*Chapter 4 - Honour Desires*
*Day 28*
Since ancient times in India we have been told to be useful to others and to wish wellbeing to all. After meditation, your consciousness is uplifted.
During meditation, there may be no desires, but once you finish meditating, wish for everyone's wellbeing.
You may fear desires, but when you have overcome fear, why would you desire petty gains? Let happiness be wide-spread and unlimited.
Desire for this happiness and for the prosperity and well-being of all. Even in the Jain tradition they say, desire for bliss or happiness.
Buddhism proclaims, may all be happy, this is the desire they express. Both have the same
meaning.
All the religions of the world, m including Hinduism, Islam and Christianity, have the same wish for everyone's happiness.
Thus, desire continues, and we cannot say that this wish is the start or end of desire. Desire is continual. It has no end, just like having food.
You eat day in and day out. The desire of prakriti, of nature, never ends. If this were to happen, all of nature would come to a stand-still.
The desire of nature existed in the past and is here now, just like waves of the sea, rising and falling. If you stand on the beach at Kanyakumari, you can see the meeting place of two seas and an ocean.
What do these three represent? They represent the three states - waking, dreaming and deep sleep. They also represent the three gunas - sattva, rajas and tamas.
There are three types of desire - sattvic desires, rajasic desires and tamasic desires. The virgin Kanyakumari watches all three, remembering Shiva.
In the world, all people are searching for Shiva, they are looking for that limitless, boundless happiness, which they are.
Do not think that a person will be completely happy once all desires are fulfilled. If all desires were to be fulfilled, he would become depressed.
Depression is a problem more among the rich than among the poor. The poor have a desire for something more, and as long as they have that desire, they will not fall into depression.
A person becomes depressed when his desire is fulfilled very quickly. Therefore, you find more mental illness in developed countries, where 3 out of 10 children see a psychiatrist.
Why do so many in the West become hippies? This is also due to depression. The faster desires become fulfilled, the faster misery comes.
A person also becomes sad when his desire is unfulfilled, but one whose every desire gets fulfilled is in a worse state.
So, when Uma Kumari, who has the energy of desire, which is a virgin, when she acquires the highest knowledge, then, the whole body fills with happiness.
However, what happens to an ordinary person? "The body is scenery." or "Whatever is seen, all of that is the body. This moment, you are seated and looking at me.
So I am the object of sight, and you are the seer. When I am looking at you, you are the sight, and I am the seer.
When you sit on the banks of the Ganga and look at the mountains, then you are the seer and the mountain is the seen.
When you look, you think that the body is a part of you and that together you make up the seer. However, if your eyes are open, but your mind has gone elsewhere, you do not see anything.
Why? This is because the mind is the real seer. If the mind has gone elsewhere, the seer is also elsewhere, so how is it possible to see?
How can a sight be seen? If the mind wanders, you may not hear all the words that reach your ears. Why? The mind is the listener.
The mind sees through the eyes, but even with eyes wide open, you cannot see anything if the mind is elsewhere.
Therefore, the real seer is not the body, but the mind. This is the first step in inner progress, to stand outside the seen and be established in the seer.
This is yoga, to establish oneself in the form of the seer is yoga. Withdraw your focus from the seen, bring it to your vision and look at your body.
Transform your body into the seen - Close your eyes and look at your body as scenery, this can be practical.
What do we do when we do yoga nidra? We do the same thing. We lie down and bring our attention to each and every part of the body.
We look at the body as the seen. This is the way to treat the body as the seen and the mind as the seer. Then the mind realises, "I am different from the body. I am a living, shining light."
This experience happens. Everyone may have felt this in meditation. One meaning of this sutra is to see the body as an object of sight. This is a practise, a sadhana directed to the goal.
