Enlightened Vision of the Self

Author(s): Akalankadev, Devendra K Goyal
Publisher: Radiant Publishers New Delhi

Page 41

FOREWORD
our sufferings. All of our physical, mental and vital energies are expended in fulfilling the desires by all means available to us. When desires get fulfilled, more desires get piled up in the mind till the man looses the capacity to discriminate between right and wrong. Intense craving to satisfy all desires eventually turns into greed which is said to be the father of all sins (lobha papa ka baap bakhana).
Only that person, who does not entertain a desire even in regard to getting liberation, attains liberation. Hence, those engaged in their spiritual well-being, should not cherish even the slightest desire of any kind. It is stated that even the desire for moksha is a sort of attachment and therefore it is an obstruction in the attainment of liberation. The root cause of all problems and passions are the enslaving desires. There is a saying "asha je dasah, te dasah sarua lokasya; asha pasja dasi tasya dasajate laka," i.e. those who are slaves to their desires and expectations are slaves of all the people of the whole world; but those who are in control of their desires, become the masters of the people and the world. It is one's desires and expectations in regard to the objects of sense gratification that make a man slave or dependent on others.
Barrister Chanipat Rai Jain has devised a simple formula: "Man minus desire is equal to God and God plus desire is equal to man.” The desires and expectations give rise to feelings of attachment, aversion, and passions. They make man dependent on others and are the cause of suffering. (Verse 21) While attachment to sensual pleasures makes us dependent or binds us to the objects of sense gratification, the non-fulfilment of our desires makes us unhappy and miserable. According to J. Krishnamurti, desire is at the root of self-interest. It is sensation with the object of its attainment. He observes:
If I observe the whole process of desire in myself I see there is always an object towards which my mind is directed for further sensation, and that in this process there is involved resistance, temptation and discipline. There is perception, sensation, contact and desire, and the mind becomes the mechanical instrument of this process, in which symbol, words, objects are the centre round which all desire, all pursuits, all ambitions are built; that center is the 'me'. Can I dissolve that centre of desire. ... The more I am