The Burning Desire
The main cause of all the unrest in this world is the desire for material pleasures, that is, the desire for worldly objects and people. There can only be five kinds of desires: the desire to see, smell, hear, taste and touch. These five desires torment us day and night. Saints and the scriptures declare that if someone can renounce desire, complete peace of mind will be attained. For example, in the state of deep sleep, the mind does not create any desire and so when we wake up, we say, “Today I enjoyed a comfortable sleep.”
But what is it that feels happy or sad? It is the mind. It is the mind alone that experiences happiness or sadness. There is no happiness in sleep. It is merely the absence of problems that expresses itself as happiness in deep sleep. When we are awake, the mind is constantly bothered by seemingly endless problems and desires. The so-called happiness experienced in deep sleep is completely absent when we are awake. You may embrace a loved one, you may enjoy eating a variety of delicacies or visit some new places, but none of this equals the happiness experienced during sound sleep.
God has bestowed this great boon in the form of sleep upon all of us for free. Even a billionaire surrounded by opulence cannot experience the same level of peace that a common person experiences freely during sleep. The billionaire may live in a billion-dollar mansion and lie on a million-dollar bed, but his mind is still not at peace during his wakened state. He is constantly disturbed by a barrage of worldly desires created in his mind. In comparison, a person who begs for a living and has no home sleeps on the footpath and snores his way to happiness.
We all have experienced a great deal of worldly happiness. You have embraced your loved one’s thousands of times, enjoyed sumptuous food, listened to intoxicating music, visited scenic places, and so on, but when you lie on your bed and drop off to sleep, that is, transition from your wakened state into deep sleep, in those moments you experience the highest level of peace and happiness. This is because you lose your consciousness, and it can be compared to the initial stage of samadhi, that is, complete absorption of the mind in the object of meditation. When you enter deep samadhi, the happiness experienced can be multiplied many times over. However, higher than this is the divine happiness of God.
Even celestials like Indra remain unhappy due to desire. Once a desire is created, it is either fulfilled, giving rise to greed for more, or unfulfilled, giving rise to anger. The creation of desire is therefore an open invitation to unhappiness, and there is no escape. Furthermore, it is impossible to end desires. So, what are we to do?
The solution lies in replacing worldly desires with desires for God. Remember, the desire of every individual soul is to attain unlimited, everlasting divine happiness, and nothing else. In the search for divine happiness, you will continue to create desires ad infinitum. Every individual soul will continue to desire that happiness, either knowingly or unknowingly, until it is attained. There is no respite.
Due to our naivety, however, we constantly create worldly desires and subsequently suffer from greed, infatuation, unhappiness, and so on. Only after properly understanding the philosophy of divine love, will you begin to create desires to meet God. Gradually this practice will lead to a constant interest in God, and finally, this interest becomes enjoyment. Being ecstatic in spiritual happiness, signs of divine love euphoria will manifest, giving you a glimpse of unlimited divine happiness. Over time, the infatuation with the world will loosen. As you progress spiritually, under the guidance of a genuine spiritual teacher, your desire for God will intensify and your worldly desires will diminish.
In this way, you should constantly practice replacing the desires for the world with desires for eternal divine happiness. Everyone knows how to love. It is our experience that when we start thinking constantly about a person or object, we become attached to it and will do everything possible to attain it. By realising that this world is devoid of happiness, we must change the area of our attachment from the material world to God and His Saints. Before realising God, they too were engrossed in worldly enjoyments. Realising the fact that there is no true happiness in the world, they replaced all their worldly desires with desires for God. By doing so, they ultimately attained Him. You need not do anything else.
If someone can divert their love and attachment towards the divine, he will surely meet God. Attachment to worldly objects is developed by assuming them to be the source of happiness. This attachment gives rise to the desire to have those objects. In the same way, contemplating upon God to be the ultimate source of infinite, everlasting, ever increasing happiness, will lead to your profound attachment to Him. This is what all scriptures advocate …
An excerpt from a discourse originally given in Hindi by:
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj
https://www.jkpliterature.org.in/
To learn more about the philosophy of divine love, read Prem Ras Siddhant, written by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj, available in English and Hindi.
