"hazāroñ ḳhvāhisheñ aisī ki har ḳhvāhish pe dam nikle
bahut nikle mire armān lekin phir bhī kam nikle"
This is a famous couplet from the poetry of Mirza Galib. That means we have thousands of desires and each desire is so powerful that if we are not able to fulfill the same, we feel like dying. Whatever desires are fulfilled, we always feel that our desires have not been fulfilled.
I feel that everybody can relate to this. We have so many desires for almost the rest of our lives. During childhood, we have a desire to play around, have toys, get appreciation from our parents, teachers, get good marks, pass the examinations, win medals, win different competitions and championships, and get admission to good universities, and finally get a good job, and a good life partner. Similarly, adults have thousands of desires such as going abroad, getting increments, a good home, properties, powers, and so many other things. These are the high-level desires during childhood. We have many desires on a day-to-day basis such as tasty food, being healthy, reaching the office on time, getting appreciation from the bosses, being respected, winning the arguments, looking attractive, and so on.
I don't think there is any person in this world who lives without desires. Some work hard and some work harder. Sometimes circumstances support and other times they do not support. That is how we keep living life. Probably all these desires can be categorized into three broad categories. The first set of desires is to protect what we already have. The second set of desires relates to having more of what we desire. The third set of desires comprises the desire to bring harmony and sustainability.
I feel that so long as we continue to live in this world, our lives will be driven by one or the other desire. However, what matters is our center of life. The narrower the center of life, the more anxious, constipated, and limited we will be. The bigger the center of life, the more relaxed and joyful we will be. For example, somebody's center of life may be the self, and he may have three types of desires around the self. He may live life to get tasty food, good clothes, a home, money, and powers for self-consumption. Somebody may have the center of life around family and may want all these things for the family. Somebody may have organization as the core of one's existence and may try to take the organization to the next level. Somebody may have the nation at the center of one's existence and may make efforts for the development of the nation. Somebody may have humanity at the center of his life and may devote his life to the welfare of humanity. Somebody may have truth at the center of his life and his actions may be guided by truth and consciousness.
Probably, both the lower and higher forces always attract the energy of an individual. For example, when somebody joins a spiritual organization, apparently the center of life may be the truth and efforts may be centered around the realization of self or certain experiences of consciousness. However, in the process mostly organization becomes the center of life, and the promotion of the organization takes over the object of spiritual realization. In the process, organizations offer certain "titles" to their followers and the lower forces start taking pleasure in these "titles" and getting a better "title" becomes the aim of life. An individual's desire to get a name and fame takes over the aim of spiritual realization.
Similarly, we often pretend to work for the organizations in disguise most of the time, we keep aiming for the positions and powers. Many of us pretend that we are working for the welfare of our families, while our actions are more driven by individual selves. We often see many such conflicts. When kids marry a boy or a girl of their choice, the parents sometimes resist these choices because for them their social status or beliefs are more important, and if the decision of the kids contradicts that, they often resist the same.
Probably there are always two different movements within all of us. One is horizontal movements whereby we are trying to expand from individual self to family to organizations to the nation and to humanity. The other movement is vertical whereby we we realize that all these horizontal forces are just the manifestation of the same consciousness and therefore quite temporary. I don't think that the horizontal expansion alone can ever give anybody peace of mind. In fact, horizontal expansion without vertical depth is going to make us more and more ambitious, and driven by these ambitions, there will continue battles among nations and communities and organizations and people. Everybody, every organization, and every country wants to expand and rule the entire world. I feel that harmony may come only when we undertake the vertical journey and realize that everything has the same source. That realization makes us full of peace and joy instantly because divisions between good and bad, like and dislike do not exist in that oneness. These divisions are the creation of a horizontal world. Every death is a new beginning in that state of oneness.
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