The Growth Of Desire and destruction of peace

For a change I will tell a story and try to build a concept.
There was once a pious person who had given up everything in search for God and
lived in a cave. He had just 2 pieces of loincloth to cover his dignity. Daily
he used to wash one loincloth and wear the other. He used to meditate almost
always except when he bathed. One fine day when he woke up, he was shocked
to find a hole in his loincloth and realized that a rat had eaten up his
loincloth. So the pious man went down to the town and begged the people to give
him a loincloth. The people realizing that this would be a problem forever gave
him a loincloth and also a cat to catch the rat.

The pious man came back happy and that day the cat caught
couple of rats and he was happy that his loincloth was safe. Soon enough the
cat got hungry and started making noises. This disturbed the pious man who was
trying to meditate on God. So, down he went to the town to get some milk for
his cat. The people have him some milk and to ensure that he always had milk,
gifted him a cow. So the pious man came back happy with a cat and a cow. The
cow grazed around and gave milk, which he fed the cat, and the cat killed rats
and he was happy that his loincloth was available. He continued meditating
except when he had to bathe and had to milk the cow to feed the cat. This
went on for some time till the grass around was over. Again he went down to get
some grass for the cow. The people gave him some grass and also gave him a patch
of grassland to manage. So daily the pious man took the cow to graze. He made
sure the land was watered and grass grew so that the cow ate it, gave milk,
which he fed the cat, which ate rats, and he could keep his loincloth and focus
on meditation. He continued meditating except when he had to bathe and had
to take the cow to graze and then milk the cow to feed the cat.

Soon the pious man realized he was not spending much time on
meditation and told the people his problem. So the town people suggested he get
married and have a wife who would take care of all the things so that he could
focus on meditation! So he got married and……..

Though apocryphal and seemingly silly, this man who wanted
to give up everything and focus on God, got distracted by his desire for a loin
cloth and ended up having a whole lot of objects one after another till he had
fully forgotten his purpose in life. Does this not happen to us always? We are
on a particular purpose in life and are all fired up. Then we tell ourselves,
let me just acquire this thing and all will be fine. As seen above, that single
object will lead us unknowingly deeper and deeper into the quagmire of desire
for objects, till we totally get ensnared in it and forget our true purpose.

I have blogged earlier that the only purpose of human life
is to realize the Truth that we are one with consciousness and take necessary
steps to retrace the route back to it and unite with it for supreme unending
bliss. I have also blogged that so long as desires exist, we will keep on
taking birth and rebirth and be farther away from the goal.

But can we get rid of desires? Some schools of thought
advocate resisting desires, trying to curb desires. But this is of no use and
can be dangerous. The more desires are resisted or curbed, they sit inside our
mind and explode like a volcano when the pressure is too much. Can we go off to
some remote place away from civilization so that we are not tempted? Well, the
desire is not in the object, but in the mind. We cannot take our mind away from
objects. I may be sitting in some far off place, but still thinking of Miss
Universe and developing desires. So this is not a solution. So, what is the
solution?

First is to realize that desires cannot be curbed, but can
only be replaced. I desired toy cars when I was a baby, but surely do not
desire them now. Similarly if we can slowly replace our selfish desire to
acquire objects for self-pleasure to a higher desire to provide pleasure to our
immediate family and further on to society, nation, humanity etc, we are
evolving in the type of desire from physical desire to emotional desire to
intellectual desire, each of which makes the lower desires fall off. When
Einstein was working on his theories his desire was to solve the mysteries of
physics and at that point his desire to eat a good chocolate would have dropped
off. When Gandhi’s desire was to get freedom for the country, his lower level
desires of wearing good clothes had dropped off.  When the desire reaches its peak and is for attaining unity with
consciousness, all lower desires drop off. In the final stage, even that last
vestige of desire is dropped and we are merged in supreme bliss.

Another related way to manage desires is to sublime them.
First a thought arises for an object. Deeper thinking or entertaining the
thought leads to a desire. Entertaining the desire leads to action to fulfill
the desire. So when a thought arises for an object, if we can be careful and
think whether this thought is worth entertaining, it may not become a desire at
all. When a thought comes in me to have a good drink of whisky, if I do not
dwell on it or entertain the thought and ask myself, is this thought right, it
may not become a desire at all. But how often do we even pause when a thought
comes? So by careful use of the intellect, it is possible to distinguish
between desires which help me grow my personality and the desires that are
whimsical and meant to cater to my base instincts.

So it is possible to manage desires and not allow them to
become the hydra headed creature that forces us more and more away from the
route to bliss.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality