Desire is a natural part of being human, but fulfilling our desires isn’t always easy. When we want something, we have to work towards it, and we need the energy to do so. According to Maharaj, the desire itself is the energy. However, not all desires get fulfilled, and that might be because they were not strong enough or lasting. When our desires are personal and limited to our enjoyment, the energy we give them will be limited too.
Maharaj suggests that when we desire the common good and work towards it, we align our desires with those of humanity, and there is more energy to fulfill them. He believes that we need to understand which desires lead to sorrow and which lead to happiness. To do so, we need to go deep into our desires’ structure and understand their ramifications. This understanding is an essential part of our mental and emotional makeup and can powerfully affect our actions.
To fulfill our desires, we need to know ourselves. Maharaj advises that to know ourselves, we need to know what we are not. When we realize what we are not, we are free of it and remain in our natural state. Ultimately, we are the denial of all that we are not. Maharaj suggests that we focus our minds on “I am,” which is a pure and simple being, to know ourselves.
To trust Maharaj’s teachings, we need to have insight into other people’s hearts. If we cannot look into his heart, we can look into our own. Purifying ourselves by living a well-ordered and useful life, and watching our thoughts, feelings, words, and actions can help clear our vision. Maharaj believes that we cannot renounce our attachments until we know our minds inside out. Therefore, the first step towards fulfilling our desires is to know ourselves, and everything else will follow.
Maharaj warns that we cannot stop at the realization that we are the Supreme Reality. We need to go further and discover what we are not. We need to watch ourselves continuously, particularly our minds, missing nothing. This witnessing is essential for the separation of the self from the not-self. Witnessing is not our real nature. We are still in duality. To move beyond duality, we need to discover what we are not and focus on pure and simple beings.
In conclusion, Maharaj believes that to fulfill our desires, we need to understand which desires lead to sorrow and which lead to happiness. We need to work towards the common good and align our desires with those of humanity. To do so, we need to know ourselves, discover what we are not, and focus on a pure and simple being. This knowledge will help us watch ourselves continuously and separate ourselves from the not-self. Ultimately, we will discover that we are the denial of all that we are not.