“What more do you want?”

What more do you want? (Vol.2 – Need or Greed)

There is a wonderful statement by Mahatma Gandhi, “We have enough to fulfill the whole world’s needs. But, the whole world cannot fulfill one man’s wants.” Only a person like Gandhiji can make such a statement. Gandhiji’s life was a living expression of this saying. He lived what he said. He is truly one of the greatest human beings ever born on this earth. Apart from being a political leader, he had so many different dimensions to his being. Only Bharat can boast of having a leader who preached and practised non-violence. All the countries boast of warriors as their heroes. Here is a man who died saying, “Don’t punish the person who killed me!” Even in the last moment of his life, he was concerned about others. Living religion is easy but living religion at the moment of death is surely not easy. Gandhiji was a person who lived his religion even at the time of death.

The whole world has got enough of things to fulfill everyone’s needs but it cannot fulfill one person’s wants. In Jainism, there is a beautiful concept: I don’t know whether it is a fact but it is the truth. You need to understand the difference between truth and fact. The truths that are already discovered, already analyzed are facts. If a truth has been proved by some scientist, by a theory or analysis, it has become a fact. There are so many truths though that are yet to be discovered, yet to become facts. Just because a truth is not yet a fact, you cannot deny the truth. For example, before the theory of gravitation was discovered by Newton, do you think there was no gravity? Gravity existed before and after Newton discovered it; he only made it a clear theory and proved it to be a fact.

In Jainism, there is a truth that Mahavira states, “When you come down to planet earth, the total amount of food which you will eat is sent with you to planet Earth. The energy needed to fulfill all your desires is given to you when you enter the Earth.” The things which you are going to enjoy: your house, comforts are all sent to the world. The capacity to enjoy all your comforts is also given to you the moment you enter the planet earth.

If this is the truth, why do we feel we are lacking? If I ask any one of you whether you agree with this, most of you will disagree saying, “No, Swamiji; God has given me less for sure. I don’t think I received my share properly.” Most of us feel that something is missing; we feel deprived. But, Mahavira says that all that you need has been already sent with you.

The problem is: After coming down to planet earth, you start seeing what others are enjoying and you start picking up desires from others. You not only want to work out your desires but you start gathering the desires of others as well.

For example, you go to the mall to buy a refrigerator. There, you meet a friend who is buying a color TV and oven. Just a few moments before you met your friend, you were very happy buying the refrigerator. However, now, you feel you should also have the color TV. Instead of buying just the refrigerator, you want to purchase so many other things. So, instead of buying the refrigerator, you end up taking a loan and buying a color TV as well. Yet, you are not satisfied. Now, you need to do additional work to replay the loan as well.

When you come to this earth, you bring only a few desires and bring the power to fulfill these desires as well. But, you pick up desires from people living around you. For example, your colleague has a different lifestyle and looking at him, you feel you should also have the same lifestyle, you also feel the need for more money.

The big problem is that you have enough energy to work out your desires in your life but not enough energy to work out somebody else’s desires as well in your life. You have one life; hence, naturally, you have the capacity to live this one life’s desires. If you add others’ desires also in this life, the greed will result in stress. So, you feel constantly that your time, energy, money are all not sufficient and you feel deprived.

You have increased your desires after coming to this earth. The energy which you brought is sufficient for your whole life. However, you start accumulating more desires and run after them. For example, if your brother just bought a new air-conditioner, the temperature in your house goes up!

From a very young age, you are taught to compare. That is why, you continuously compare and feel jealous. According to me, if we can somehow avoid this comparison and labeling of kids as grade a, b or c, we can eradicate more than 80% of the violence and misery on this earth.

The moment you start grading kids in this way, the seeds of comparison and jealousy are sown. People ask me, “Swamiji, if we don’t have comparison, how do we grow; how do we progress?” I tell you: Nobody can grow by comparing. Each being is unique; each being has to flower. If you compare, you may progress as the other person is progressing, but not in the way the individual in you wants to progress.

Remember: in a rat-race, even if you win, you are still a rat! When you run based on another’s needs, it will naturally lead to suffering.

Some kids are masters of visualization; they are naturally inclined to the arts like painting, poetry, dancing. Some are masters of verbalization; they need to grow in the fields of logic, language. Some are more inclined to mathematics. But when you grade the kids, you generalize. This is when we sow the seeds of misery. Naturally, this results in low self-esteem or high self-esteem.

Both low and high self-esteem are problems. With low self-esteem, you try to throw stones at the other person whom you are jealous of; you suppress yourself. If you have high self-esteem, you will try to suppress yourself since society will not support your ego; so you are afraid of being kicked. The seeds of violence and misery are thus sown in the hearts of children.

You continuously run based on comparison. So, naturally, you pick up the attitude of violence; you pull other people down; you learn methods to stop the progress of others. The more you learn to compare, the more cunning and crooked you become. You hide yourself in these cunning words, “How do we grow if we don’t compare?”

The truth remains the same: When you start to compare, you pick up the desires from other people. You try to work out many more desires than what you can in your one life.

