the desireless mind

desire can be defined as a strong wish or craving. however, desire would come out sounding different in different situations. for example, in the economic point of view, it would be classified as a want. in your anxious mission to amass wealth, power and name it might even be called greed. desiring something in the sexual sense or an intense craving for sexual gratification will be classified being lusty. meanwhile, a desire to convert a thought to an action will be called a motivation.

our entire existence revolves around desires. from the time we wake up till the point we sleep we have some desires or the other. the classical view is that human beings aim to be productive, happy, secure and liberated in their lifetime. (in hinduism it is often referred to as dharma, artha, kaama and moksha) basically in one lifetime a human being would have done his fair share of the first 3 aims. liberation is something everyone seeks for at the end eventually! but at the end of the day the main desire for a human being is to be happy. everything is done with the aim to be happy.

it starts from the very beginning when the little baby cries for its milk when it is hungry. the moment its hunger has been appeased, it stops crying and the baby is happy. it goes goo goo gaa gaa and is ready to take on the world. this goes on and on till the child is an adult. i will be happy only when i get my bungalow or my 7 series beemer. of course once the adult gets his high powered car, he is happy for awhile. even in this transient happiness, there is a sense of agitation because his happiness is so dependant on some external factor. what if he loses his possession? wont he then lose his happiness too? then what?

as long as there is unfulfilled desires, the mind will be in agitation. and when the desires are fulfilled, there is happiness but there is also a sense of anxiety as to the possibility of loss. the mind yo yo s between being temporarily happy and agitated at the thought of loss of possession. the mind goes through an endless cycle of agitation, happiness and anxiety and this is a vicious cycle with indeed no end in sight. This creates undue worry and tension and can lead to sickness and premature death.

i hear my lady friends lamenting, i desire to wear all my diamonds and gold but i cant wear them as i may lose them to the robbers. hmmm...i have guy friends who say to me, i just want to be able to date 'her' once and i will be happy. but does it stop there? after one date, the desire is for one kiss and the list is endless. what next? letz said to me, my kids have to get maximum number of 'As' in their examinations, only then i would be happy. while desire is the very basis motivating you to do everything in your life, it does not need to be so!

my swamiji says,

Any kind of desire causes disturbance and it is also impure. Think on the basis: "I am the Self and the Self is blissful. Blissful as I am, I don't have to seek any further blissfulness. So, any kind of desire to add anything, is intrinsically wrong and it is contradictory to the concept of the blissful Self that I am."

We are all living in this world. Our birth is not a result of our desire. It has taken place. We are not going to die either, because of our desire. As we grow, small desires start cropping up in our mind and these become bigger and deeper as the age advances. Life itself is the duration between an undesired birth and undesired death. In between these two, why should desire intervene at all?

much as i undersand what my swamiji says i also know how difficult it is to be desire free. i want to eat my vegetarian char koay teow tomorrow. part of my little desire of course. once i am done with that i want a little pampering in that new spa in town. maybe a manicure, maybe a pedicure. who knows i might even get lucky at the races tomorrow. but you know what? I could have the entire experience in my head. act it all out and get the very similar enjoyment. In fact it might even be better because in my experience i would only imagine the most perfect scenario. might not be the best method but what the heck, it works!

lets get one thing straight here. we dont need desires to make us tick. we have this potential energy in us that is capable of making us do things. lets understand that and not be blinded by desires. Realise that desires only make us miserable!