Desire is the force or energy that ordinarily pushes us to act when we are wandering through the maze of ignorance. This energy that springs from the lower vital worlds takes many a forms, such as restlessness, wish to possess things and people, and forces for personal, selfish, and egoistic satisfaction, the sense of want and the consequent urge to run after immediate if not urgent gratification, and the seeking after pleasure and temporary satisfaction in transient things. It can drive passion, ambition, emotion, turning them into a hunger and greed demanding for more and more indulgence. When gratified, it gives temporary pleasure and a negative peace (due to the appeasement of the want). But after a short respite, the hunger returns, tying us in a groove, turning towards one outer object to another. Thus, it holds us down to lower motives and opens the doors to suffering of all kinds, as well as the perversities of jealousy, hatred, despondency, frustration, and despair when the desire is not fulfilled.
That is why it is enjoined upon the seekers of a higher life to step out of the endless circle of desire and be driven by higher motives and impulses such as the will to know truth, the seeking for higher things, the longing for God, the thirst for that which is lasting, Eternal, and Permanent. When fully freed from the clutch of desire, we find peace and bliss of the Divine, and going one step further, can become His instruments and channels of His Force, driven by His Will towards great, impersonal, and universal ends
Affectionately,
Alok Da