There is a beautiful sutra in the Upanishads, “The iccha shakti (power of creativity), the energy which creates the desire in you, is potentially powerful enough to create the kriya shakti (power of action) in you, to actually fulfill the desire in you.

For example, if you have the desire to possess a house, the very desire can express enough energy to create the house in your life. It seems to be a very strange theory, but the rishis (enlightened masters) declare with conviction, “Since you are God, you are Existence; if you have the desire, you have the power to fulfill it also.

Then why do you feel that you are not able to fulfill what you want? You don’t work to only fulfill your desire; you also work to fulfill somebody else’s desire.

The next question comes: How do I find out whether the desire is mine or somebody else’s? The answer is: If the desire is yours, when the desire arises in you, the very desire will give you joy. When you fulfill the desire, it will give you a deep sense of fulfillment. If it is somebody else’s desire, the very desire will cause a sense of uneasiness. Even after fulfilling the desire, it will leave a sense of hang-over, a samskara.

What is the difference between junk food and good food? With junk food, you feel filled but not fulfilled. With good food, you feel a deep fulfillment. After having junk food, you feel lethargic and feel like taking rest. This is strange: you eat for getting energy but after eating, you feel like resting as you feel deprived of energy. After having good food, you not only feel satisfied but you also feel energetic and ready to take on the next job.

Be very clear: If your desires make you feel tired, give you an uneasy feeling, cause disturbance in your mind, there is something seriously wrong in your system.

According to the Upanishads, desires are energy. You cannot even move an inch without the desire to do so. Desire is the basic energy of your life. Without desire, you can’t get up from your seat now and leave.

If you observe, early morning, you enter your physical body from your dream body either because you have a deep desire to enjoy something through your body or because you fear that you will lose something. You think that if you don’t get up and go to work, you will lose your job. Your desire to enjoy is the force which pushes you inside your physical body from the dream body.

Be very clear: You assume this human body just to fulfill your desires. So, when you assume this human form, you bring with you enough energy to fulfill those desires as well, to unfold your desires as well.

Understand one simple thing: Basically, your energy cannot do anything with partial involvement only; in a half-involved manner. The moment you create a desire, you create and release the energy to work it out. If you feel you are not able to release that energy, then understand it is not your desire; you have borrowed the desire from somebody else. Borrowing desires from others makes you dull and depressed.

There are four levels of desires. Let me explain each of these to you. The first level is the physical level: the desire for physical pleasures and comforts, the desire to see beautiful things, desire to hear, desire to taste, desire to smell and the desire for sex. These are the basic pleasures which form the first level of desires.

The next level is the desire for name and fame, for attention from others. The third level is spiritual desires. Yes; the desire to be spiritual, to have darshan (vision) of God, is also a desire. The fourth and the ultimate but very subtle desire is to just hang on to the body.

Analyze your desires deeply to see where you have the need and where it is greed. If you analyze your mind, your lifestyle, you can classify your desires under these four categories. Whatever may be the desire, you can classify it in one of these four categories. Understand whether your desires are coming from need or greed. If it is your desire, it is need; if it is somebody else’s, it is greed.

You have enough energy, power, capacity to fulfill your desires but you don’t have enough to fulfill the desires of others. Look in all the four layers of desires and identify all the layers where you are picking up others’ desires.

The fantasies that you pick up from the outer world are what disturb you. The reality in life never disturbs; your desires which you want to enjoy never disturb.

People ask me, “Swamiji, should I renounce all my desires?” I tell them, “No, that is also greed. You want to renounce here in the material world so that can enjoy in the future.”

I asked a person who used to drink regularly why he stopped drinking. He replied that he wanted to go to heaven. He had read that in heaven, you get soma rasa (drink of the demi-gods). So, he gave up drinking in this world in the hope of getting to drink in heaven! I told him, “Never give up some thing on the basis of greed. Do it only on the basis of understanding. What is the guarantee that you will get soma rasa after death?”

There are some sects of people who give money in this world to religious institutions. The priest gives them a receipt for the donation. Now, when the person dies, they keep the receipt along with the body when the person is buried. They believe that God will honor this receipt and give them the benefits of the good deed; they have an exchange offer with God!

If you drop things in the hope of pleasures of the other worlds, remember it is still the same greed playing tricks on you. Look into your life deeply: in how many cases is your greed replaced by beautiful words to describe it?

All our prayers are nothing but bargains. There was a man who was praying to Goddess Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth), “Oh Lakshmi, please give me one million dollars. I promise you that I will donate 100,000 dollars to you then. If you don’t believe me, you can deduct 100,000 dollars yourself and give me the remaining amount!”

A small story: There were once three business partners who were about to start a new business venture. They decided to make God the fourth business partner and decided to share equally the profits amongst the three of them and God. They made a good profit in the first year and it turned out that each ones’ share, including God’s turned was a million dollars. Now, this was quite a big amount and each of them was reluctant to actually give this big a sum of money to God. The first person asked, “Why does God need so much money?” The second person remarked, “Yes; we are all children of God. So, we should get to partake of the offering to God as well. So, let us make a pot of gold using this money. Then, we will throw up all our money and whatever falls inside can be given to God.” The third person was very cunning and commented, “Well; God is all-powerful. So, let us throw all the money up and let Him take whatever he wants!”

