Is Desire Evil?

Desire is called as Iccha sakthi in the Indian culture - so it is divine. The primary benefit of desire is the
attainment of the four goals of life - purusha arthas – which are dharma, artha, kaama and moksha.

Consider sugar problem in diabetes disease – sugar itself is not the problem but the levels of low
and high sugar level in the body only poses the problem. Similarly there are levels (norms)
prescribed by the Shastra for desires!

A. The fist norm is the appropriateness of the desire.

Dharmika kaama.

Desires are moulded by upbringing and by also the past births impressions - purva janma vaasana.
Some of the desires are dharmic (righteous) and some others are adharmic (unrighteous). If adharmic
desires rise up in your mind – don’t feel bad, since the desires arise without your control.

The rise of the adharmic desires are not in your control. But the continuation of the adharmic desires in
the mind is in YOUR control. Don’t allow them to become powerful to overcome you and make you act.

So filter your desires and maintain, nourish only the dharmic desires. Self respect – self
esteem is affected when you entertain immoral desires.

B. The second norm is the balanced desires.

Desire for acquisition should be balanced with desire for contribution. Desire for acquisition is natural
but desire for contribution is to be cultivated. So one should deliberately cultivate a desire for
contribution i.e. charity, helping others, kind words etc.

The scriptures have identified 5 areas for contribution. The scriptures look upon the entire universe as
an unified cosmic infrastructure. We are tapping from this infrastructure – so it is the responsibility of
humans to maintain this infrastructure.

The infrastructure is divided into 5 layers.

The first and outer most layer is the nature – considered as the five elements - pancha bhutas – sky,
air, fire, water and earth.

The second layer consists of all the living beings- including flora and fauna.

The third layer is the society consisting of the fellow human beings – society

The fourth layer is the Educational institutions – consisting of teachers etc. These institutions should
inform the children about the nature of desire and the necessity of appropriate – healthy - desires. This
will be conducive to create responsible human beings.

The fifth area of contribution is the family. Family is the most important infrastructure for a
person to have a healthy mind. Family acts like a cushioning support with love and care. We
have to contribute to the family unity and propagation even if it involves sacrifice of one’s
personal interests.

Our contribution to the above five sections is called pancha mahaa yagna.

All our material pursuits should be balanced with our spiritual pursuits also. The whole
universe is a mixture of matter(prakriti) and spirit(purusha). Indeed the individual is also mixture of
matter and spirit. Therefore, our pursuit should be also a mixture of prakriti and purusha. A sense of
hollowness will be there for a person with a lopsided material pursuit. So allocate time compulsorily for
spiritual pursuit – this can be done by study of Bhagawad Gita etc.
C. Let the desires be clean desires.

Desire has some undesirable by-products. These are krodha(anger), lobha(greed,jealousy,rivalry),

moha(delusion). Therefore take care of these toxic by-products. So desires should be free from these toxic by-
products.

Follow a, b, c and d; a – appropriate; b – balanced; c – clean DESIRES