Dear
Once i answered this same question to one of my student. I think it will help you as well.
I once had a thousand desires. But in my one desire to know you, all else melted away.
-Rumi
Speaker: “I once had a thousand desires.” We all have thousand desires. You all have thousand desires. What does each desire say? Each desire says, “Fulfill me, and you will get satisfaction. Fulfill me and you will get satisfaction.” Now, what is this satisfaction? When you are satisfied, do you still have desire? Does the desire say, “Fulfill me and still I will remain”? What does the desire say? “Fulfill me and I will go.”
So what does each desire want? To be fulfilled. And to be fulfilled means- the desire gets vanished. So each desire wishes for its own disappearance. So the desire only desires the disappearance of itself. This is what every desire wants. That is the nature of desire.
So there are thousand desires, and what is each desire desiring?
Listeners: Its own disappearance.
Speaker: Rumi is saying, “I once had a thousand desires, but in my one desire to know you, all else melted away.” So a thousand desires are there. But what is the common desire that each desire has? The disappearance of itself.
So now you know what is the one desire we have, behind our thousands of desires?
Listeners: The disappearance of itself.
Speaker: Can this desire please disappear? Because we do not know any other method of disappearance of desire, so we apply the only method we know. And what is the only method? To fulfill it. Had you known any other method to dissolve the desire, you would not have fulfilled the desire. Understand this.
You fulfill the desire because you don’t know anything else. You do not know any other method. If you could be assured that even without fulfilling the desire, the desire can vanish, won’t you take this option very quickly?
Let us say, you are craving for a pizza. If you were told that even without eating the pizza, even without paying the bill, even without consuming these calories, the desire to eat pizza will go away, and you will feel exactly as desireless, as satisfied, would you still pay the money, travel to the shop and consume the calories? Would you still to do that? You won’t. You eat the pizza because you don’t have any other option. You crave for pizza, and then the desire asks for its completion. You know only one way – eat. So you eat. Right?
Desire actually does not ask for its fulfillment. It actually asks for its disappearance. And there is difference between dissolution of desire, and fulfillment of desire. The worldly man tries to beat the desire by fulfilling it. The spiritual man actually beats the desire, by dissolving it. This is the difference between the worldly man and the spiritual man. Do you understand this?
“I once had a thousand desires. But in my one desire to know you, all else melted away.”
Knowing you, is knowing your own state of desirelessness. That desirelessness is not just an empty state. When you say, “Desirelessness”, the word indicates the absence of something, desire – lessness. But actually you cannot be desireless without having something very big, very bountiful, very worthy of desire. Do you get it?
When we just say, “Desirelessness”, the image that the mind gets is, just of an absence. “I don’t have desires.” What you have, that cannot be captured in image, because that is too large to be contained in an image. What do you get? That which you do not have. And what do you not have? Desire.
It is like the richest man saying, “I am not poor.” He is not lying, but he is making a terrible understatement. He is not lying, he is right. He is not poor. But he is making a terrible understatement. So when you say that the highest state is of desirelessness, then you are right. But you are very humble. You are, in fact, too humble. You are making a great understatement.
Remember: To be desireless means to be with something which is so large that no more desires are needed. “I have something so big now that all these small tit-bits have become irrelevant.” That is desirelessness. Right?
The world is afraid of desirelessness. If you tell somebody, “I don’t have any desires,” he will taunt you. He will say, “Have you become a sadhu-sanyasi? Oh! You don’t have any desires.” He will think that you have lost something, and the word itself is in negativa. You have lost something.
I am repeating again: What remains obvious is what you have lost. What have you lost? Trivia, desire. But what remains hidden is the greatness that you are now situated in. It is so great that it does not have a limit. And because it does not have a limit, so you cannot name it, or indicate it.
To be desireless means to have fulfilled the climax of the desire.
The worldly man has been trying to fulfill it, and you have fulfilled it. Remember, intrying to fulfill, there is only trying and trying. But in dissolution of desire, there is the actual fulfillment. So those who keep trying to fulfill their desires, all that they get is trying. Those who dissolve the desire, get fulfillment.
