They just linger together for a while. The marriage may last due to social pressures, children, or the money, or sometimes very simply by force of habit, simply because two people stay together for a long time and get used to each other or start needing each other. But this does not necessarily mean that love lasts. Mostly it goes into the background, though it never really dies if it was once there. But it loses its force, intensity and joy; in short, the rajasic mode driven by ego and desires. Instead, it enters the tamasic mode of physical togetherness. Or else it may last, though rarely so in a more Sattwic mode, where duty and sacrifice predominate.
But love is something yet greater. It is a self-giving of oneself to the other, bridging the difference between the two and turning them into one. It is extremely rare and is experienced generally only in an intense love for God.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
