Monday, February 21, 2011

13. Greed and Jealousy creating CHAOS!!!!!!

The reason for all the chaos is not the outcome of doings of unintelligent or unemotional people. The real hindrance to happiness is that we have forgotten how to live content with what we have. Contentment is like a precious pearl. Whoever procures it at the expense of 10,000 desires makes a wise and happy purchase.

Gautama Buddha in his four noble truths declares that there is suffering and misery in life and the direct cause of it is desire or craving. People with passionate qualities are never satisfied with their position or possessions they always seek to accumulate more and more and enjoy flaunting what they have. In this way they lose the power of thought and power of emotion which are the two important parts for the integral way of living.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna what impels a person to commit sin against his will. Krishna replies that desire and anger, born of passionate quality, are enemies that eat our Atman. They obfuscate wisdom like smoke covers fire.

Aristotle says, "I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self." Desire is unquenchable. Once desire is born, it knows not how to die. Desire, when transformed into aspiration, helps life soar into the highest liberation, and supreme salvation does not seem so out of reach, after all. All people desire what they believe will make them happy. If a person is fully content with Self, we can only conclude that he is engaged with another, more eternal state of happiness that is called Bliss.

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