(It is said that Lord Venkatachalapati in Tirupathi temple actually fulfils everybody’s desire. Actually, it is a great Enlightened master’s energy that exists in the temple. There is a great spiritual energy existing there. Just like you can see whatever slide is projected in front of a projector as is, similarly, any thought comes to reality in front of Balaji. The problem is: we pray and get into trouble since most of the time, we don’t even know what we need and what to ask for. He never misses; he always fufills our wishes. But, the choice of making the right or wrong wish is ours. Our desires are a projection of our greed. But, we always find ways to try and hide and decorate our greed.)

Your desires never make you feel tired but living others’ desires makes you feel dull and depressed. Have seen any animal suffering from obesity? No free, wild animal suffers from obesity. Of course, pets may overeat and suffer because they pick up the habit from you. Have you seen animals getting headache or having to go to the psychiatrist?

Animals have plenty of food continuously available to them but they never overeat and suffer. Why? This is because they work out only their desires. In our life, we pick up desires from others.

You are continuously exposed to McDonald’s ads and you pick up the desires unconsciously. You are continuously bombarded by images and desires. You see a Starbucks and the desire for coffee automatically arises. You enter the shop for coffee, irrespective of whether you need it or not. See in how many levels you exploit your body for the sake of your greed!

You always blame your body saying that because of your sensory pleasures, you have wasted your life. Never blame your senses, your body. Your body is intelligent, natural. The problem is your mind. Never think that your body disturbs you; it is you who disturb your body. Just look at yourself: how many nights have you spent when your body was begging for rest but you sat up watching a football or cricket match!

(In Bharat, a lot of Bharatns feel equate cricket to patriotism! Please understand: if your country Bharat has to be represented, let it be represented by 11 enlightened masters, not 11 cricketers! The cricketers cannot be representative of Bharat and its culture. I am not against the cricketers; they are nice people but they don’t represent Bharat! If Bharat has to be represented, let it be represented by Shankara, Ramanuja, Ramana, Vivekananda! Many countries may be represented by their players since that represents their culture; the countries have universities and stadiums all over. But, all over Bharat, there are temples and ashrams; so the true representatives of Bharat are her enlightened masters.)

You torture your body for the sake of your joy. Just see: your tongue will be burning but you will still not stop eating the spicy food! When your body feels comfortable with your desire, it is your need. If you are feeling tired even after fulfilling the desire, it is your greed. If you feel fulfilled after fulfilling the desire, if you enjoy, are in bliss, ecstasy, joy, if you feel you have flowered, it is your need. If you feel tired, disturbed, uneasy, it is your greed.

The second level of desires is the desire for fame. How do we know whether this desire is need or greed? Understand that attention is a basic need of our life. Based on studies, a man can go for 90 days without food and yet survive but he cannot be mentally balanced for more than 14 days without somebody’s attention.

If we are not attended to, loved, cared, we feel something is missing. Attention is a basic need in everyone’s life. Each of us wants to be loved, cared and attended to.

But, if it is just a need; we not only will have the desire but we will also reciprocate; we will automatically give others back what we get.

If it is greed though, however much you are attended to, you suck others’ energy and never feel like giving back. You feel more and more powerful but never feel like giving back the attention, the care.

You can see this very well in politicians. The more the crowd, the more is the volume of the voice and the number of promises. The more energetic, the less is their service. Again, they work only for more attention and not to do something in reality.

Attention is also the basic reason for the existence of the family system. In marriage, you take multiple vows. One of them is the vow taken by both the man and woman, “Till the end of my life, I will support you whenever you feel the need for attention and care.”

The problem is that nowadays, nobody knows the meaning of the mantras (sacred hymns). It is more like the priests marrying rather than the bride and groom. According to the Hindu system, there is no concept of divorce. You take oath in front of agni (fire) that till the jataragni (inner fire of stomach) becomes cold (till you die), you promise to keep up the vows. So, it is a promise until death to support each other. So, divorce is neither socially nor spiritually accepted in Hinduism.

The man takes an oath to give all his attention, love and care to his wife and she in turn promises to give him all her attention, love and care to him.

If you are really in the need for attention and not in greed, you will take the attention and also give it. The problem is again you have the greed for attention.

Be very clear: the greed for attention can never be fulfilled. Even if you get attention, you will constantly be in need of more. Why do people die to become celebrities? The greed for attention can take you to any extent.

Before you get attention, you have a deep fear about whether you will get it. The moment you get it though, you have a deep fear about whether you will lose it! Will your name and fame get spoilt in any way? Both before and after the desire, you are continuously in fear.

You see; you may be in awe of celebrities but understand that celebrities are actually slaves of slaves. Never think that your leaders are leading you; it is you who lead them. If you live near any celebrity, see them at close quarters, you will understand how much they fear the masses.

Without you, they cannot be celebrities! Their whole life and energy is based on u. You see: a paramahamsa (enlightened master) is a paramahamsa whether you are there or not. He does not need fans and followers. If you are a celebrity though, you need fans to give you status. If you are a politician, you need citizens to follow you. So, it is the masses who guide them.