Desires & Purpose
Desire is a queer thing. The more you get it; the more you crave it. In many ways, desire and not the absence of it, is the root cause of all the misery in this world. Any unfulfilled desire brings with itself a sense of incompleteness that renders a man weak. Any unrequited desire inflames the heart as the man mongers around in discontent and agony; only owing to the fact that he has a desire in his heart. This happens owing to the fact that every person hopes to gain happiness from the fulfillment of his desires. Thus when he is denied that pleasure owing to prevailing circumstances, the individual loses all sense of hope and his life subsequently becomes miserable. A person who does not let the fulfillment of his desires be a factor in the pursuit of happiness is indeed a person that could be termed as a spiritualist.
I use the word only out of necessity, owing to the large amount of prejudice that is targeted towards ‘spiritualists’ in general. Deemed as perpetual losers, the world thinks that a person turns to spirituality only owing to the fact that he cannot succeed at anything else in life. That definitely is not the case, and while there may be spiritualists who prefer to spend their life in solitude, conversing with God, there remain many who are pro-actively involved in all walks of life. Now the thing to cognize is this; spirituality is essentially a school of life that teaches you to go beyond your self-centered desires; to go beyond your conviction that life is to be lived only for yourself. Spirituality essentially teaches you to go beyond the ‘self’ and to be benevolent and selfless to others; to work for a cause; to work for a purpose. But the point of the matter still remains, that once the human being loses the allure of desire in his life, life no longer holds for him the same allure. Simply put, he develops a curious disdain for life, owing to the fact that he can no longer derive happiness from his desires; a realization that inherently makes his life empty. Thus when such a man turns towards the spiritual path, he often finds within it a calling that makes his life worthwhile. In the end, it is all about making sure that the juice is worth the squeeze; that the output you gain is worth the efforts that you put in. Thus when a man lives his life for the sake of others, and works benevolently and pro-actively to fulfill a purpose, he truly finds that his life is worth the effort that he puts into it.
In the end, it is the benevolent purpose that makes his life seem worthwhile. It is the knowledge that he is indeed instrumental in changing someone’s life for the better that gives him joy and satisfaction. Thus the happiness that he derives from such an achievement is far greater than any desire could lend him. For in the end, desires are infinite and the discontent that they bring into one’s life diminishes the joy that is derived from their fulfillment. As opposed to that, the purpose that is ordained upon a man is finite in nature, for it is derived from the karmic liaisons that the man has to his name. Thus fulfilling that purpose not only brings with itself a great sense of satisfaction, but it also results in the absolution of man’s recurrent bouts of misery. In the end, the fulfillment of the purpose leads to the complete ablation of desires; something that many people dread. However there is nothing that is more joyful than a state of no-desire; for in it there is a sense of completeness and peace.
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Image Credit: “A Benevolent Benvolence” from EyeFetch
Tags: benevolence, desire, spirituality
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December 15, 2009 1:51 am
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By Gary, January 14, 2010 @ 9:31 pm
A very nice article that I enjoyed reading thank you. The question for me is how do you actually get to that state of ‘no-desire’ but I guess that is the crux of enlightenment?
By admin, January 15, 2010 @ 7:11 am
it surely is…:) nice to see you around Gary…