Our desires  sometimes get us into big  trouble, as when we get lured into an addictive indulgence or a toxic relationship. On being thus misled, we may resolve to get rid of all desires. 

However, to be conscious is to be desirous, as desire is innate to consciousness. If we try to curb desire, it’s like trying to keep a football under the water. We push it down at one place, but it pops up at another place. 

What we need to do is not curb desire, but to cure desire by changing what we desire. We are at our core spiritual beings, who long for lasting love, lasting life and lasting joy. But unfortunately we are seeking all that at the material level where it will never be found because here everything is temporary. To find lasting happiness, we need to raise our consciousness to the spiritual level and desire the supreme spiritual reality. Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita (10.41) explains that everything that triggers our desires manifests a spark of Krishna’s splendor. We need to redirect our desires from the sparks to the sun. 

For such redirection, the Gita recommends bhakti-yoga, which provides us multiple resources to link our consciousness with Krishna and experience his sweetness. To tap these resources, we need to focus not so much on the desires that we have to curb, but on the desires that we need to cultivate: the desire to connect with Krishna in the manifestations we find attractive and the desire to re-envision our entire life as a service to him. And the more we cultivate such healthy desires, we will become so enriched and energized by that Krishna connection that our unhealthy desires will gradually decline and disappear from our heart. 

One-sentence summary:

That we desire can’t be curbed, but what we desire can be cured.

Think it over:

  • Why can’t desire be curbed?
  • How are current desires diseased?
  • How can desire be cured?

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10.41: Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.

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