Desire

Oxford says

“A strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen”

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says

“To desire is to be in a particular state of mind. It is a state of mind familiar to everyone”

Sanskrit meaning

लालसा (lalsa),इच्छा (ichha) ,कामना (kamana) ,कामिता (kamita) ,काम्या (kamya)

This topic is not very new and if you ever be in India or by citizenship you are a common Indian, you might had heard this word a lot. May be you have read or write a lot about this. Then may a thought will come to your mind why I am boring to you again but here I am not going to bore you but trying to revive your thought from your busy schedule. Hope you will allocate a few precious minute.

Now a days life become so objective with a lot of personal  sub objective.There are a lot of resources available around you but with a lot of constraint. Being students of math, science and at present as stress analysis engineer, I can say that I have some understanding of constraint. These constraint and sub objective are culprit of our life. Really this gives a feeling of desire. Desire of have a lot of money, desire of a fabulous car, own house (apart from need), owing a company, promotion in job etc . Those, who have all these things they want more. Some want to be a big tycoon in their business. Some want to be at a big political post. Some want to be a big famous artist. A lot of thing even cannot be summarized. It require a lot of patient for writing as well for reading. Even those who were considered as counselor for these thing they also have desire. So what I understand that this is the part of life. And some extent nature of human being. So what is this? If it is nature of human then what  we can do?

May be you ever heard/read that ” there is no end of desire “. You may also heard/read that “if you are not have any desire then you will never gain.”

So what should we do. Both sentences are bit confusing.

Ok leave it, lets discuss a real incident with you. Hitler want to rule the whole world. So he attacked over the countries and start winning the war. Each win of war gives him a sense of confidence. Slowly -2 these small confidence after accumulation become over confidence. At start he had desire to rule so start fighting war and start gaining but he was not having sense of satisfaction so his desire washed away with all gain. At end even he lost his own territory.

King Ashoka was very great king of India. Initially he was not having any desire to become king. But at his adolescent he desired to become a king. So he became king and even rule over the biggest  part of India. But he was unable to limit his desire so he lost his peace of mind at war of Kalinga. He was the biggest looser after winning the war.

Dhritrasthra want to become a king. So he became king. But after that he desired of absolute power through his sons but as a result he lost all his sons and mental piece.

I am telling you these story because these are proven. Now point come what should we do. Should we have desire or not? If we have desire then we will gain but at last we may loose every thing even that what we posses initially. If the proven result tell that the final will zero or may negative then why should we have desire. Leave it !

A famous actor want to become an actor at Bollywood. Initially, he failed but with his consistent approach, hard work and desire he become super star. Achieve new height in his career. But at one moment he was not able to control/limit his desire so he loose a lot. Soon he realise that he is going beyond desire limit. So he start understanding the things and aligned his desire and after some patient he regain that fame and glory. Now he is having his control desire (guess the name of actor). like that a there are few businessman who desired to be a tycoon and now they are successful tycoon (name the three businessman).

If you start searching around you will find a lot of incident which are not very famous but will teach you a lot. So as per my understanding that every human being should have some positive desire. Here I have given emphasis on positive desire. Suppose you have desire of eliminate your opponent,desire of sex, desire winning the game, desire of stood first in the examination, desire to abuse someone etc. So how you come to know that which are positive desire and which are not. And if suppose I say that desire of sex is not positive desire, but still it is coming into my mind then what should I do?

Until unless your desire is not going to harm to other then the your desire is positive. Means for fulfilling your desire if you need someone help and if he is ready with his desire (not forcefully) to co-operate you then that desire will be positive. If my desire require no human being then ? You have to decide by yourself because you (human) are ruling the world. Any how you will be the first culprit of your negative desire. So be careful don’t be biased.

Now I found the positive desire, But how will we control or find the limit ? Yes that is very tough. In above story the actor learned from his failure but can we predict  the limit, prior failure ? Actually if you judge accurately your positive desire then you need not to be much worried about the limit of failure. But if not then in that case you have to be little attentive. As much as you are driving your vehicle at unknown road. Start practic, you will not find very tough.

One situation come suppose you have desire of sex and visit the brothel. So the question may come, will that desire  be positive or not? The other side of partner is ready to welcome you. Here actually, other factor comes into picture, if host is accepted this business with no other options for existent. Then it may be considered as positive. But how I  will come to know?  In plain, you have to search for answer. One more case if you have desire (and you are not have any partner) then instead for forcing someone better to go at professional place, because at lest in this case you are not hunting someone emotion.

Idea is that please don’t harm any one emotionally or physically or by any mean, just for fulfilling your desire. I have exampled the sex because, it is always burning issue in human society. If you have a positive desire, always, it is very good for yourself, society  and environment around you. It always helps to prosper the all. So be careful that none of the above three factor get disturbed. As soon as you start notice the disturbance then alert your self that the limit has come and start limiting  your desire.

If you don’t take it religiously then do at-least  15 minute peaceful yoga and self control practice, after you get up in the morning, gives you a lot of understanding. This is the very simple and easiest way to control/limit your desire. But this is not the only way, you have to search by yourself that what is well suited for you.