This article is just late in the sense that it was planned weeks ago and was "wisely" postponed so that the author could "reflect" some more on it. However, those noble plans never materialized, so here is what the plan was to write a few weeks ago.
This topic becomes interesting because of some common questions people have about it. Perhaps the most important question is whether all desires are bad. To answer this question, I would first refer the reader to Paramahansa Yoganandaji's article called "The Desire that Satisfies All Desires", where he says that desires can be classified in to those that help us find God and those that obstruct our finding him. Retaliation and anger are of the second kind and forgiveness and love (kindness) are of the first kind. Desires are shaped by our environment and the worldly environment indeed takes peoples' attention away from God, unless they remind themselves that God is the only way to perfect peace and happiness and seek Him out in their daily lives. Let me remind the reader that Maharshi Patanjali's Yoga Darshan also mentions that vrittis (tendencies of the mind) are of two kinds - klishta (those rooted in separative consciousness) and aklishta (less/not rooted in separative consciousness). The second kind of tendencies are not obstructive in the path of Yoga. The control or elimination which Yoga seeks is of the first kind of vrittis.
This does not, however, mean that there is no scope for confusion here. The Yoga Darshan itself talks of "Dharma-megha samaadhi", which is attained when even the interest in retaining the higher knowledge (prasankhyaan) obtained in states of samaadhi is given up. Of course, when the place of prasankhyaan in Yoga is understood, this follows more naturally. According to Shrimat Swaami Hariharaananda Aaranya, the gross forms of the kleshas (separative tendencies born out of Ignorance of the underlying Unity consciousness) are to be made subtle by kriya yoga or concentration, the subtle forms are to be further reduced to the form of burnt seeds (which can't flower anymore) by using the contrasting higher knowledge gained in samaadhi (prasankhyaan) and there is a final state of complete dissolution of the "chitta" (heart or mind) too, wherein there is no more any need to keep the prasankhyaan consciously active in the mind. Work is then (always) performed out of the highest discrimination - which never then diminishes - and therefore there is no longer a need to use the prasankhyaan knowledge to further reduce the kleshas. When understood this way, the message becomes clearer, but such references in texts and other places can sometimes confuse common people who have not had the opportunity to "learn it all". There is a very common saying amongst people that "even the desire for emancipation is a desire" and these kinds of statements can confuse those who have not had the time to seek out the details.
And that is not all. Daily life also brings out situations where people have to rebel against desire. Think of a student constantly dreaming of his goal in life to the point where his days and nights are spent mainly "wanting" and not executing on the intermediate steps that he has been told will help him gain that particular knowledge. Or a person with a big project in mind who can never begin. On the other hand is the person who has "torn himself away" from the want of success for a few weeks and has settled down to executing the intermediate steps. Haven't we seen in our own lives that this kind of "mere acceptance of fate" often leads to success whereas the constant and painful "want" for success just acts as a distraction until it is given up? The same is the state of a beginner in meditation (perhaps any exercise which needs some conscious effort). The "want" may be acute, but until the conscious mind forces the first step, inertia never allows success to come near in that particular exercise.
So these kinds of daily lessons also point to the fact that there are situations where desire needs to be put under conscious control even to achieve what one desires! This adds to the feeling that all desire needs to be controlled or won over - including the desire for God. This, then, can be a source of confusion in the seeker's mind too and pose questions like whether even the desire for emancipation is "bad". For such seekers, the words of experts like Paramahansa Yogananda and Maharshi Patanjali can help clarify - at least to an extent.
One of our Upanishads also says that the Self reveals itself not because of any particular exercise routine or discipline, but because of the act of seeking itself, so this again points to the idea that all desire is not be given up by beginners. The beginner is perhaps better advised to follow the distinction between "good" and "bad" desires, until that other understanding arises in which the questions and the related confusions are eliminated and replaced by wisdom. What happens in that state can be left for some other day. It is difficult to say whether desire never arises in that state, but casual reading of lives of saints suggests that even if they do arise, they are dealt with with wisdom, because of which it is said that the response is always "perfect".
A second question related to desire is what happens when the beginner starts actioning upon the desire to achieve the goal. I believe this is where the yogic discussion of gross versus subtle kleshas comes in again. Once we action upon a desire, we convert it from a mere distraction to an actionable inspiration or in some cases into a "need". Desire in its "need" form is very actionable and helpful in bringing peace and stability to the mind too, because the actions then start following the need, creating lesser conflict. Over time, though, it is possible that some subtle distractions (desires in their disturbing form) still remain in some form in the mind, and it is these that Yoga advises to further reduce to a "burnt-seed" form by keeping the higher knowledge in one's mind (consciously). In an even more advanced stage, no such contrasting knowledge might be needed, because there seems to be a state where the kleshas just go back to where they arose from, never to arise again. This, it seems, is the "prati-prasava" (opposite of creation) of the seeker in Patanjali. So the actioning in the present might not be the complete end of the story, but according to the Yoga teachers, it at least takes us part of the way.
A final question is whether all wants except those for God are "bad". Here again, the advice from various sources seems to be to be practical and make progress starting where we are, rather than doing violence to ourselves due to our conceptions about the highest possible state of consciousness. Some modern teachers have said that we should let the practice do it for us, rather than forcing ourselves to do what we are not really prepared for. Some have said that there is no need to go to the jungles. Others have said that all good human emotions can be retained as long as one turns them towards God, so there is no need to give up our emotions altogether. So maybe energy is frittered away in conflicting desires and emotions, but the advice seems to be "to seek God first", and not to crush all emotions first. When wisdom comes, it is said that the rightful place of all these will be clear to the seeker through an unfailing intuition or understanding of the Supreme or some other similar source.
