Desire My Great Enemy – 14:49
Fall 2011
2 Comments
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Interesting! To me desire is not an enemy… but one of the great tools in life to work with. To not embrace desire is declaring a war on yourself.
Dear Marije,
While it is true that desires are a fact of life, they are essentially of two types. The first is outward desires which seek the pleasure of the senses and worldly fulfillment. They are ego-oriented and transitory in nature. The other type is desire for God which takes us inward to the center of our being and are soul-oriented.
In the traditional yogic sense, desires are considered the great enemy because they are endless and keep us reincarnating lifetime after lifetime. It is no exaggeration to say that, according to the Indian scriptures, this can go on for millions of lifetimes. However, once we realize that outward desires can never give us the fulfillment they promise, the desire for God can very quickly take us to liberation.
In the meantime the best course of action is to try and spiritualize your desires by seeing God as the Doer in your life and offering them up to Him on a daily basis. I would strongly suggest that you read the book “The Essence of Self-Realization” to get Paramhansa Yogananda’s insights into the nature of desire and what it means. To order click here
I hope this helpful. Joy to you, Nayaswami Nakin