into lust for material pleasures?

Srila Gurudev: Yes. You will find in Bhagavatam, 11th canto, and also you better go through writings of Rupa Goswami. There you will find in Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, 64 kinds of devotional forms.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is speaking to Sanatana Goswami,

ebe sādhana-bhakti-lakṣaṇa śuna,
sanātana yāhā haite pāi kṛṣṇa-prema-mahā-dhana
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 22.104).

Now I am saying about the characteristics of sādhana bhakti. By sādhana bhakti you can get supreme wealth of Krishna Prem. Sādhana bhakti means devotional practice. By devotional practice you will get the highest objective, Krishna-prem.

kṛti-sādhyā bhavet sādhya-bhāvā sā sādhanābhidhā
(Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 22.105).

There it is written by Rupa Goswami, sadhya, the object end is bhava bhakti. That bhava we can get, but by practicing through the sense organs. We have got sense organs, we have to engage them for the service of Krishna and His devotees. kṛti-sādhyā bhav - That is called sadhana bhakti. nitya-siddhasya bhāvasya prākaṭyaṁ hṛdi sādhyatā.

Bhakti is self-evident. It is innate in the nature of every soul. It is not to be borrowed from somebody else. Every living being has got that. Now it is enveloped. It is to be awakened. For example, if all are sleeping, who can awaken? But if one awakened person is there, he can awaken thousands of sleeping persons. Like that. If one realized person (awaken) is there, i.e. eternal causeless devotion is manifested in him, he can manifest that to other conditioned souls. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Supreme Lord, did this to all the tigers and other animals and they got their eternal nature awakened. That is not possible for human beings. We cannot do. But a devotee can do.

E.g. In Assam, one little boy Kamalkant Gosai, 12 or 14 years of age met Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, when he was going somewhere from the math on a bullock cart. His face was just opposite to the bullocks (Towards the rear end of the cart), and Kamalkant Gosai, by touching the bullock cart, was speaking with Saraswati Goswami. Prabhupada asked him- What is your name? What do you do? Which class you study in? etc. - ordinary questions not spiritual questions. But by that what happened? - His (Kamalkant) mind changed and he did not want to remain in the house and he wanted to give up the house and go to Gaudiya math. Only by talking his mind was changed! He (Saraswati Thakur) is a realized soul because he is grace incarnate form. He is not an ordinary person. His grace is same to all. Sun is giving light to all without discrimination. God is giving His grace to all without discrimination. This is one proof. His parents got very perturbed by it. They were very orthodox Brahmins and they said you should not go there. You will lose your chastity and everything. Like this they did not allow. But he did not listen to anybody and he came to math and took renounced order diksha from our Gurudev. By that time Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur had disappeared. Only by seeing!! It is said that svatah siddha, self-effulgence manifested, that bhakti is there but it is not manifested and all conditioned souls are sleeping souls, who will awaken? If one awakened soul is here, he can awaken many. He can rescue a universe.

Love is already there, transcendental love, it is inborn in soul. It is not to be taken from any other person. It is to be manifested by coming in contact with a person who has manifested his own eternal nature, causeless devotion to Krishna, He can give it to others.