The difference between prema and kama

Expressions researched:
"kama and prema" |"kama but it is prema" |"kama, prema" |"kama. That is not prema" |"opposite word of kama is prema" |"prema and kama" |"prema; that is kama" |"what is kama and what is prema"

Narada-bhakti-sutra (sutras 1 to 8 only)

"The desire to satisfy one's own senses is called lust, while the desire to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa is called prema, love of God"

Narada Bhakti Sutra 7, Purport:

In pure devotional service there is no question of sense gratification. Some people mistake the loving affairs between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs (cowherd girls) for activities of ordinary sense gratification, but these affairs are not lustful because there is no material contamination. As Rūpa Gosvāmī states in his Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (1.2.285),

premaiva gopa-rāmāṇāṁ kāma ity agamat prathām

ity uddhavādayo 'py etaṁ vāñchanti bhagavat-priyāḥ

"Although the dealings of the gopīs with Kṛṣṇa are wrongly celebrated by many as lust, great sages and saintly persons like Uddhava hanker for such loving affairs with Kṛṣṇa." Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja, the author of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, has therefore said,

kāma, prema,-doṅhākāra vibhinna lakṣaṇa

lauha āra hema yaiche svarūpe vilakṣaṇa

"As there is a difference between iron and gold, so there is a difference between material lust and Kṛṣṇa's loving affairs with the gopīs" (CC Adi 4.164). Although such loving affairs may sometimes resemble material lust, the difference is as follows:

ātmendriya-prīti-vāñchā-tāre bali 'kāma'

kṛṣṇendriya-prīti-icchā dhare 'prema' nāma

"The desire to satisfy one's own senses is called lust, while the desire to satisfy the senses of Kṛṣṇa is called prema, love of God" (CC Adi 4.165).