Tuesday 30 December 2014

Desires : a prime mover

|| योग: कर्मसु कौशलम् ||

In the growth of a human being, changes keep taking place. Only, these needs to be properly understood. Mananeeya Eknathji gives this view to the karyakartas. He says :

Man can think for himself and can determine what is right and wrong, proper and improper, good and bad as also beneficial and harmful. He does not depend upon his parents for guidance (which he did when he was a child). (As he grows,) he enters into contracts and also manages his business. At this stage, all persons are governed by desires. Some new desires are developed in a person, such as sexual pleasure, which was completely absent in childhood. The desires grow with the age and they take various forms. A man is called Dehi (one having a body). But here we find that he is always demanding something (Dehi-'give me') to satisfy his desires, which go on increasing. All normal routine duties have one object only and that is to fulfill the desires which have taken countless forms.
Here Eknathji beautifully observes the nature of desires and with that that of the man also. He says :
But again these desires do not remain constant. One set of desires is substituted by another set of desires. The substratum of enjoyment and pleasure derived from it goes on changing. There is a fascination for one sport, but later on there is a liking for another game. Then the man changes his realm of desires and we find that physical desires are transformed into mental desires. Even bodily joy does not have any intensity. We feel that we derive the best joy from a particular dish or sweetmeat, but after some time our taste changes and one does not reap the same pleasure from it. The potency in the physical pleasures also deteriorates. One may be fond of eating, no doubt; but when he has developed the mental faculties, he finds more pleasure in, say, reading and he either forgets or hesitates to give up this joy for eating. Sometimes, it is our experience that, one forgets to eat, when one is engrossed in reading an enchanting book. The physical hunger does not disappear, but it has ceased to be predominant and physical craving is kept away by the intellectual pursuit.
This is how the human being who is running after desires finds himself in the race of fulfilment of desires. The life gets prompted by desires. The life gets into total transformation. As a karyakarta, while getting into the field for work, similar situation is likely to arise, and hence, one has to be more careful.

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