Each and every man certainly has some or the other desire. Otherwise, he cannot be considered as a human. Few desires get fulfilled easily whereas few do not get fulfilled irrespective of the hard work that is put into it.

Whenever a desire remains unfulfilled, man is stricken by grief. At the same time, man either wishes all his desires to be satisfied or he wants only those desires to sprout up in the mind that can be fulfilled. How nice! However, both of these are not possible. Hence, sorrow becomes inescapable outcome of desire. Such being the case, what is it that must be done to get rid of such grief?

First of all, if you get to know the foundation of the desires, then you can find ways to overcome the sorrow. Man is attached to many things and to many feelings in this creation. This is quite natural. Desires arise only due to such attachment! Every desire that is born will once again make one think about it repeatedly. As a result, the desire is strengthened furthermore. Such a strong desire will create innumerable thoughts. In this way, the thoughts give rise to desires and the desires thereafter give rise to thoughts. This is like a vicious circle.

There lived a man who wanted to become affluent. Fortunately, he won in a lottery. He should have been happy and contented thereafter. Instead, the moment he obtained the treasure, he earnestly wanted to safeguard it. This means that the desire to safeguard money is embedded secretly in the desire to accumulate money. Hence, he could not be content despite finding a big treasure. In fact, he was scared. He only obtained temporary satisfaction. That’s all.

**Any desire that is completely fulfilled must give rise to contentment in totality. If that does not happen so, then it implies that only a part of your desire has been fulfilled. **

You may try your best to protect the treasure but how much ever you do, you will still be scared. This means your desire to safeguard the treasure also is not completely fulfilled. Let us say that you started to enjoy the treasure. In that case, other than the people belonging to you, you do not want the rest to enjoy it. As a result, you start to analyze who is yours, who is not, whom to give and whom not to give. If we think carefully, the foundation for all these lies in the first desire - the desire to accumulate wealth! Many desires are hidden in that single desire.

Just like the waves emerge in an ocean one after the other, the desires also arise one after another endlessly. Hence, they are compared to a whirlpool. Anybody who falls into this succumbs to it. There is no escape out of it. But there is one alternative.

**Since, desires arise out of attachment; do not allow the mind and thoughts to get attached to the desires. **However, it is not so easy. **Towards this, firstly, you must develop the friendship of the pious and involve yourself in recalling God, his names and in reading holy books. **All of these come under Satsanga (good friendship). Just like Shankaracharya said, “Satsangattve Nissamgattvam”, gradually the ability to detach comes to you automatically. The noble friendships make one understand that desires are trivial. Then, you can live just like a water droplet on a lotus petal. Despite living in the worldly life, you will achieve the state of remaining detached.

Jai Guru Datta! Sri Guru Datta!