Desire is Not an Unspiritual Activity of The Mind

Divine Life Society Publication: The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by Sri Swami Krishnananda

The object of desire, in the language of the Upaniṣhad, is generally called 'food'. 'Anna' is the word that is used in the Upaniṣhad. Anna means food, or a diet of the senses. So, the diet of the sense is the object of desire. All objects of desire are the food of the senses and the mind. The whole world of manifestation may be regarded as the food of consciousness. All that is material is a food for the spiritual contemplating principle. Prakṛiti is the 'food' of Puruṣha, you may say. Now, what is this food? What is an object, and how many kinds of objects are there towards which the desire moves?

The Supreme Being created food for the Spirit, which is this vast world of creation. Anything that you cognise; anything that you perceive; anything that you can sense and think through the mind, is the food thereof. That food is of various kinds.

The Supreme Father created food, when He manifested Himself as this universe. The spirit, contemplating the Cosmos, is actually consciousness contemplating its own food. What are these? There are seven kinds of food, says the Upaniṣhad. The seven objects of satisfaction are the seven types of food manifested in the process of creation. One food is the common food of all. Two foods were allotted for the celestials, or the gods. Three foods were appropriated to one's own self. One food was kept aside for the animals. So, you have got seven types of food. Everything is rooted in this sevenfold form of food. Whether one is animate or otherwise, everything can be said to be dependent on the existence of these types of food. How is it that food is not exhausted? If anyone knows the reason why food is not exhausted in spite of its being consumed endlessly, such a person is provided with immeasurable food. He goes to the gods and partakes of the immortality, or ambrosia of the gods. He rejoices in the nectarine realm of the celestials.

What is this sevenfold food that you mention, and how is it connected with the consumers or eaters of food question?

It is by contemplation of consciousness that food is created. It has got a tremendous meaning. The food that you can think of, is an object of consciousness. In order that the Supreme Subject, God, may appear as the object which is the universe, the Consciousness which is the Supreme Subject has to perform a Tapas of contemplation, as it were, in order that It may become alien to Itself, an 'another' to its own Self. So, the Supreme Father contemplated, by means of a tremendous austerity, the universe which we behold in front of us as the food of all creatures.

First of all we are told that there is one type of food which is common to all – the ordinary food that you take, the meal that you consume. Food, which is the common property of all, has to be proportionately distributed among the consumers of food, and cannot be exceptually appropriated by anyone. No one can hoard foodstuff. Everyone can partake of food to the extent it is necessary for the maintenance of each. To keep for oneself what is in excess of one's need is prohibited, and the Upaniṣhad tells us that one who commits that mistake cannot be free from the sin of appropriation. You cannot own anything. You have not produced anything. You would be interfering with the lives of other creatures by depriving them of their needs, on account of the greed by which you hold things which are not necessary for you.

You have also to consider two other aspects of food which are allotted to the celestials, apart from the common food of the human and the subhuman creatures. These foods for the gods are the oblations offered in the sacrifices. There are two important oblations, Darśha and Purnāmaśha, according to ancient tradition. These are offered on the full moon and the new moon day, and the manner in which they are offered, by the recitation of Mantras and contemplation accompanying them, determine the effect produced by these sacrifices. May it be a sacrifice, really speaking. It is a charity, it is an offering, it is a sacrifice which has a purpose beyond itself. Then only it becomes divine. Then only it becomes an act of virtue. Therefore, do not perform any sacrifice for selfish purposes, says the Upaniṣhad.

There is one food which is allocated to the animals, and that is the milk of animals. By milk, is meant the essence of the articles of diet. You know very well, says the Upaniṣhad, that milk sustains people right from childhood onwards, even up to adult age and old age, and even a calf of a cow is maintained by the milk of the cow.

There are some people who imagine that offering ghee and milk, etc. into the sacred fire can free them from rebirth, make them immortal. It is not true, says the Upaniṣhad. You cannot become immortal merely by offering these articles of diet into the holy fire, because it is the knowledge that is connected with the production of this food which is the cause of the future prosperity of an individual, not the literal interpretation of it as an object which is purely physical and material in nature. Though every article of diet, every foodstuff is conceived as if it is an outside object unconnected with oneself, it has a spiritual connection with oneself. The contemplation of the connection of the object, which is the food, with the subject who is the consumer, is the source of that particular event which can bring about the immortality of the soul. In the Chhāndogya Upanishad, we have more detailed descriptions of this type of meditation, where all objects are taken together as a single object of contemplation – e.g., the Vaiśvānara-Vidyā. So, the Upaniṣhad tells us that immortality is not the fruit of any kind of physical action on the part of a person, not even the result of an oblation materially offered into the sacred fire, but the result of a knowledge which is far superior.

Now the question, why foodstuff is not exhausted, is answered. It cannot be exhausted because the desire of the human mind, or any mind for the matter of that, is inexhaustible. As long as a desire is present, its object also will be present. You cannot exhaust the object of your desire as long as the desire itself is not exhausted. The presence of an object of desire is implied in the presence of the desire itself. So, as long as there is an inexhaustible reservoir of desire in people, there would be an inexhaustible reservoir of supply also. So, no food in this world can be exhausted as long as there is a need for food. When the need is there, fulfilment has to be there, in one form or the other. It is the presence of desire, or longing, or requirement, that is the cause of the presence of the counterparts of these requirements in the form of objects of desire, or foodstuff, etc. The individual person is an inexhaustible source of desire, and therefore the universe of objects will not be exhausted for that person with such desires.

Again and again you create the objects of desire by the intensification of your desires. By your actions you create circumstances for fulfilment of desires; and actions are nothing but manifestation of desires in the other world. It is desire operating in the form of action, and action is the movement of desire, in one way or the other, towards this object of fulfilment. So, by actions which are propelled by desire, the objects of desire are sustained. One who knows this truth will not be bound by the sting of desires.

If the desire is not to be propelled in this manner, the objects would exhaust themselves. In other words, if desire is to be absent, the world itself would become absent. The world in front of you exists because of your desires. If the desires of all created beings get absorbed into their own sources, the universe will vanish in one second. It cannot exist. So, if the desires are not present, there will be no objects of desire and the world would have immediately extinguished itself – kṣīyeta ha.

This whole passage is a very complicated structure, the meaning of which is manifold. It has an outward literal meaning which is called the Adhibhautika meaning; it has an individualistic meaning which is called the Adhyātmika meaning; and it has a spiritual meaning which is called the Adhidaivika meaning. As a matter of fact, every passage in the Veda and the Upaniṣhad has a threefold meaning. So, I have tried to give you all the three aspects of the meaning of this passage – all of which point ultimately to the fact that a desire is not an unspiritual activity of the mind, when its meaning is properly understood and its purposes are directed towards the Supreme Fulfilment which is its aim. But it becomes a binding factor if its meaning is not understood, and if one merely hangs on to the literal meaning of desire, without knowing its spiritual implication.

Excerpts from: Desire is Not an Unspiritual Activity of The Mind - The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad by  Sri Swami Krishnananda