If you want contentment, then be content right now and do not wait until all your desires are fulfilled.
*Chapter 4 - Honour Desires*
*Day 27*
When you honour desire, those desires that are necessary get fulfilled and those that are unnecessary fall away. This is the story of Kanyakumari.
Shiva is not somewhere in Kailash, but has come very close and stopped. The desire was expected to be fulfilled, but stays unfulfilled.
There is an important difference between these two positions. Any desire, once fulfilled, takes you right back to square one, to where you were before the desire arose.
Another meaning of this is that desires once fulfilled do not end, but continue forming one after another. These desires multiply and never stop.
That is why it is said that Uma, the virgin, is the energy of desire. Observe the desires that arise again and again. Desire forever remains a virgin.
The Ganga originated with a desire to meet the sea, but has this desire been fulfilled? If it was fulfilled, then why does the Ganga still flow today?
Just as her flow is permanent, so is the power of desire. This is the meaning the power of desire is Uma, the virgin woman.
A virgin woman, or desire, can never meet the Shivatattva, the essence of Shiva or the self. One who attains happiness cannot have any desire.
Is happiness possible when you have a desire? The essence of Shiva is joy. People often say, "When you remove the energy of desire, then you can see Shiva."
That wish to remove the desire itself becomes a desire. When you say, "I want to eliminate desire," what happens? Desires do not need your permission to arise.
Do they arise by themselves or do they request your permission to appear? You are hungry, and so there is a desire to eat, and when you are thirsty, there is a desire to drink.
Desires seem to arise automatically. When you struggle with a desire, how is it possible to relinquish the desire? You may feel that once you fulfill a desire, then you will be happy and contented, but this situation never happens.
If you want contentment, then be content right now and do not wait until all your desires are fulfilled. People run after desires, constantly seeking contentment.
Knowledge of the self, or yoga, is knowing, "I am contentment. My nature is contentment." Who can give contentment to a contented person?
Therefore desire is Uma, the virgin. The energy of desires gives you false confidence that it will bring contentment. It creates an illusion that it will lead you to contentment, but this is an fantasy.
Uma remains a virgin, meditating upon Shiva. Have you seen the photo of Kanyakumari? It shows a beautiful young woman meditating on Shiva and holding a rosary.
Every desire meditates only on Shiva. Whatever desire you may have, what is the goal of that desire? It is to lead you to happiness.
India lies between Kailash and Kanyakumari. Kailash means happiness. "Kai" and "las", where there is happiness and celebration.
What is vaikuntha? The place where there is no scarcity. "Kuntha" means scarcity, and “vai" means absence, so the place without scarcity.
People visit Kailash and Man Sarovar as part of a pilgrimage, a yatra. Man Sarovar is the lake that represents the mind.
Our ancestors honoured the mind so much. How is it possible to reach Kailash if the mind is a virgin woman, frozen and unmoving?
The mind will find Kailash in itself when it becomes vast like a lake. It will attain the height that is devoid of scarcity and full of joy.
So Kailash means happiness and Kanyakumari is desire. Desire gazes at the peak while in the south it meditates, suffering misery and pain, hoping to reach that goal.
People that say, "Cut off and throw away your desire," do not know what they are talking about. You cannot remove desire with this method.
You can honour it and be a witness to it. The desire for renunciation or for liberation is also a desire. You may have rejected all the desires of this world, but then the desire for liberation arises.
That desire is also Shiva. That same Shiva is meditated on by the virgin woman.
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