Scalable desire

Inspired by a lecture by Swami Tejomayananda of Chinmaya Mission:


Our mind constantly seeks happiness (Anandam). Sense organs feed various stimuli to the mind and the mind probes each stimulus to see if it provides happiness. Now, our five sense organs are: Skin (touch), mouth (taste), eyes (sight), nose (smell) and ears (hearing). When something pleasant touches us like soft velvet cloth or the gentle touch of a baby or a person we love, or when we eat something yummy, or when we see a pretty face or a breathtaking natural scenery, or when we smell a fragrant rose, or when we hear some soothing music or song - all these stimuli could be interpreted by our mind as causing us happiness and hence create a desire to experience more and more of it.

All these stimuli are stored in the mind as thoughts. Desire, hatred, jealousy, anger, etc. are all different kinds of thoughts. Once we decide a particular stimulus does not make us happy, we develop a hatred towards the originator of that stimulus. Similarly, once we decide a particular stimulus makes us happy, we develop a desire for more and more of that stimulus and hence develop a desire for the originator of that stimulus. So the sense organs provide the input and the output are thoughts. Our actions are instantaneous reactions to these thoughts.

To control our thoughts, we have to control what input goes into us. We cannot expect to touch, taste, see, smell or hear anything and everything and still expect only good thoughts to come to us all the time. Pruning of the input (seeking good input and avoiding bad input) has to be there to guide the mind in the right direction (just like we prune an apple tree to give a small number of better quality apples rather than a lot of low quality apples).

Now, let us say, we agree on the fact that we need to seek good input so that we can have good thoughts/desires. That is still not the end of story. When two individuals desire for the same good thing and only one of them can have it, there is competition, leading to thoughts of how to out-smart the other. If one gets a common desired good thing faster than the other, then there is jealousy, leading to thoughts of how to pull the other one down and advance ourselves to have the desired good thing. So, a good thing is no longer good (can lead to jealousy etc.) if only one person can have it, or if only a few people can have it. A scalable desire is one that anyone can have, and everyone can have, all at the same time.

So, do you know of such a scalable desire? Amrutham (divine nectar) is good. Is it scalable? Can everyone have it? No, there is only a finite quantity of it. Apply this scalability test to all your desires. Are they scalable desires? Now, what about the desire to be of service to others? I can desire to be of service to you. You can desire to be of service to someone else. That someone else can desire to be of service to someone else and so on. This desire to be of service to others does seem like a scalable desire - doesnt it? That is why our elders say "Maanava saevaiyae Maadhava saevai" (Service to humanity is service to God). That is also why India's pledge has the following lines:

India is my country
All Indians are my brothers and sisters
I love my country
And I am proud of its rich and varied heritage
I shall always try to be worthy of it
I shall give my parents, teacher and all elders, respect
And treat everyone with courtesy
To my county and my people, I pledge my devotion
In their well being and prosperity alone lies my happiness. (a scalable desire indeed!)