Renouncing the 3 Desires.

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Ramana Maharshi disciple discusses about The Three Desires we need to Renounce

 

 

In Sanskrit, they classify the desire for wife, son and wealth

(thara-putra-dhana) as the three de-sires, whereas in Tamil they classify the

desire for land, women and gold (man-pen-pon) as the de-sires. But on scrutiny,

these are found to be not three desires but only two.

 

The desire that we have for wife or women and the desire for son can be taken as

one desire, namely the desire for relationships (or uravasai); likewise, the

desire for gold, the desire for wealth and the desire for land can be taken as

one desire, namely the desire for material possessions (or porul-asai). What

then is the third of the three desires? It is only the evil desire for praise,

fame, honor, appre-ciation or recognition (or puhazh-asai), which makes one

hanker after the proud and vain glory of feeling " I have renounced the desire

for all these four – wife, son, land and gold " .

 

The desire for loving relationships (uravasai) the desire for material

possessions (porul-asai) and the desire for honor (puhazh-asai) are the

unac-ceptable three desires. More than the first two de-sires, the third one is

very dangerous. Know that the non-rising of the ego, which rises either with the

feeling " I am having this particular desire " or with the feeling " I have

renounced this particular desire, " is alone true renunciation.

 

Even after renouncing, with a little discrimi-nation, love for relationships and

love for material possessions, many wise people become a prey to this desire for

name and fame, which has the power to destroy their discrimination. Therefore,

know that true renunciation is only the state in which the ego- " I " does not

rise, having renounced the liking to en-joy even the honor (puhazh) that results

from the re-nouncing of relatives and possessions.

 

 

Those who experience the sufferings that result from desire for relationships

and desire for material possessions will finally one day or other be-come

disgusted with these desires and renounce them. But the desire for honor

(puhazh) that comes to one is a very treacherous delusion (maya) that is

skillful in concealing and not showing the dangerous harm that lies in itself.

Therefore, people will find more and more joy in this desire for power and honor

(puhazh-asai) and will not shrink from it.

 

Note: When the mind experiences intense suffer-ing due to the diseases which

result from the desire for women or due to the enmity which results from the

desire for sons, it will sooner or later automati-cally gain a liking to

renounce them. Similarly, on account of the endless misery that results from

hav-ing desire for gold, land and wealth, the mind will sooner or later

automatically gain a liking to re-nounce such possessions. Thus desire for

relation-ships and material possessions (uravasai and porul-asai) will one day

or other reveal the dangerous harm that lies in themselves. But when desire for

honor, name and fame (puhazh) is experienced more and more, it will make the

mind feel only a de-lusion of joy, and hence the dangerous harm that lies hidden

in it cannot easily be discerned by the mind. That is why Sri Bhagavan warns us

in verse 37 of Supplement to Reality in Forty Verses (Ulladu Narpadu

Anubandham), " Even though all the worlds have been renounced as mere straw, and

even though all the scriptures have been mastered, for those who have come under

the sway of the wicked harlot called praise, honor, recognition or

apprecia-tion, ah, to escape from slavery to her is indeed very difficult! "

 

Trying to destroy the three desires while re-taining the ego, the feeling " I am

this body " , which is the root of all rising, is utter foolishness, just like

try-ing to cross a river riding upon a crocodile as a raft. The destruction of

the ego, the original sin, is alone the destruction of the threefold fire of

desire. There-fore, in order to destroy all the three desires, the only way is

to destroy oneself by inquiring, " Who am I, who have these desires? "

 

Source: A Light on the Teaching of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi The Essence of

Spiritual Practice (Sadhanai Saram) By Sri Sadhu Om

 

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