2nd July 1997
Chapter 1 - The You That You Want To Change
Day 6 - Lust
In love even an object is elevated to life. Stones and trees speak to you, the sun, the moon, the entire creation becomes alive and divine. In lust even a living being becomes a mere object. You want to even use people like objects. Lust brings tension, love brings relaxation.
In lust there is cunningness and manipulation, in love there is playfulness. Lust focuses on a part, love focuses on the whole. In lust you want to grasp and possess, in love you want to give and surrender.
In lust there is effort, love is effortless. Lust brings violence, love brings sacrifice. Lust demands, love commands. In lust you are mixed up and confused in love you are focused and spaced out. Lust is dark and monotonous, love has many modes and colours.
Lust says, "All I want you to have is what I want". Love says, "I want you to have what you want". Lust causes feverishness and frustration, love causes longing. Lust imprisons and destroys, love liberates and sets you free. If someone's lust is interrupted, they become angry and start hating.
Hatred in the world today is not out of love, it is out of lust. Shiva, the embodiment of innocence and love, was meditating. His meditation was disturbed by an arrow of flowers from the lord of lust. As soon as Shiva awoke, he opened his third eye and the lord of lust, Manmathava - one who churns the mind - was reduced to ashes.
Lust grips the mind, tires the body and dulls the intellect. Lust when indulged brings inertia, and when suppressed brings anger. Lust is nothing but primordial unharnessed energy. The same energy when harnessed manifests as enthusiasm, sparkle, sharpness of intellect and love.
What can you do to sublimate lust and transform it into love? Be playful. People who are in the grip of lust cannot be genuinely playful. When you are playful, then there is no lust. Be generous. When you realise that you are here only to give, then lust is sublimated.
Lust makes you possessive and greedy. Take cold water baths. Moderate your intake of food. Undertake creative challenges. Remember death and be in love with the divine.