We all know that desires bring us dissatisfactions eternally but they are there, and none can escape this dreadful device of Nature even if we intellectually perceive this truth. Desire is the helper, desire is the bar, said Sri Aurobindo.
So how can we best utilise our desires rather than keep demonising them while secretly and hypocritically keep indulging it? Because we soon lose interest in the objects we desire and acquire, there must be a way of growth there too rather than mere wasteful indulgence. I am sure Nature meant to do more with desires than just this. Some practical methods would also help.
All spiritual disciplines, especially the Gita advices a Sattwic moderation while one is growing under the pressure of desires. Sanyama, not Nigraha, as Sri Aurobindo writes in one of his essays, the process of evolution, is the way forward. A practical approach is to apply reason and buddhi before impulsively buying or indulging. One tries to see how much one needs something? What really is the need? Can one do without it? In short to differentiate between need and greed.
Secondly, to step back and allow the immediate impulse to pass and see if it is just something passing like a child’s fancy for a toy or is there a deeper emotional or yet deeper psychic leaning which nevertheless is involving the natural members of our being. For example there is a love that flows from the depths of the heart with a nature of self-giving and there is another that wants and wants. There is also a love that is content within itself demanding nothing. There is another full of restlessness. One must be conscious and see the difference in one’s inner state. Restlessness, agitation etc are sign of a vicarious attachment and must go even if it causes pain.
There is also a whole lot of small desires, such as of comforts, little pleasures, indulgences of food etc. These again are best addressed by the practice of equanimity. Basically one bears the shock of the senses that hit and impact all the time and instead of been thrown outwards under the pull of the senses one simply stays turned within concentrated on the inner Presence or in a world of higher thoughts.
To my experience the more one grows in Godward aspiration and service, the less becomes the stranglehold of desire. Similarly the more one grows in love of the Divine the less grows the attachments, dependencies and emotional wants and longings because one is happy, peaceful and satisfied within.
To summarise, the thrust should be to turn the energies more and more in pursuit of and service of the Divine. As one grows in nearness of contact with the Divine many of the desires fall off simply because the same energies are now turned inwards and upwards and getting far more joy. In fact a time comes when the usual satisfactions of the desires or even spending time in the company of those who have desires becomes painful. It is a question of where the energies are turned towards. Attachment with the Divine removes the sting of all other attachments. Love for the Divine purifies the emotional being of all emotional expectations. The experience of divine delight diminishes greatly the need for all earthly pleasures that begin to grow tasteless.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
