The Spirit Of Spirituality: A Deep Drive Into Desires

Saturday, December 6, 2014

A Deep Drive Into Desires

Everyone of us has desires in life and it is the very foundation on which we exist. Desires seem so natural that most of us fail to go deep into desires and understand what they truly are, how they originate and what happens if they r fulfilled or not fulfilled. I hope to go deep into the subject of desires in this article.

Types of desires

What is a desire? Desire as defined in the dictionary is, a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen.

Desire can be at different levels:

1. Physical or body based desire which revolves around satisfying the 5 sense organs and executed by the 5 action organs. I desire something sweet and it is executed by the legs which gets the sweet, the hand that delivers the sweet to the mouth and the tongue that savors it.

2. Mind or emotional desires which revolve around desires in the mind not related to physical desires. I may have a desire to be loved for which I will go to my loved ones. I may have a desire to feel happy for which I will go to a movie or an excursion.

3. Intellectual or conceptual desires revolving around a feeling of status, identity etc. I have a desire to feel an identity with a group. Hence I declare I am Indian, Brahmin whatever. I have a desire to feel important in office. Hence I strive for a promotion. I desire to show i am a high status individual. Hence I strive to get a BMW.

The intensity of a desire is not the same for all desires. The intensity varies depending on age, environment etc. I may intensely desire a toy car when I am 3 years old, but will surely not have the same intense desire when I am 20.

In addition desires can be either binding or non-binding. A non-binding desire is that where if desire is not fulfilled, there is no major internal disturbance. On the other hand a binding desire is where the mind is disturbed badly by non-fulfillment. I may desire to win the lottery and buy a ticket. If I don't win the lottery, I wont go bonkers. This is an example of a non-binding desire. At the same time we know of desires for drugs or drinks. Once addicted, these are binding desires and non-fulfillment of the desire can lead to negative consequences.

What is the life cycle of a desire?

Do desires arise in a vacuum? Will I suddenly get a desire to go and drink? Will I out of the blue get up in the morning, rush to a store and buy a lottery ticket? Very unlikely!!.

To understand this better, we need to understand the structure of a living entity. We have a physical body which has sense organs and action organs as also the internal organs. We have a subtle body consisting of the mind that emotes and an intellect that conceptualizes. Behind this is the causal body which is the cause of our existence in a particular form. This is the storehouse of what are called as vasanas or deep rooted desires.

Vasanas are a storehouse of our desires and thinking patterns which have evolved over several cycles of our births and deaths. It is all embedded in our ego or genes as you may call. We often see amazingly talented kids and say he is a born musician, born painter or a child prodigy. Where did this talent come from? Surely not from the parents or the environment. The child came with that talent, but from where? This is where the concept of vasanas comes in. Life is a never ending cycle during which each of us accumulate experiences which get embedded in us as our basic nature which is never lost.

Depending on the vasanas or the innate nature of a person, thoughts arise. One may ask whether thoughts are driven solely by vasanas or by environment too? The environment surely provides opportunity for thoughts to arise. But the prime driver of the type of thoughts is the Vasana. Once a though arises, it results in a desire. The desire results in an action to fulfill the desire. The action causes new desires which add up to the vasanas and the cycle continues forever.

Are desires helpful?

Desires are a part and parcel of our lives. But are desires useful? Forget the basic desire to survive. The desire for food, air, water etc are not what we mean here. We are talking of desires to acquire objects, be they physical objects,emotional objects or intellectual objects. In our quest for desires, we think of the future happiness of possessing a desired object and are unable to focus on our current life and its challenges. In trying to acquire a BMW in 5 years, I may work day and night and not enjoy the joy of my child's first walk, the first talk etc and then it is too late. If I realize that the BMW is way beyond my means, I may resort to some crooked ways to make up so that I can buy the fancy BMW. I am sure readers will agree that all the corruption we see in the environment is due to desires to acquire objects.

What happens if desires are not met? We get angry at the element that is preventing us from acquiring the object of desire and take steps to eliminate that element. If a parent is preventing me from fulfilling my desire of drinking, i may resort to stealing to get money for drinks. If a colleague is competing with me for a promotion, I may ensure roadblocks to him so as to eliminate him. In grave situations, we know that people have resorted to violence and murder to ensure they get their object of desire. What happens if an object of desire is got by someone else. Then there is intense jealousy. If another man gets the lovely girl i was dating or a colleague gets a promotion I was hoping for, there is intense jealousy which ruins me. What if I get the object of desire? I get a brand new BMW. I am worried whether someone will scratch it, whether there will be a accident. A small scratch on the BMW results in a scratch on my heart. If I get that beautiful woman as my wife, there is a fear of losing her. So any object of desire once acquired creates fear of losing and anxiety.

Finally, just because I get an object of desire, will it end? If I get a BMW and the next day, my colleague gets a Rolls Royce, my happiness at getting a BMW is gone. After getting a lovely spouse, if my neighbor marries an even more beautiful woman, my happiness is gone.

Can we give up desires?

It is not possible to give up desires. Even if I were to run away to Himalayas, desires will still continue in the mind and without any avenue for fulfilling the desires, the frustration will be higher.

There is a hierarchy of desires. Lower level desires fall off as we aspire for higher desires. My desire for a toy will fall off when I desire a bicycle and that desire will fall off when I desire a car and so on. The only way to reduce impact of desires is to focus on a higher desire. Desire to serve a country, community etc though binding desires at a minimum give a higher level of satisfaction due to the inclusiveness aspect and reduction of selfishness. When we do any action with a higher purpose, it is unlikely that there will be a desire to acquire objects. If i am totally focused on social work, it is unlikely that I will desire a Rolex watch.

But the real key to giving up desires is to understand our true self. We are actually infinite and fully blessed. Due to inherent ignorance, we assume we are the puny complex of body/mind/intellect and create a vacuum between the infinite reality or Self and the assumed puny self. Nature abhors a vacuum and in this case too, to fill the vacuum, we try to get objects of desire. But no matter, ho much objects we get, the vacuum can never be filled. The only way is to remove our ignorance and realize we already have everything and we are infinite. How do we give up ignorance? How do we remove darkness from a centuries old cave? We light a lamp! Similarly, to remove the ignorance associated with several cycles of birth and death, the only cure is Knowledge. It is the knowledge of the self and true identity alone that can remove ignorance and prevent us from the effects of desires.

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