Self-realisation is the goal. Love is the means.

Incarnation is for the sake of fostering righteousness (dharma), for demarcating and directing it, and to show mankind the true path of desireless activity. The doctor first diagnoses the disease. Then he prescribes the course of treatment. So too, you must submit yourself to the diagnosis of your illness, viz. misery, travail, and pain. Investigate fearlessly and with care, and you will find that while your basic nature is bliss, you have falsely identified yourself with the temporary, the frivolous, the paltry, and that attachment has brought you all the sorrow. You must realise that both joy and sorrow are passing phases, like white or dark clouds across the blue sky, and you have to learn to treat both prosperity and adversity with equanimity. If only time is well spent, the ignorant (pamara) can become an ascetic of the highest order (Paramahamsa) and that ascetic can also become one with the Lord, the Universal Substance and Substratum (Paramatma).

Bagavan Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba