Where Do Desires Come From?

We feel a desire and try to fulfil it. It may be a desire or craving for some type of food or drink, or for a particular object of material enjoyment, or it may be a sexual desire, or a desire for companionship, excitement, or any other vital drive that wells up in us. In some cases we try to satisfy that desire. In other cases, we determine we would like to rid ourselves of that desire, not fulfill it, and be at peace without whatever it is that we crave. Most people do not think twice about it and simply try to satisfy the desire, if they have the capacity and opportunity to do so, or harbor a feeling of lack, or regret, or insufficiency if they do not find a way to do so.

Many times we struggle with the desires, such as when we make resolutions, go on a diet, or attempt to change some aspect of our response to the rising of desire. The struggle is generally intense as we feel like the desire ‘belongs’ to us and we feel like it is part of ‘who we are’. We identify with our exte
al ego-personality and believe we are exercising free will in the choices we make, and we blame ourselves for lacking the will-power needed to overcome the force of desire when we determine it is contrary to something else we want to have or achieve.

If we shift our standpoint, however, it becomes much easier to deal with the force of desire. The ego personality is like a water glass submerged in the ocean of existence. We believe that the unique contents of our water glass means we are separate and distinct from the rest of the ocean, when in reality, the same ocean exists both outside the perimeter of the glass and inside, with ocean water constantly flowing in and out of the glass.

If we look at our ego-personality with a similar viewpoint we begin to see that what we believe are desires created within ourselves are really a response by our ‘receiving apparatus’ to waves that move through the universal Nature. The response to desire then becomes a matter of how we respond to these exte
al promptings. Once we recognise that they do not belong to us, it becomes easier to simply turn the attention elsewhere and focus on something other than that particular wave of force that is creating a reaction within our awareness.

Sri Aurobindo writes: “All the ordinary vital movements are foreign to the true being and come from outside; they do not belong to the soul nor do they originate in it but are waves from the general Nature, Prakriti.”

“The desires come from outside, enter the subconscious vital and rise to the surface. It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes aware of them, that we become conscious of the desire. It seems to us to be our own because we feel it thus rising from the vital into the mind and do not know that it came from outside. What belongs to the vital, to the being, what makes it responsible is not the desire itself, but the habit of responding to the waves or the currents of suggestion that come into it from the universal Prakriti.”

Sri Aurobindo, Bases of Yoga, Chapter 4, Desire — Food — Sex, pg. 61