Ram Dass delves deep into the topic of relationships. He discusses the yoga of relationships, appreciation versus judging, soulmates and “falling into love”. He touches on the topic of marriage // monasticism, the spiritual meanings of commitment, overcoming the limitations of deep expression, and much more. Recorded in the Summer of 1989 as apart of ‘The Listening Heart’ retreat series.
Time stamp 54:11
Q: Is there a difference between marriage and living together?
Ram Dass: What marriage has come to be in the west is much more like the special friendship where you take it on and you work with it and then when you find you’re incompatible, you go onto someone else.
From a spiritual point of view, ideally you would find a partner who wished to awaken and you wished to awaken and you use the relationship in order to awaken and you would use your raising of children and your lifestyle and your working with your money and all of it as a way of awakening.
And all of the vacillation when you’re living with somebody, “Shall we marry? Shouldn’t we marry?” … That’s just GRIST FOR THE MILL of spiritual work on oneself.
This was a wonderful lecture to listen to today. Thank you Baba Ram Dass 
Im grateful I waited on marriage because I took the time within my sadhana (practice) to know that I didn’t want… I NEEDED someone to practice Bhakti Yoga with.
Hare Krishna
Brittany