Q. What are the desires of the mind?

Gurumaa: People desire good clothes, good things, cars, etc., and sometimes they even question why the guru owns these things? “I too should get a chance to enjoy them!”
The reality is that we are not even aware that there are repressed desires deep within us. We don’t even know which desires we are harboring and when they will come up to the surface, overpower us, and even make us cast aspersions on the guru: ‘How come he is wearing good clothes, possessing good things, traveling in a Mercedes…etc.’
Only wisdom can show us the way out of the trap of desires that our mind creates; as such, not even experience can. If only the experience of sensual gratification could lead us out of it, the whole world would be wise. But it is only the wisdom to distinguish the perishable from the imperishable, and the discernment to understand that there is a pit into which we can fall if we don’t watch out, that can help us come out of the web spun by the ego.
It is not a bad thing to desire good clothes or good stuff, but to make it the means and not the end is harmful. The Birlas, Tatas, Ambanis, Donald Trump, Bill Gates: all have tons of money – they don’t just jet around the world, they own private jets. Yet, after having all this, do they possess the wisdom to realize that all these things are transient; are not meant to be pursued and multiplied, and in the end will not give them the true happiness they actually seek in this round-about way?
We do not have to judge only other people; we can be unbiased but critical of ourselves too. We need to just watch our mind and learn from our mistakes. If we are watchful, we can learn new things every moment – that is the only way to come out of the trap set by the mind. Every enlightened being has once stumbled, fallen and made mistakes, but also learnt that when and where you fall, know it to be just a fall – and get up again.
So I say that mind can be changed. The body has its limitations; we are built in a certain way and after a point we cannot really change that structure, but the mind can break the boundaries it has created and it can expand. Acceptance of limitations and boundaries is necessary to overcome them.
Observe the sky, the trees, the flowers, the grass… the colors, the fragrances all around, and rejoice that you can do so. Have you ever woken up in the morning with sheer joy: ‘Wow, I am actually alive! I can see, smell, hear, taste, touch….?’
What we see is not real; the world is not real…Everything seen is imperishable. ‘Conditions apply!’ Therefore be very vigilant and mindful all the time. Watch your mind.


Q. Why do we have desires, emotions and attachments? How can we detach our selves from them as they create so much of suffering?

Gurumaa: Desires and emotions are a part of being human. We have been blessed to feel emotions; the problem arises when we don’t know how to manage these emotions and when unnecessarily because of the ignorance we stumble upon our emotions and fall down.
You can’t blame nature for giving us emotions and should rather be thankful to it. From mother we experience unconditional affection; from father we get immense inspiration and support – both financial and emotional support; brothers & sisters and all other relatives play a very important role in shaping up your personality.
Whatsoever differences or problems may arise in our relationships but that doesn’t mean that emotions and attachments are bad. No, they are good. Even attachment is good.
It is only through attachment that one learns to cling and only the one who has learned to cling and enjoyed worldly affections can come out of it. Attachments are not meant to get stuck but to experience, enjoy and simply move beyond them.
Have you ever seen a dry leaf falling down from the tree? No one pulls the leaf; no one asks it to come down. Leaf is not making any conscious effort to fall down. But by just being with that branch one day it starts getting dried up. Leaf is attached to the branch but slowly the juice flowing in the leaf starts drying up, and gradually the color of leaf changes, and one day it simply falls down.
The family attachments and emotions are just like tree and leaf; we are like a leaf and family & society are like a tree. Till the time the juice of affections and emotions is flowing we are happy. But yes, whenever you are happy you should not forget the fact that you can’t continue to be happy always. Happiness comes after sadness.
The fun of meeting a friend is only when you meet him after a long separation. When two friends or two relatives sit together and live together for a long time, all fun and ecstasy just vanishes. So we need some separation to enjoy the meetings and we need some sadness too to enjoy the happiness. We need death to celebrate life.
Beauty of life is in its contradictions. Wise persons know how to live whereas unwise persons don’t know how to live and how to die. That is the reason of their pain and turmoil. See, with pencil you can write beautiful poetries, short stories, novels; you can write anything but with that pencil you can hurt yourself too. Have you ever seen a child who pokes the pencil in his nose, puts it in his ear, put it in his eyes and then cries? Child can also say that throw away all the pencils and pens from home. They are so dangerous why have you kept them at home.
But we always teach the child that it was his mistake to poke the pencil and there is no reason to throw away all the pens and pencils from home. Similarly there is no need to throw away all the emotions and attachments. Experience them but with open eyes. Know that every emotion and attachment has its own limitations.
Every life is followed by death, happiness is followed by sorrow and every meeting is followed by separation. So we should accept life in all its dualities. Problem is this that we want to remain on the bank only i.e. we don’t want separation, we don’t want death, we don’t want sadness and we don’t want misfortunes.
Whether you want something or not, problems are going to be there. Be easy and accept the life in its totality. When sadness comes be sad, when happiness comes enjoy, when death happens be very thoughtful, when birth happens rejoice. Rabindra Nath Tagore, on birth of any child used to say that God is still not angry with the humans and that’s the reason a new being has entered in our life.