Desire and liberation
Bhagavad Gita
Important masters like Buddha, Swami Sivananda, Sankaracharya, Nisargadatta and sacred texts like the Bhagavad Gita make it clear that the root cause of our bondage and suffering is desire (this is also my experience) and that its dissolution leads to liberation.
The more you attenuate your desires, the happier you will be. In proportion to the attenuation of desires, the mind also attenuates proportionately. The mind is nothing but a bundle of desires. The mind is nothing but desires that generate an endless series of rebirths. The true nature of the mind is desires.
~ Swami Sivananda
Pain and suffering are born of desire
~ Nisargadatta
From desire arises pain, from desire arises fear.
For the one who is free from desire there is neither pain nor fear.
~ Buddha
Excerpts from the Bhagavad Gita on Desire and Liberation
Bhagavad Gita, Ch.III
Arjuna said:
- But what is it that impels a man to commit sin, even without desiring it, as if he were doing it by force?
Lord Krishna said
- This is desire, this is anger, which is born of the quality (guna) rajas, the great all-devouring evil. Learn that here desire is the enemy.
- As fire is covered by smoke, and the mirror by dust, as the embryo is covered by the amnion (the membrane surrounding the embryo), so the Atman (Consciousness, our divine Self) is covered by desire.
- From this eternal enemy of the sage, the insatiable fire of desire, O Arjuna, is covered the knowledge of the Atman!
Bhagavad Gita, Chap. II
The blessed Lord (Krishna) said:
- When man thinks of objects, attachment to them is born. From attachment is born desire and from (unsatisfied) desire is born anger*.
Commentary of the Atman:
*from desire anger is born: as water turns to ice when it is put in the refrigerator, so desire turns to anger when it cannot be satisfied because of some obstacle (person, event or whatever). Anger is nothing more than a modification of desire. In my experience, all selfish tendencies and lower emotions originate directly or indirectly in desire.
- From anger comes confusion, from confusion comes amnesia (loss of memory) and loss of discernment (and reason) and from loss of discernment man loses himself (falls back into the material pool).
- But the self-controlled man, who moves among sense objects with disciplined senses, free from attraction and aversion (to sense objects) attains serenity (peace of mind).
- In this serenity, all sadness or suffering ends because the mind (intellect, -Buddhi) of a person with a serene mind soon becomes stable (becomes stable in the Self, Atman).
- The man who, having abandoned all desires, moves without longing, free from the sense of “I” and “mine,” attains peace.
- That is the state of Brahman (the state of eternal peace and bliss), O Arjuna. By attaining it one is no longer deluded. As long as he is established in it, even in the last moment of his life, he will attain oneness with Brahman.
Bhagavad Gita Ch. V
- Those who have controlled themselves, who have controlled their thoughts, who are free from desire and anger, and who have realized the Self (Atman, Consciousness), experience the all-pervading peace and Bliss of God (the Nirvana of Brahman).
- With the senses, mind and intellect always controlled, having liberation as his supreme goal, free from desire, fear and anger, the sage is truly liberated forever.
Bhagavad Gita Ch. IV
- Freed from attachment, fear and anger, absorbed in Me, taking refuge in Me, purified by the fire of knowledge (of the Atman, divine Consciousness), many have attained My Self.
Bhagavad Gita Ch. XV
- Free from pride and delusion, victorious over the evil of attachment, dwelling continuously in the Self, having completely removed their desires, freed from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, the undeluded, they attain the eternal goal (the peace and bliss of God – Brahman).
Those who have controlled themselves, who have controlled their thoughts, who are free from desire and anger, and who have realized the Self (Atman, Consciousness), experience the all-pervading peace and Bliss of God (the Nirvana of Brahman).
Bhagavad Gita Ch. V🌺 Peace, Love, Harmony
atmannityanada 