Wish, Desire and Greed

“A wish which is satvic in nature, when fuelled by rajasic value becomes desire, if burnt in tamasic fire turns into ashes called greed.”

Today’s food for thought is for all age groups at different levels. You may wonder what has a want to do with nature of the gunas, is not wantings of life?How can wants be connected to gunas. All of us know the qualities of gunas, for those of you who are new to this concept, here is a brief introduction to the gunas.

This world of ours is controlled by these 3 gunas, Satvic, Rajasic and Tamasic, we are all constantly swinging between these three gunas in our everyday life. Satvic is a state of harmony and equilibrium in our mind,body and the environment. Rajasic is an aspirational guna always in agitation, anxious to perform and in constant conflict. Tamasic is depression, apathy, and laziness. These are three modes on which our life revolves.

Our mind is designed for a state of calmness and balance which we experience in meditation and in spiritual calmness. This state is disturbed by our environment, by our society pressures and family well being. The mind wants calmness and equilibrium, but the world outside pushes us into the rajasic and tamasic cycle of wants, stress and depression, so our life cycle goes into a frenzy of rajasic and tamasic cycles. So I am going to explain today’s food for thought on these lines.

In this universe the ground rule is everything is designed to be in its ground state ie. the satvic state. Which is also the shivam or savam state. For the purpose of creation and sustenance the matter gets into an excited state which is the aspirational state - the sakthi state, but this aspirational state has a life span or a limit after which it has to be returned, to the state of rest or shivam or savam state. (for science students only - it is like an electron in an atom in its ground state the sakthi in this universe which is the energy of creation or prakrithi as we call it excites the electron to move from ground state to excited state after a time limit moves back to the ground state releasing energy as the work or phalan as we call it).

The same happens in our self also, the mind wants to be in the satvic state which is calmness or serene state or the shavam state, the external state which is the sakthi pushes it to think about achievement and aspiration to earn more, work more and makes us feel that these things will give us extra happiness, so we are on the run for it, but what we miss out on is this sakthi should not be over indulged. This sakthi is the wish which I have mentioned. There is nothing wrong in it as long as you don’t slip into the rajasic mode of going all out to achieve it , even if it has to be forgetting your values and virtues. The problem lies there, you want to buy your dream house which is costing more than you can afford, but the urge to buy it pushes you to go for home loans, jewel loans, person loans, credit card loans and fall into the trap of debt which from a wish state has pushed you into a tamasic state through rajasic state. This is what should be understood. This clarity that you are being pushed beyond limit is the alarm bell for you to move away. Social and peer pressures will push you into this tamasic state so we need to watch out. That is why I had written wish is satvic, desire is rajasic, because we will push and think we have to be aspirational but end up in misery which is greed, it will burn itself and burn you as well. That is why I used the word ashes for greed because at the end of it what remains is just ashes which needs to be thrown away because it becomes useless.

Everyday we are swinging between rajasic and tamasic states, we need to get out of that cycle, here i have given you just one example, but in our daily life every step we are walking with rajasic and tamsic state only. Recognising this is the first step. Next, how to overcome this.

1. Satvic state comes only in stillness and calmness. Sit calmly and ask yourself. Do I need this? What is the purpose? What is my role in doing this? How much happier am I going to become?

2. Diet plays an important role in clearing your mind from rajasic and tamsic actions. Eat healthy food, light food, less spicy,less hot food and drink plenty of water.

3. Walk and be with nature and avoid people contact at least for one hour everyday. Nature heals your hurt emotions and feelings of the day, so get healed by nature and not through people’s words and actions.

These simple steps will see you through this and ambal will rest in you, guide you fulfilling your wishes when you don’t get fuelled by external forces. Ambal doesn’t turn her eyes towards desire and greed, so every wishful thinking, will be appreciated by her and fulfilled by her, she will slay desires and greed when you seek her help, as always introspect your actions in every small thing you do. This is what is the need of the hour.

Thank you,for all your valuable comments, keep churning in good thoughts, think about it, question yourself and put forth your questions to me and I am happy to clarify. Pitch in your knowledge as well, so that all of us benefit and grow to be a better person.