“A person can love only the one who fulfills his expectations.”
The foundation of all a person's relationships is expectation. What should a husband be? One who fills my life with comfort and ease.
Chapter 6 of 35 — 3 parts, 5 min in total.
The Mahabharata's relationships are almost all asymmetric: a teacher who cannot be refused, a brother owed obedience, a king owed loyalty even when wrong, a wife staked in a game. Much of the tragedy comes from people honouring the form of a relationship after its substance has failed.
Krishna's own relationships model something different. He is a friend to Arjuna, a cousin to the Pandavas, a charioteer who will not fight — and he is unusually explicit about what he will and will not do. The boundaries are stated, not assumed.