But remember again: Dissolving the desire is not the first thing. You will not be able to give up the desire without first having something that is more worthy, precious, important and immense than all that you can desire. And then the desire drops on its own.
Even then it does not mean that you will not be desiring anything. It does not mean that you will be thirsty, and you will not ask for water. It only means that you will not be taking your trivial desires seriously. You will be happy with desires, and you will be equally contented without the fulfillment of desires. You will say, “Fine, small matters. I am so rich. I do not worry about small losses and gains.”
“In my one desire to know you, all else melted away.”
That you is that immensity which is the climax of desires, that you is that which all your desires are chasing. When you ask for a pizza, you are not really asking for a pizza. You are asking for That. But because you have no way to come to That, so you take an ugly substitute, an ugly shortcut. So what do you order? A pizza. But what do you want? Parmaatma.
So you want God, but that is not being sold in any of these huts. So instead you go and say, “Pizza with extra cheese, seasoning and this and that.” That waiter is an idiot. Had he been a realized man, he would have said, “We don’t sell God. And that is what you need.” You want That, but you are running after some woman or some man. You want That, but you are running after money, and prestige, and recognition. All your desires are desires of That only, who is been referred to as ‘you’ by Rumi.
You have never wanted anything else. Anybody who has ever wanted, has wanted only That. Nothing else can be wanted. But we are ignorant, and we also don’t have a way to reach there. So instead of asking for That directly, we keep asking for this and that.
So, you keep asking for more marks. Who wants marks? What will you do with these marks? You actually want that great contentment which marks unfortunately are never able to give. Such is our tragedy. We want something, and we keep asking for something else. And imagine your disappointment. Even when you get that something else, you are still defeated.
To read more of it and various other questions I invite you to:
http://prashantadvait.com/2015/05/23/what-is-your-ultimate-desire/
Or veiw session at:
Q&A:
http://www.querynanswer.com/question/i-want-so-many-things-in-life-i-have-so-many-desires-but-nothing-is-happening-what-is-the-remedy/
Once i answered this same question to one of my student. I think it will help you as well.
I once had a thousand desires. But in my one desire to know you, all else melted away.
-Rumi
Speaker: “I once had a thousand desires.” We all have thousand desires. You all have thousand desires. What does each desire say? Each desire says, “Fulfill me, and you will get satisfaction. Fulfill me and you will get satisfaction.” Now, what is this satisfaction? When you are satisfied, do you still have desire? Does the desire say, “Fulfill me and still I will remain”? What does the desire say? “Fulfill me and I will go.”
So what does each desire want? To be fulfilled. And to be fulfilled means- the desire gets vanished. So each desire wishes for its own disappearance. So the desire only desires the disappearance of itself. This is what every desire wants. That is the nature of desire.
So there are thousand desires, and what is each desire desiring?
Listeners: Its own disappearance.
Speaker: Rumi is saying, “I once had a thousand desires, but in my one desire to know you, all else melted away.” So a thousand desires are there. But what is the common desire that each desire has? The disappearance of itself.
So now you know what is the one desire we have, behind our thousands of desires?
Listeners: The disappearance of itself.
Speaker: Can this desire please disappear? Because we do not know any other method of disappearance of desire, so we apply the only method we know. And what is the only method? To fulfill it. Had you known any other method to dissolve the desire, you would not have fulfilled the desire. Understand this.
You fulfill the desire because you don’t know anything else. You do not know any other method. If you could be assured that even without fulfilling the desire, the desire can vanish, won’t you take this option very quickly?
Let us say, you are craving for a pizza. If you were told that even without eating the pizza, even without paying the bill, even without consuming these calories, the desire to eat pizza will go away, and you will feel exactly as desireless, as satisfied, would you still pay the money, travel to the shop and consume the calories? Would you still to do that? You won’t. You eat the pizza because you don’t have any other option. You crave for pizza, and then the desire asks for its completion. You know only one way – eat. So you eat. Right?
