Most of the time in our lives, our desires ruin us. But all desires are not bad. In the Bhagwad Geeta, Lord Krishna says, “I am those desires that uphold dharma.” Do not suppress desires, rather, awaken viveka (power to discriminate between truth and untruth) in you. To let go of desires you have to follow a certain code of conduct. This is the manure by which the rose of love will blossom.
Ahimsa (non-violence): Be non-violent, in your action, heart, speech and thoughts. You may be non-violent in action due to fear of the law. But in the mind when you said, ‘‘I am going to kill them,’’ you have already choked them.
Satya (Truth): Follow the truth and live in the moment. The phrase ‘be truthful’ means to express the truth your whole life — speak the truth, speak pleasant truth, and speak beneficial truth.
Saucha (Purity): If some rice is mixed with wheat, soap powder and sand, that mixture is impure. But if the same are presented separately, you would say they are all pure. Observing the observer is saucha. It is when your own mind becomes a witness of its own actions and finds a gap between its own senses, and does not mix with any outer objects.
Daya (Compassion): When people engage in some activity or behave in a certain manner, which you don’t like, it triggers anger in you. Just for a moment, have compassion for the way they are. Then a shift happens. Your self expands and laughs at the smallness of events.
Astikya (Faith): You reason for everything that you do and for all your experiences. When reasoning or logic breaks down, you tremble. Faith, reality and truth are beyond logic. If you could reason out all your life and all its experiences, then you have not lived or known life fully.
Every a bud takes its own time to bloom; don’t force it to become a flower. Wait for the time to come, for the total blossoming in you to come.
