Vedas, the ancient Indian scriptures, describe desires elaborately. There are two kinds of desires - one is fundamental desire, the other topical desire. Topical desires arise in us more often than fundamental desires. What are they? We like to eat sweets, watch movies etc. These are topical desires.
Now let us look at fundamental desires. Basically there are three desires under this category.If we were to learn that today would be the last day in our lives, we would pray - "Can we not live for a day more?" This is the first desire.
Let us digress a little. This was during my first talk on Bhagavad Gita in Chennai. I was staying in a hotel. In the night, there was a knock on the door. A young woman was there to see me. Even before I could ask her what she wanted, she began to speak in a hurry."I left the home of my dominating mother-in-law today intending to commit suicide. The seashore was too crowded. If I tried to commit suicide then, someone would find me and save me. Just to spend a few hours before the next attempt, I attended your talk on Bhagavad Gita."I heard you saying, every one wishes to live for a day more. That is utter nonsense! I have no desire to live another moment. Right now, I am going straight to seashore to drown myself!" she said and began to walk away. I am a Monk! Imagine this - a young girl meets me in the night, that too at my hotel room and then goes to commit suicide! What would you make of it? I stopped her and said, "I have only dealt with the first half of what I planned to say today. Another half is yet to be told. So please wait till tomorrow evening and listen to the remaining talk."Next day, I continued my talk.
"Every one wishes to live a day more. This desire as per the Vedas is called "Sat." But we also wish that the extra day should be spent happily - this is the second desire, called "Ananda." When one attains permanent bliss, no one would wish to die, including the lady I met yesterday!" The third fundamental desire is to gain as much knowledge as possible during one's lifetime.