Desire actually does not ask for its fulfillment. It actually asks for its disappearance. And there is difference between dissolution of desire, and fulfillment of desire. The worldly man tries to beat the desire by fulfilling it. The spiritual man actually beats the desire, by dissolving it. This is the difference between the worldly man and the spiritual man. Do you understand this?
“I once had a thousand desires. But in my one desire to know you, all else melted away.”
Knowing you, is knowing your own state of desirelessness. That desirelessness is not just an empty state. When you say, “Desirelessness”, the word indicates the absence of something, desire – lessness. But actually you cannot be desireless without having something very big, very bountiful, very worthy of desire. Do you get it?
When we just say, “Desirelessness”, the image that the mind gets is, just of an absence. “I don’t have desires.” What you have, that cannot be captured in image, because that is too large to be contained in an image. What do you get? That which you do not have. And what do you not have? Desire.
It is like the richest man saying, “I am not poor.” He is not lying, but he is making a terrible understatement. He is not lying, he is right. He is not poor. But he is making a terrible understatement. So when you say that the highest state is of desirelessness, then you are right. But you are very humble. You are, in fact, too humble. You are making a great understatement.
Remember: To be desireless means to be with something which is so large that no more desires are needed. “I have something so big now that all these small tit-bits have become irrelevant.” That is desirelessness. Right?
The world is afraid of desirelessness. If you tell somebody, “I don’t have any desires,” he will taunt you. He will say, “Have you become a sadhu-sanyasi? Oh! You don’t have any desires.” He will think that you have lost something, and the word itself is in negativa. You have lost something.
I am repeating again: What remains obvious is what you have lost. What have you lost? Trivia, desire. But what remains hidden is the greatness that you are now situated in. It is so great that it does not have a limit. And because it does not have a limit, so you cannot name it, or indicate it.
To be desireless means to have fulfilled the climax of the desire.
The worldly man has been trying to fulfill it, and you have fulfilled it. Remember, intrying to fulfill, there is only trying and trying. But in dissolution of desire, there is the actual fulfillment. So those who keep trying to fulfill their desires, all that they get is trying. Those who dissolve the desire, get fulfillment.
But remember again: Dissolving the desire is not the first thing. You will not be able to give up the desire without first having something that is more worthy, precious, important and immense than all that you can desire. And then the desire drops on its own.
Even then it does not mean that you will not be desiring anything. It does not mean that you will be thirsty, and you will not ask for water. It only means that you will not be taking your trivial desires seriously. You will be happy with desires, and you will be equally contented without the fulfillment of desires. You will say, “Fine, small matters. I am so rich. I do not worry about small losses and gains.”
“In my one desire to know you, all else melted away.”
That you is that immensity which is the climax of desires, that you is that which all your desires are chasing. When you ask for a pizza, you are not really asking for a pizza. You are asking for That. But because you have no way to come to That, so you take an ugly substitute, an ugly shortcut. So what do you order? A pizza. But what do you want? Parmaatma.
So you want God, but that is not being sold in any of these huts. So instead you go and say, “Pizza with extra cheese, seasoning and this and that.” That waiter is an idiot. Had he been a realized man, he would have said, “We don’t sell God. And that is what you need.” You want That, but you are running after some woman or some man. You want That, but you are running after money, and prestige, and recognition. All your desires are desires of That only, who is been referred to as ‘you’ by Rumi.
You have never wanted anything else. Anybody who has ever wanted, has wanted only That. Nothing else can be wanted. But we are ignorant, and we also don’t have a way to reach there. So instead of asking for That directly, we keep asking for this and that.
So, you keep asking for more marks. Who wants marks? What will you do with these marks? You actually want that great contentment which marks unfortunately are never able to give. Such is our tragedy. We want something, and we keep asking for something else. And imagine your disappointment. Even when you get that something else, you are still defeated.
To read more of it and various other questions I invite you to:
http://prashantadvait.com/2015/05/23/what-is-your-ultimate-desire/
Or veiw session at:
Q&A:
http://www.querynanswer.com/question/i-want-so-many-things-in-life-i-have-so-many-desires-but-nothing-is-happening-what-is-the-remedy/
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