The ageing of the body is a gradual process. The body weakens. Hair falls off. Teeth too follow suit, fall off or get broken. The skin wrinkles with age. The spine bends and the senior person begins walking with a stick. Yet, the desires in the bosom never age. It is young and thriving.
This verse in Moha Mudgara is attributed to Totakacharya, a disciple of Sri Adi Shankaracharya. Yet another hammer stroke is hit here to make us more aware about the urgency of directing our desires, which are our thoughts and words.
The Bhagavad Gita, in the second chapter, presents a beautiful ladder of fall from grace. The first step of the ladder is desire. When there is a desire for a person, object or situation—it is kama. It is a force of vital energy that is propelled into the world outside.
Just in case, another person, object or situation lands up in between the desirer and the object of desire, then the same love-filled desirous thought gets empowered, forceful and turns into anger. It gathers a sting and a bite for itself and charges at the impediment with full force.
Contrarily, if the desire is fulfilled—the expelled force of thought does eventually meet up with the object of desire, in that communion is born another thought.
That is greed. In greed, the desire gets further strengthened and asks for more and more and more. This is how alcohol and drug addiction works.
When anger intensifies due to not getting the object of desire, there is a very strong delusion. This increases the mental gap between the one who desires and the object of desire. When there is delusion in the mind, there arises an intensity to achieve it and that increases the gravity of the individual thought, leading to arrogance. Just in case someone else achieves what I wish to achieve, then arises another self-degrading thought called jealousy.
Desire is the cause for fall and destruction if it is aimed at fulfilling one’s own wishes. If the same desire is turned towards a higher goal such as country, god or world welfare—then it gathers force and brings only joy to the person who strives towards such goals. Bondage is when desires are many and the life span to fulfil those ends. Liberation is when life span is long and there are no big desires to be fulfilled.
The verse implores us to resolve or dissolve our desires by either fulfilling them or working out the desire and negating it in the mind itself. Though the body keeps gradually ageing, desire ever remains a youngster with full dynamism and enthusiasm.
Brahmacharini Sharanya Chaitanya
brni.sharanyachaitanya@gmail.com