Become the Sire of Desires
Written by: Sri Madhusudan Sai
Published as part of a weekly series of articles on the bhagavad-gītā in Top Story Newspaper
The journey is as beautiful as the destination, for it is the journey that makes the
experience of the ‘destination’ itself worthwhile, no matter how many challenges
we might face. The challenges are most often within us than outside us.
What kind of challenges?
The most common challenge that people express is – “Sure! I want
to prioritise others before me and work for the benefit of the larger humanity. I
know what is good, what is right. Yet I tend to get trapped in some of my habits
which aren’t so desirable for me or for the people around me. How do I overcome
it?”
This is because of our guṇās (traits) which push us to do things that we do not
want to do. Man’s biggest enemies are kāmā (desires) and krodhā (anger) which
are born out of rajo guṇā (the mode of intense action and passion).
Desire is like an insatiable fire. People might think that if they have developed a desire for
something, by fulfilling it, the craving will disappear—but this will never happen.
No matter how much ghee we add to the fire, the fire will not get extinguished; it
will only become fiercer. The concept of marginal utility does not work with
desires. For example – if we eat a lot of sweets one day, we may not feel like eating
any more for that day. However, the next day, we will want to have sweets again.
So, there is no point trying to fulfill a desire to overcome it. The only way to get
away from desires is to get rid of them.
List the desires that are harmful, that you don’t need – give up one at a time, and see for yourself how it feels.
Take up this challenge today!