Gandhi used to put the matter bluntly: when another person's welfare means more to you than your own, when even his life means more to you than your own, only then can you say you love. Anything else is just business, give-and-take. To extend this love even to those who hate you is the farthest limit of ahimsa. It pushes at the boundaries of consciousness itself.
Gandhi was a pioneer in these new realms of consciousness. Everything he did was an experiment in expanding the human being's capacity to love, and as his capacity grew, the demands on his love grew more and more severe, as if to test what limits a human being can bear. But Gandhi had learned to find a fierce joy in these storms and trials. . . . By the end of his life he was aflame with love.
— Eknath Easwaran, Gandhi The Man