Sharing Sanjivani (Sanjivani - Life Saving Herb)

Chapter 104)Why can't we abandon desire knowing it as a root cause ...?

(104)

Why can't we abandon desire knowing it as a root cause of birth and death? 

VAPU: KUBJIBHUTAM GATIRAPI TATHA YASTISHARANA

VISHIRNO DANTALI: SHRAVANAVIFALAM SHROTRA YUGALAM I

SHIR: SHUKALAM

CHAKSHUSTIMIRAPATALAIRAVRUTAMAHO

MANO ME NIRLAJYAM TADAPI VISHAYEBHYA: SPAHYATI II

        A nice Shubhashitani describes the power of desire in the above verse as;"Though my body is bent due to old age, I am not able to walk without a support of a walking stick, my teeth has left me, my two ears lost the listening ability, my hair grows white and eyes cannot see anything as if I live in the darkness but my greedy mind desires for perishable things to entertain my senses.Oh! What a shame!" Desires do not abandon a person till death. We give importance to worldly things of luxuries to entertain our senses and hence we suffer from the pain of losing them and as we make our senses enjoy more and more through perishable things it becomes very difficult for us to abandon desire.

God makes us suffer from unhappiness and sorrow frequently to make us realize that we cannot achieve permanent happiness through perishable worldly things and hence we should not have desire to get any perishable things of the world. When God puts us in the tight corners, he wants to explain that we should not think about favorable situations for all the time in life as no situation is permanent. If you desire all the favor all the time from luck, you would be sorry because nothing is permanent .A day ends with night and every night ends with a beautiful morning. All the desires cannot be fulfilled by anyone .We can fulfill our desire only for a period of time only because our mind is not so strong about it and we desires new thing every time with the fulfillment of one desire.

But our soul has unlimited strength. When our mind, intellect and senses are boosted up by inner strength of soul they became stronger than before .But our senses, mind and intellect forget about their power as they are attached to nature and body. The nature has established authority over them. Hence it is essential for us to know our enemy well and our power too. Desires emerge from the non living and it is related with non living things. When non living body is attached to soul it is activated but as soon as the  'soul' abandons body ,the body becomes non living object to be buried or burnt. Hence when we want to kill desire, it means that we accept its existence and when we accept its existence, it becomes very difficult to kill it but if we think that 'desire' does not exist at all to kill it becomes easy. If we think that we would not desire anything and do not try to satisfy our desire, it would automatically subside and the new desire would not emerge.

        When we think as 'I, my, mine and for myself' our attachment to things increases day by day and we could not satisfy our self with whatsoever treasure we accumulate for our self. But nobody in this world could satisfy all his desire before death and if we go on desiring things continuously for our self it would be a cause of next birth because 'soul' is non perishable and all the desires are perishable. When an eternal soul desires non living or perishable things, naturally he would not be benefited but would have to suffer loss and see his own downfall by getting involved in all negativity as anger and envy, jealousy and fury, dishonesty and greed which would lead him to hell. Hence Lord Krishna considers desire as an enemy.

A sadhak can kill 'Desire' through his karmayoga. If a person remains busy in providing selfless services to others without expecting anything in return and does every work as if he is serving God, his Karma yoga would lead him to Salvation .A Sadhak serves humanity with all his body and senses, mind and intellect, instruments and senses, skills and capabilities thinking that nothing is given to him by Almighty for himself but for the welfare of others. When a Sadhak does not do any karma for himself, does not desire anything for himself and does not think anything as his own, he could easily kill his desires. When desires are killed, he could easily fulfill his goal and he would find himself as chosen one, full of thankfulness and gratitude towards God and achieve permanent joy by knowing what he should really have and what he should not look for in the world. Hence he need not know anything else and he should not achieve anything after knowing his real self and killing desires.

        Desires make us happy and sad. We feel joy on fulfillment of our desires and sad on not fulfilling of our desires but all these could not remain permanent. A   person when thinks himself as doer, he suffers from joy of gain and sorrow and pain on losing things and beloveds. Actually speaking we think that we have to accept existence of desire but it is not inbuilt with our soul when it does not actually exist, how could we kill it? It is our belief that we have desires and we have to fulfill them but everything is illusive. Desires live in our ego and because of our ego we are attached to Sansar. If we can abandon our ego, our desire turns to long for Almighty and this attraction and spiritual love can lead us to salvation.

All the three worlds and sansar are known as perishable things. They live in our senses. Our senses are pampered by our mind. Our mind is supported strongly by our intellect that justifies all our karma with logical arguments and our intellect has foundation stone is our ego. This ego lives in the corner of our soul .But soul itself is a part of uncontrolled ,omnipresent universe and all the three worlds and sansar is the smallest part of this nature. When soul is attached to nature, we think them as one. Only a karma yogi can make himself free from all these ignorance and could remain detached.

Let's try to defeat our strong enemy desire and kill the great obstacle on the path of Salvation.