Sadanand Tutakne
This topic becomes interesting because of some common questions people have about it. Perhaps the most important question is whether all desires are bad. To answer this question, I would first refer the reader to Paramahansa Yoganandaji's article called "The Desire that Satisfies All Desires", where he says that desires can be classified in to those that help us find God and those that obstruct our finding him. Retaliation and anger are of the second kind and forgiveness and love (kindness) are of the first kind. Desires are shaped by our environment and the worldly environment indeed takes peoples' attention away from God, unless they remind themselves that God is the only way to perfect peace and happiness and seek Him out in their daily lives. Let me remind the reader that Maharshi Patanjali's Yoga Darshan also mentions that vrittis (tendencies of the mind) are of two kinds - klishta (those rooted in separative consciousness) and aklishta (less/not rooted in separative consciousness). The second kind of tendencies are not obstructive in the path of Yoga. The control or elimination which Yoga seeks is of the first kind of vrittis.
This does not, however, mean that there is no scope for confusion here. The Yoga Darshan itself talks of "Dharma-megha samaadhi", which is attained when even the interest in retaining the higher knowledge (prasankhyaan) obtained in states of samaadhi is given up. Of course, when the place of prasankhyaan in Yoga is understood, this follows more naturally. According to Shrimat Swaami Hariharaananda Aaranya, the gross forms of the kleshas (separative tendencies born out of Ignorance of the underlying Unity consciousness) are to be made subtle by kriya yoga or concentration, the subtle forms are to be further reduced to the form of burnt seeds (which can't flower anymore) by using the contrasting higher knowledge gained in samaadhi (prasankhyaan) and there is a final state of complete dissolution of the "chitta" (heart or mind) too, wherein there is no more any need to keep the prasankhyaan consciously active in the mind. Work is then (always) performed out of the highest discrimination - which never then diminishes - and therefore there is no longer a need to use the prasankhyaan knowledge to further reduce the kleshas. When understood this way, the message becomes clearer, but such references in texts and other places can sometimes confuse common people who have not had the opportunity to "learn it all". There is a very common saying amongst people that "even the desire for emancipation is a desire" and these kinds of statements can confuse those who have not had the time to seek out the details.
And that is not all. Daily life also brings out situations where people have to rebel against desire. Think of a student constantly dreaming of his goal in life to the point where his days and nights are spent mainly "wanting" and not executing on the intermediate steps that he has been told will help him gain that particular knowledge. Or a person with a big project in mind who can never begin. On the other hand is the person who has "torn himself away" from the want of success for a few weeks and has settled down to executing the intermediate steps. Haven't we seen in our own lives that this kind of "mere acceptance of fate" often leads to success whereas the constant and painful "want" for success just acts as a distraction until it is given up? The same is the state of a beginner in meditation (perhaps any exercise which needs some conscious effort). The "want" may be acute, but until the conscious mind forces the first step, inertia never allows success to come near in that particular exercise.
So these kinds of daily lessons also point to the fact that there are situations where desire needs to be put under conscious control even to achieve what one desires! This adds to the feeling that all desire needs to be controlled or won over - including the desire for God. This, then, can be a source of confusion in the seeker's mind too and pose questions like whether even the desire for emancipation is "bad". For such seekers, the words of experts like Paramahansa Yogananda and Maharshi Patanjali can help clarify - at least to an extent.
One of our Upanishads also says that the Self reveals itself not because of any particular exercise routine or discipline, but because of the act of seeking itself, so this again points to the idea that all desire is not be given up by beginners. The beginner is perhaps better advised to follow the distinction between "good" and "bad" desires, until that other understanding arises in which the questions and the related confusions are eliminated and replaced by wisdom. What happens in that state can be left for some other day. It is difficult to say whether desire never arises in that state, but casual reading of lives of saints suggests that even if they do arise, they are dealt with with wisdom, because of which it is said that the response is always "perfect".
A second question related to desire is what happens when the beginner starts actioning upon the desire to achieve the goal. I believe this is where the yogic discussion of gross versus subtle kleshas comes in again. Once we action upon a desire, we convert it from a mere distraction to an actionable inspiration or in some cases into a "need". Desire in its "need" form is very actionable and helpful in bringing peace and stability to the mind too, because the actions then start following the need, creating lesser conflict. Over time, though, it is possible that some subtle distractions (desires in their disturbing form) still remain in some form in the mind, and it is these that Yoga advises to further reduce to a "burnt-seed" form by keeping the higher knowledge in one's mind (consciously). In an even more advanced stage, no such contrasting knowledge might be needed, because there seems to be a state where the kleshas just go back to where they arose from, never to arise again. This, it seems, is the "prati-prasava" (opposite of creation) of the seeker in Patanjali. So the actioning in the present might not be the complete end of the story, but according to the Yoga teachers, it at least takes us part of the way.
A final question is whether all wants except those for God are "bad". Here again, the advice from various sources seems to be to be practical and make progress starting where we are, rather than doing violence to ourselves due to our conceptions about the highest possible state of consciousness. Some modern teachers have said that we should let the practice do it for us, rather than forcing ourselves to do what we are not really prepared for. Some have said that there is no need to go to the jungles. Others have said that all good human emotions can be retained as long as one turns them towards God, so there is no need to give up our emotions altogether. So maybe energy is frittered away in conflicting desires and emotions, but the advice seems to be "to seek God first", and not to crush all emotions first. When wisdom comes, it is said that the rightful place of all these will be clear to the seeker through an unfailing intuition or understanding of the Supreme or some other similar source.
Sadanand Tutakne
