Every desire wants its fulfillment. ‘Hope’ is the substance of mind. Whenever there is a desire, of course, you want it to be materialized – that it should work out, something should happen.
If I have a desire, I want it somehow to be fulfilled. The more important question is: whose desire and where is the desire coming from?
What does a terrorist desire? And remember, he is a terrorist for you. For some others, he is a freedom fighter. What does he desire? To kill! In your parlance, it would be called as a murder, a cold-blooded killing. In his language, it would be called as ‘a war waged upon the sinister enemy.’ And he will say, “It is my own desire.” He will not even know that when he was young, he was taken to a particular camp, where he was indoctrinated that people of such and such country or such and such religion are his fierce enemies.
The man who consistently keeps showing you advertisements on T.V. and other media, he knows that desire can be provoked.
Even the man selling street food too knows that the desire can be provoked. So when you pass by near his cart, he makes a few sounds on his utensils, and an extra splashing of butter. The sound hits your ears, the smell hits your nose, and the desire is provoked. Even he knows how to provoke desire, but you do not know why you desire something. You will say, “It is my desire. I want to have street food.” Is it really your desire?
That advertiser shows you an advertisement, day-in and day-out. Newspaper, media, hoardings, internet, wherever you go, the same model of the new mobile phone is in front of your eyes, and one day you say, “It is my desire to buy this mobile phone.” Is it your desire?
The entire society has told you that you must have such and such career and so much of money, and today, you are saying, “It is my desire to pursue this career. Is it really your desire? Enquire into it.
I come from a family where everybody is a doctor or everybody is in some white-collar job or everybody is a bureaucrat, and now I want to be a bureaucrat. Is it really my desire?
The entire world is pursuing a particular course; management, engineering, I too am there. Is it really my desire? If it is my desire, how come everybody is having the same desire? What is the meaning of individuality then?
One particular company comes to a college campus, and the entire campus runs after it. How can five hundred students have the same desire? Surely, it is not anybody’s desire. It is some master’s desire who is laughing at you, who has enslaved our mind, and we do not even know who that master is.
The Hindu passes in front of a temple and he bows down. The Muslim passes in front of the same temple, and sees only brick and mortar. The Hindu says, “It is my desire to bow down.” Is it really his desire? Really? His desire? Or is it the ‘Hindu’s desire’?
India and Australia have a cricket match and Indians have a great desire that India wins. And Australia has a great desire that Australia wins.
Whom are we fooling? Where are our desires coming from?
You can have any career, as long as it is socially approved. You can marry anybody, as long as parents approve. You can write anything in the exam, provided the teacher approves it.
The intelligent mind, before pursuing the desire, first pauses and looks carefully at that desire.
What is the entire process of desiring? What stimulates desire? Where is desire located?” That’s what an intelligent mind does.
Whenever a thought arises, whenever motivation arises, whenever a desire arises – enquire. Look into it as you look into a problem of mathematics – deeply, objectively, without bias, honestly, and the fact will become open. The fact will become very, very open.
You need to ask yourself basic questions. “Was I always like this? Did I always have this desire? What is prompting it? Will this desire always be there? What has been the fate of my other desires all my life? They have come and they have gone. What has made them come, and how have they gone away?”
Submitted September 10, 2018 at 08:32AM by acharya-prashant https://ift.tt/2x2qLLu
