I come to the palace of the creator. I am the glory of the brahmins, the glory of the kings, and the glory of the commoners. I wish to attain that glory. I am the glory of all glories. May I never go to the place of suffering.
emotion
Desire
Across world spiritual traditions, desire refers to a fundamental drive or longing that shapes human experience. Many traditions converge on the idea that desire can be a source of suffering, yet also a catalyst for growth. They diverge, however, in their perspectives on the nature and role of desire in the pursuit of spiritual wisdom.
6,997 quotes
Across traditions
Related topics
Quotes
Because you desired wisdom above all else, and did not ask for victory over your enemies, or riches, or long life, I will give you not only the wisdom you asked for to rule my people righteously, but also the things you did not ask for: riches, wealth, and glory, so that there will be no king like you before or after you.
He will fulfill the desires of those who fear Him, and will hear their cries, and will save them.
When all the desires that dwell in the heart are released, then a mortal becomes immortal and attains Brahman here.
The Blessed Lord said: It is desire — it is anger — arising from the quality of rajas: all-devouring and deeply sinful. Know this to be the enemy here.
Arjuna said: Then what is it that impels a person to commit sin, O Varshneya, even unwillingly — as if driven by force?
When a person broods upon sense-objects, attachment to them is born; from attachment arises desire; from desire, anger is kindled.
The Blessed Lord said: When one completely relinquishes all desires that have lodged in the mind, O Partha, and rests content in the Self by the Self alone — then that one is called a person of steady wisdom.
According to the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2, Verse 62), anger originates from desire.
That which arises from the contact of the senses with their objects and seems like nectar at first but like poison in the end — that happiness is remembered as rajasic.
As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror by dust, as an embryo is enveloped by the womb — so is this (knowledge) covered by that (desire).
As the ocean remains still and immovable even as rivers pour into it from all sides — so the person into whom all desires enter without disturbing attains peace, not the one who craves desires.
Whoever desires and clings to desires is reborn again and again because of those desires. But for one whose desires are wholly fulfilled, whose Self has been perfected, all desires dissolve right here.
But that steadfastness by which one holds fast to righteousness, pleasure, and wealth out of attachment, with constant craving for their fruits — that steadfastness, O Partha, is rajasic.
Passionate, hungry for the fruits of action, greedy, harmful in nature, impure, swayed by elation and grief — such a doer is proclaimed to be rajasic.
Action that is performed by one driven by desire, or again with arrogant pride, with great strain and exertion — that is declared to be rajasic.
Threefold is the gate of this hell that destroys the soul — desire, anger, and greed. Therefore one should abandon these three.
Thus, knowing that which is beyond the intellect and steadying the self by the Self, O mighty-armed one — slay the enemy in the form of desire that is so hard to overcome.
Therefore, O best of the Bharatas, first restrain the senses and then slay this sinful one — the destroyer of knowledge and direct experience.
The senses, the mind, and the intellect are said to be its seat. Through these it deludes the embodied being, veiling knowledge.