BANGALORE: Vedas, the ancient Indian scriptures have described desires elaborately. There are two kinds of desires - one is fundamental desire, the other topical desire. Topical desires arise in us more often than the fundamental desires. What are they?We like to eat sweets, watch movies, gossip with friends. These are topical desires. Now let us take a look at fundamental desires. Basically there are three desires under this category. If we were to learn that today would be the last day in our lives, every one would expect — ‘Can we not live for a day more?’ This is the first desire.Let us digress a little. This was during my first talk on Bhagavad Gita in Madras. I was staying in a hotel. In the night, there was a knock on the door. A young girl had come to see me. Even before I could ask her what she wanted, she began to speak hastily.I left the home of my dominating mother-in-law today with a view to commit suicide. The seashore was too crowded. So I thought that if I commit suicide after one or two hours, no one would find me and save me. Just to spend a few hours, I attended your talk on Bhagavad Gita.‘I heard you saying, every one wishes to live for a day more. That is utter nonsense! I have no desire to live for the next moment. Right now, I am going straight to seashore to drown myself!’ she said and began to walk away.I am a Monk! Imagine this — a young girl meets me in the night, that too at my hotel room and then goes to commit suicide! What would you make of it?I stopped her and said, ‘I have only said the first half of what I planned to say today in the talk. Another half is yet to be told. So please wait till tomorrow evening and listen to the remaining talk.’The third fundamental desire is to gain as much knowledge as possible during one’s lifetime. This is called hunger for knowledge.Normally the idea meets with opposition, wherever I mention it! ‘My son is only ten years old! He evinces absolutely no interest in his lessons but you say that every one has a desire to gain knowledge! How is that?’ is the question asked by some.One may not have any interest in the lessons taught in the school, but that does not mean that one has no interest in gaining any kind of knowledge.Just for fun, try telling this to someone ‘This is an important secret. I will reveal it to you tomorrow!’ – he would not be able to even wait till the next day to find out what that secret is! We are not happy being ignorant. So I say, wishing to gain knowledge, wanting to learn new things, is the third desire. This, the Vedas refer to as ‘Chit.’Hence, ‘Sat’ means the desire to live, ‘Ananda’ means the desire that life should be happy, ‘Chit’ the desire to acquire knowledge.The Vedas call them together as ‘Sat-Chit-Ananda.’Sat, Chit and Ananda - are the three desires that we seek, like a sea diver searching for pearls in the deep ocean holding his breath!Not knowing this basic truth, we live our lives lost in the unessentials.Therefore, the commitment of a spiritual person should be to fulfil the fundamental desire and not get lost in the unessential desires.Swami Sukhabodhananda is the founder Chairman of Prasanna Trust. He is a respected spiritual leader in the country who is often referred to as the ‘Corporate Guru.’
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