Desire Renunciation And A Limited Self

Desire Renunciation And A Limited Self

We know without desire living is not possible.
It amazes me the way
the concept of desirelessness
has been taught and understood in our society.

We know a desire and dreams
helps human moving in his life
With desire human eat, drink and walk,
With desire human talk, dance and sing,
With desire human search, paint, and construct.
With the desire, we want to live and die!

If everything happens with desire
then how can we say
a desire is not good hence be desireless?

How can we say desirelessness is
the highest state of existence?
It is a state of Rushiness!

We exist in a society,
and we have relations
with the people around us.
Relations which carry their names.

The name may be a friend, parents, son
sister, brother, neighbor, citizen
native, member, acquainted, or even unknown.

Each named relation has its own Dharma
And we interact with people around
in the guidance of that dharma
Dharma has attached responsibilities and actions.

If the desire is not at the root of all actions,
Then how can we do our Dharma (actions)?
How come a Dharma driven society
is taught to be desireless?

Perhaps the meaning of desire
has been misunderstood and miscommunicated
Perhaps they wanted to communicate that
don’t desire anything for the self.
And we as a society and an individual
failed to understand
the meaning of desirelessness.

Ah! philosophy is fine,
but how can a thinking person
work tirelessly without bothering for the self?
When we exist as a body,
Our first dharma is towards our nearest,
And our living body is nearest to us.

How can we be Dharmi
while ignoring our nearest,
this body, and this mind?

Your philosophies say with selfish desire
a human becomes cruel.
But is this a problem of desire or limited self?

If all the time we are thinking
about me and mine
and this me and mine is so narrow
that it never crosses two-three people
around us and our own body,
Then this narrow me and mine
is the source of pain, problems, and conflicts.

We do not suffer because of desire
We suffer because of the narrow me and mine!

Desire to live is a basic desire
this is prevalent in all living beings
that is why the fight and flight response is inbuilt in all lives.
And this is the basis of human survival.
In the absence of desire why to fight or why to flight?
Be ready to die all the time!

In human life, desires can be of any size and kind
But we need to keep in mind that
Before I desire something I need to understanding “I”
And expand the living experience of “I”
So that human does not suffer
because of limited identity, a limited “I”.

In that state of awareness whatever largest “I” you experience,
Desire from that perspective,
Larger your umbrella of awareness
Lesser is the problem in your desire.

Your larger experience can be
I am a family of 5 people or
Village of thousand people or
City of million people or
Religion of billion people or
Nation of billions of people or
Male or Female of half human population or
Humanity of this earth or
Living being of this planet or
Brahmin, the ultimate being of cosmos.

We are not animal of the forest
who just bother about their bodily survival,
their family or their race.
A wise human can desire
for co-existence, happy existence of all.
But that is possible only when
when I think about the survival of my unlimited “Self”
And what is this unlimited “Self”?

Your philosophies say (Vidhur Niti)
For the sake of a family, one person can be renounced
For the sake of a village, one family can be renounced
For the sake of a Janapada, one village can be renounced
For the sake of “Self”, one Janapada or Kingdom can be renounced.

We need to introspect,
What is that “Self” which motivates
human to remain in motion and action?

What is that self for which, sages say,
human should not desire?

What is that “Self” for which, Upanishad
is recommending to leave the kingdom?

Hari Om Tat Sat
Your Turely Hari