Contrary to popular belief: desire is the root of all suffering, I’m here to say, “…desire is the way to destiny, the beginning of all creation!“
You see, a belief is just a belief, a thought conjured up in the minds of men for so long that it has become truth for many. But it doesn’t have to be that way. If we can re-examine our beliefs for their validity, show evidence to their contrary, new beliefs can emerge that serve us as a species instead of putting us at a place of inner self-conflict, by dint of which we can expand consciously as humans, challenging the old dysfunctional belief systems with new evolving thought patterns, purging, cleansing and eliminating the dysfunction that does not serve us anymore. To understand this better, read my article: beliefs are the root of all suffering! And so instead of believing desire is the root of all evil, how about we think, desire is the beginning of all creation? How will life look then? How will our reality shift?
Thoughts create things. And so a belief which is nothing but a recurrent and incessant thought held as truth, is the most powerful creator of our reality. If we carry dysfunctional belief patterns within us we will create dysfunctional realities in our external realities and vice versa. We live in a world which functions according to the Law of Attraction, that essentially means like attracts like; fear attracts fear, love attracts love. The law acts like a mirror, reflecting back to us externally, the vibrations of our internal reality. To learn more about how this works, watch my video, titled mechanisms of the law of attraction. And so, if within our beings we hold the belief that the biggest fuel of life, “desire” is something bad, then we will make ourselves wrong for desiring anything in life at all, and since not everyone is a good controller of their reality, people would still go for their desires inspite of its negative connotation, but instead of ending up with a positive outcome, chances are more that there will be a negative one. And so the prophecy that ‘desire is the root of all evil’ will reaffirm itself.
Desire is what fuels the soul; it causes our expansion, creation. If we are always told to go against our own desires, we would constantly try to swim upstream thereby meeting with a lot of internal resistance which can cause pain, suffering, or any kind of mental or physical disorders and diseases. If we buy into the belief system that something that we want or desire so much is somehow bad, then we will make ourselves bad and keep hitting the wall against ourselves, abandoning our own desires in exchange for someone else’s words. Words are the least reliable source of truth. Never rely on someone else’s words in exchange for your own experiences. You can create a new truth, a different reality for yourself and prove them wrong.
Many masters perceived to be enlightened, who walked our planet, including the Buddha, have said that desire causes suffering and their words have been interpreted to mean that in order to live a life free of suffering it is essential to renounce desire. Thoughts like this are easily misinterpreted though because given the unique circumstances of each individual walking this planet, it will be an understatement to say that one belief holds true for all.
But it is desire that propels creation. So desire in itself cannot be wrong; it is what propels life and leads us to making the choices we need to walk through life. Perhaps what the Buddha meant was to renounce the attachment to our desires, not the desire itself. There is a huge difference between the two. You see, we live in a world of duality, of contrasts, where the experience of one thing gives birth to its opposite all the time. Along with the seeds of excitement are sown the seeds of disappointment. An experience of poverty gives birth to a desire to experience prosperity. An experience of pain gives birth to the desire for a pain free life. However, there is value in all kinds of experiences, because each experience gives birth to new desires and therefore newer preferences, by dint of which we not just have the tools to navigate life, but also self-realize. Any kind of change or growth usually causes some amount of pain as we stubbornly hold on to our status quo and resist change. And so when life forces us to grow, we suffer. We are a stubborn species, for sure! Like everything in life, a desire may have a shadow and a light side.
Let’s say, you love directing and writing plays or you want to do a start up… why? Because you have a desire to create something of your own, see it grow branches & come to fruition. And by doing that you will have an experience of yourself, thus your soul will expand as you become more self-aware, through your choices and mistakes. Why do you like to travel, read literature or write poetry? Because you desire knowledge, the thrill of challenging the mind by exploring different truths & belief systems, so you can come to a higher understanding of yourself, of life etc. My passion for writing, dancing, speaking, creativity stems from the desire for self-expression and through the experience of it, I have a knowledge of who I am. Desire fuels all life choices.
Those who believe desire causes suffering and hence try to renounce desire, are essentially desiring not to suffer, not to experience pain… so that is also a desire! But they don’t realize the true nature of desire so they resist it and unintentionally feed the very thing they are trying to avoid, because what we resist persists. We live in a context of duality and contrasts exist in order for us to navigate life; such as when the person born in poverty desires to experience abundance, it is the poor living, the struggling that makes him KNOW he wants the opposite, and then sets out to create it for himself, through which process his soul expands as he comes to a place of more self-knowledge. There is nothing, none at all, no experience in this world that can be excluded from desire; it is an impossibility in creation… don’t you think?
When desire goes wrong: A craving is an unhealthy way of approaching our desires. As stated above, everything has a shadow and a light aspect. It is the attachment that comes with any desire, is what causes suffering. When we get too attached to our desires is when we bring out their varied shades of grey, we become obsessed or addicted to the object of our desires, and that comes from a place of lack. Since life on earth is governed by the Law of Attraction which essentially means like energy attracts similar outcomes, so when we approach our desires from that place of lack, we will get back more the experience of lack. Instead what we should do is take action toward the fulfillment of our desires and then surrender the outcome to the Universe; in other words, release the attachment to them with the absolute knowing that if it will serve our soul agenda then we will receive it. This is a healthy practise of using our desires to propel the biggest creations of our lives and living out our grandest dreams.
Therefore, we don’t have to renounce our desires in order to avoid suffering. In fact, I am here to tell you that people who try in vain to renounce their desires, suffer the most!
baisakhi saha 
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