Good morning friends. There is a saying that … “Never be satisfied with what you have, always wish for more”. This is true. Don’t just be contented for what you have. You have to aim more and struggle a lot to be able to have your wishes come true.
Materialism and consumerism assume that fulfilling desires and the enjoyment of pleasures are all that is required to make us happy and contented.
We should live happily because once the body is dead and is reduced to ashes; it can never come back to life.
One must enjoy life to the core. What is enjoyment? It is to eat delicious food, seeking the company of the beautiful and young, wearing good clothes and accessories, decorating oneself and experiencing instant gratification wherever possible.
Indian tradition takes a holistic view of human nature. It argues that material aspects, may be for human existence, do not exhaust the whole of the personality of a human being. It recognizes that besides having physical needs and cravings, we have spiritual aspirations also. Why limit human aspiration to only the physical plane?
The spiritual goal alone differentiate the human being from other forms of life. A man does not aspire for just artha and kama or the economic and the emotional; he also wishes for dharma and moksha , the moral and the spiritual. So it’s not as though we only seek the ephemeral and fleeting, we are inclined also to look for what could be eternal and enduring.
In the Bhagavad Gita , Krishna calls them muddha – fools who are imbued with aasuric or demoniac nature. The Gita describes the mindset of such people: “I wanted this and today I got it. I want that; I shall acquire it tomorrow. All these riches are now mine; soon I shall have more. I have killed this enemy; I will kill all others as well and shall soon conquer the world. I am the ruler of men. I enjoy the things of this world. I am successful strong and happy. I am very wealthy and so nobly born. Who is my equal?”
This mindset gives rise to passion, anger and greed that in turn lead to constant strife within the individual and in his dealings with others.
After analyzing suffering is not due to chance and caprice. It is because of certain conditions. If these conditions are removed, then suffering, too, ceases to be. Desire is the root cause of suffering.
Ancient seers described that “desires never satiated by the enjoyment of desires; thereby they only flame forth ever more like fire with butter”. Desires and even their fulfillment, instead of being a source of happiness might spiral so out of control that they become the root cause of suffering.
