Of Desires & Moksha
Our scriptures advise us to stay away from desires, because desires are at the root of most human-created problems. The Bhagavad Gita goes as far as to say that desires (and the anger resulting from them) are all-consuming, destructive and our enemy on earth. Adi Sankara (whom I like to call the ‘OG-Bhashya kāra ’ , in a true millennial lingo) in his Gita Bhāshyam puts it beautifully – desires, when fulfilled lead to more desires, attachment & delusion; and when not fulfilled cause disappointment, sorrow and anger. So, either way desires aren’t really desirable! All they lead to is a hamster wheel, where we are always in the quest for the next big thing, or in search of ‘that’ beautiful day where everything will be alright. So, if ‘that’ day is somewhere in the future, then by definition ‘today’ can’t be alright, ‘today’ is bound to be rife with problems, sorrows and yearning. Perhaps, that’s why the Buddha proclaimed Dukkha (or suffering) as the First Noble Truth. Maybe the...