Desire what is it....

hai folks,
an article i would like to share here....
Desire is one of the four central aspects of living [purusartha] according to the hindu way of life. The other three are finance/resources, dharma or leading an ordered and dutiful life and finally moksha, which is liberation from the cycle of rebirth.

For any seeker of the truth, desire is a conundrum that is baffling to say the least. Let us analyse some of the aspects of the problem of desire:

• Why does desire arise: Desire primarily arises from a sense of incompleteness within the heart of our hearts. The incompleteness is a void that is so acutely felt by the ego. The nature of that incompleteness could be diverse….it can be emotional, it can be material, it can be physical, it can be moral.
• Why Is Desire Dangerous: The Geeta explains desire to be dangerous because when unable to gratify it, there arises conflict in the mind. The conflict that cannot be resolved causes lack of discrimination. The lack of discrimination is a sure path to destruction.

In the Mahabharata Bhima states “that kama is the most important purusartha which surpasses the importance of even moksha” If Kama is an obstacle to realization of the self, what purpose does it serve to even harbour it within our minds, leave alone gratifying it? Why has it been given such a prime importance in the Hindu way of life?

The answer lies in the fact, that it is desire that moves the world. It is out of desire that man walks this earth, it is out of desire that he loves, it is out of desire that he hates, it is out of desire that he awakens everyday, it is out of desire that he sleeps, it is out of desire that sustains order, it is desire that creates upheaval, it is out of desire that he renounces, it is out of desire that he aggrandizes, it is desire that emancipates, it is desire that causes bondage.
It is indeed desire that causes the wheel of samsara to move round and round until eternity.

Today we have airplanes, because there was once an Icarus who desired to fly. If man was not inspired by the birds that soared high, if that inspiration had not given rise to the desire to fly, then never would have been those wonderful airplanes of today.

All progress is because of the insatiable desire residing in the heart of man. Desire is sacred, desire is sacrosanct, in desire is beauty, and verily in desire is liberation
Indeed, the provenance of desire is beyond time, into infinity.

Yet, this world cannot have been created out of desire. It is presumptuous to believe that the perfect one would ever feel nurture the desire to be many.

Why does desire culminate in dichotomy? Why is desire dual? The answer lies in
realizing the goal of desire. And that goal is freedom! All desires we nurture in our bosom are ultimately striving to attain our true nature, which is freedom. Swami Vivekananda “become azad…be free, u children of immortal bliss!” We are all children of immortal bliss, whose real nature is FREE. We were not born bonded, because never were be born. Birth is as illusion, and so is death. The real never dies, the unreal never lives. Reality is freedom, reality is bliss, reality is truth, and reality is existence.
The freedom, which is NONDUAL, the freedom, which is unconditional, beyond the limiting adjuncts of time, space and causation, that is real.

One cannot suppress desire. One cannot ignore desire. One cannot kill desire because it is indeed timeless. The moment, the infant suckles his mother’s breast, he has embraced desire. Desire has no beginning, yet it has an end. The end of desire is the end of ignorance. Desire stems from ignorance of our real nature, which is ever free. Desire is only extinguished with the dawn of the knowledge of our real nature.

Sri Aurobindo said “desire is the helper, desire is also the final barrier”

The SOLUTION is thus, to give up lower desires for higher desires. The lower basal and carnal desires that bind, are to be given up for higher desires. Desire to be selfish and desire to help the world are both rooted in ignorance. Yet, the desire to serve this world is infinitesimally higher than the desire to gratify the selfish desires of the flesh. The former illuminates our path, the latter causes bondage to the darkness of ignorance.

So transmute desires we will, from the lower to higher. As Swami Vivekananda said “man moves not from error to truth but from lower to higher truth” Just like a burning log of wood can burn up even the dried logs, similarly the burning desire for liberation automatically destroys all other desires. Similarly, we are all moving towards the light from the darkness, from death to immortality, from the unreal to the real, from bondage to freedom, one step at a time. As the Tao Te Ching says “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” That first step is a consequence of desire, the last step is also a consequence of desire but in desiring nothing. The final barrier to moksha is realizing that never was there bondage itself, for the ever free is but ever free!

The journey of desire ends with the profound state of desirelessness. It is the culmination of all paths, whether bhakti or jyana. As the Narada Bhakti Sutras say “ultimate devotion is desirelessness….the bhakti is united with god, his desires are thus extinguished”…..the jyani says “I am the real, I am the self, I am the free….the knowledge of the self inundates and extinguishes the fires arising from desires
regards sunkan