DESIRES
Desires are wishes, wants, longings, yearnings, fancies,
inclinations, aspirations, appetites, passions and cravings.
All desires are not essential. Most
of them are undesirable and superfluous. Essential desires like, food, clothing
and shelter. They are the necessities of life. Their requisite satisfaction is necessary
for survival. Even these necessities should be only as much as are really
justified. Overeating is the cause of disease, if not of death. One cannot
overload one’s body with clothes and become unable to move. As for shelter, a
small cottage can be more peaceful than a big palace.
How much land does a man need is a legitimate question. And how many goods he needs for
keeping his body and soul together is also a very significant question.
When somebody departs from this world, he has no possessions.
His body becomes lifeless; but his soul survives.
Look at words of wisdom about
desires:
*The thirst of desire is never filled,
nor fully satisfied.
**It is much easier to suppress a
first desire than to satisfy those that follow.
***A wise man will desire no more
than he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave
contentedly.
**** In moderating, not in satisfying
desires, lies peace.
*****We trifle when we assign limits
to our desires, since nature has set none.
******However rich or elevated we may
be, a nameless something not possessed----implies that our present felicity is
not complete.
Too
many desires can make us restless, greedy, immoral, selfish, criminal, and ultimately worried and completely unwell.
Look
at this admirable quote: “All people experience desires –the need for meaning,
the desire for love, happiness, truth, beauty.
These are deep desires that are never fully satisfied in this life and are
so universal that we can even say they are spiritual desires.”
Finally, this piece of advice: First deserve,
then desire.
***********
G.R.Kanwal
30 November 2024
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