All of us have so many desires to fulfill: desires for better dresses, gadgets, cars, homes, jobs. Even when we authentically need these things, the desires to get them in their trendiest forms usually stem not from those needs, but from outer needles.

The word ‘needle’ normally conjures the image of a handy pointed sewing tool. That image can also connote the pricking by which our materialistic culture prods and goads us, that is, needles us. Just as a needle can prick our skin sharply, the culture can prick our minds sharply. 

Each time we see an ad promoting a product – and especially each time we see an acquaintance parading that same product, the acute jab of desire needles our mind. Just as the jab of the goad makes a load-bearing donkey run faster along a road, the jab of such desires makes us run faster along the road of materialism. No wonder the Bhagavad-gita (07.15) refers to those who live thus as donkeys (mudhas).

The more these desire-needles prick us, the more we feel the need to free ourselves from their pricks. Over time, we end mistaking the need for relief from the pricks to be our essential need. However, we are souls, spiritual beings, whose essential need is love: pure, undying love for the ultimate lover, Krishna. Only when we fulfill this innermost need for love can we relish lasting happiness. Unfortunately, we are so busy seeking relief from external needles that we have no time for fulfilling our authentic needs. 

Gita wisdom shows us the way out of the misery: philosophically understand who we actually are, give our spiritual needs their due priority, cultivate prayerful remembrance of Krishna and experience devotional fulfillment thereof. That fulfillment insulates us fully from the jab of outer needles. 

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07 Text 15

“Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto Me.”