Erotic, Human, and Mystical

Is agape not erotic and philial? Do we not see agape in eros and philia in our own life examples? Even if we use 'carnal,' is it going to be ungodly? In any form of love we do love in our bodies, right?  Every form of love has its own blessedness in different phases of life. There is no devotion without eros being part of it. 

I don't know whether we can really break love into sections of eros, philia, and agape. Plato did it to clarify the ethical relations among members in a society. Each one carries a responsibility to another. The category might depend on the 'desired other' in the relation.

Though unfortunately it is understood only as sexual desire, passionate love (eros) is to mean that the lover loses oneself to partake in the beauty of the other. If we can see the beauty in the beautiful even independent of the object, that eros is still deeper. Erotic is to be passionate and losing oneself, not destructive to oneself or the beautiful. If the desire devours the beautiful and destroys, that is against our own human nature. 

Philia is oriented towards the other, it also could be a loyalty for the sake of the other. It could be familial, political or social. They can be forms of favour, kindness, help, company, even unasked. It is mutual, though may not be always equal.

Agape draws on elements from both eros and philia, but the object is universalised, and nothing is desired in return. So agape can be extended to the strangers and the enemies. God comes there because God is outside of our bond-structures. Since it hopes for the perfect love, God may be the object of that love because God is the highest beauty and the desirable. Agape completes itself in a transcendental form of eros. In that sense God must be the real object of eros. But shall we start where we stand?

Just consider the following words with their real meaning:

Anurag, Prem, Moha, kama, pranaya, Rathi, Vatsalya, Ishq, samipya, sayujya, viraha ...

Take any love you cherish... Go through the desire and joy of your love...even that you want to give and to receive..If we have lived eros well, losing yourself in partaking the beauty of the other, we will live Philia well, happily, responsibly and with content,  and at the same time growing through agape.

Angelising, or demonising any form of love is not a healthy approach at all. May be in spiritualising, we went wrong somewhere, and we resisted learning how we love in/through our bodies.