To think that one can overcome or decimate one’s desires,
whatever be their names, forms and shapes, by fulfilling them is like adding
fuel to fire with the hope that it will get extinguished. Unbridled enjoyment only
adds to our desires. We get caught and entangled in them more and yet more.
However, there comes a time when we seek to get out of this
network of illusion of getting and losing, this endless suffering of being at the
mercy of desires.
And thus begins our journey of tracing back to ‘where it all
started’—the source of our mental distress and turmoil — and we start dissecting
our own actions and reactions, emotions and expectations, successes and
failures.
And lo! There we discover the problem is not out there but in
here. It is right in our own mind or personality, its current structure and inclinations,
its deep-rooted thought patterns and areas which it considers important and sources
of pleasure; it is desire that is at the root of all mischief. And then arises
the need for practice of contentment.
Source – The Vedanta Kesari editorial issue April 2015 page
126 - 127