Gita Satsang: Swami Paramathananda's Message from Gita

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Contentment, Key to Man's Happiness: Swami Paramarthananda's Message from Gita

 

Desire is the motive for all human actions. Legitimate desires which do not

transgress Dharma have scriptural sanction but human nature is such that

fulfilment is rare in worldly life. As soon as one desire is fulfilled another

raises its head and life thus becomes a perennial strife without contentment at

any stage. In fact, one finds to one's dismay that it is not possible to

satiate one's endless desires. This must lead a right-thinking person to

analyse the reason why contentment is so elusive. All desires are the

expressions of one basic desire i.e., the feeling of incompleteness or

unhappiness about the present situation. According to Vedanta it is the finite

"I", the ego, which seeks to become complete, the infinite, but this is not

possible.

 

One can easily understand that the whole approach is illogical because any

number of finite additions cannot become the infinite. Out of ignorance man

tries to find happiness by fulfilling his desires as and when they arise with

the hope of realizing infinite bliss. This basic ignorance will become apparent

only when one takes to spiritual life and scriptural study.

 

Desire is not the only weakness of man but anger also, which makes a person

violent. Violence in any form is sinful and spiritually retrograde. Desire and

anger make a person extroverted and violent; hence he becomes unfit to follow

the spiritual path. Though they appear to be different, desire and anger were

not separate entities but two sides of the same coin, said Swami

Paramarthananda in his lecture on the Bhagavad Gita. Frustrated desire turns

into anger and fulfilled ones lead to greed. How does one tackle this

situation? Lord Krishna points out how desires will lead to the loss of

discrimination, "As a flame is covered by smoke, mirror by dirt, and embryo by

the amnion, so is knowledge covered by desire." There is no need to emphasize

the importance of discrimination in day-to-day life. If one allows desires to

blind one's rational thinking, all judgments and actions will be affected.

 

The examples given in this verse in the Gita is further helpful in

understanding how the problem can be resolved. First is the possibility of

assessing the situation rationally, considering its practicality, if it is not

possible to renounce the desire. Another method of approach will be to satiate

the desire to find out whether one derives contentment and eventually try to

grow out of it. In some cases as in the case of the growing foetus, the only

recourse will be to wait patiently because only with time can one hope to

expect a change in attitude.

 

Source: An Article from the Religious Section of The Hindu taken with

permission: "Copyrights 2000 The Hindu & Tribeca Internet Initiatives Inc."