The Three Root Desires : 15.

The Upanishads say there are three things: the desire for physical expansion by the accumulation of property, wealth, kingdom, etc.; the desire to perpetuate oneself through progeny, which looks like actual continuance in time, and the desire for endless recognition, that one's name should be remembered even after the body goes. You have no desire in this world except these three. You can go on thinking a thousand things, but you will find that they come from only these three, which are like a big umbrella covering all your desires.

In this circumstance of your placement in this kind of world, what are you supposed to do when you seek salvation? Can you imagine how much inward effort is necessary on your part to take steps along the line of yoga practice? These involvements should be disentangled. They should not be severed by a sword. You do not kill your desire; you disentangle it and untie the knot.

There are three knots, they say: brahma granthi, vishnu granthi and rudra granthi—Brahma's knot, Vishnu's knot and Siva's knot. Perhaps these three knots have some connection with the three desires that I mentioned just now. They are very much emphasised in kundalini yoga and hatha yoga, etc. They are the tamasic, the rajasic and the sattvic; they are the outward, the inward and the universal. They have to be handled carefully by educational methods which are not roughshod and hard upon them.

The whole of yoga practice is an educational process. The student is not hit the head with knowledge so that it may enter. It is not a sudden jerk or a push that is given, but it is a gradual entry of a river into the ocean of the mind of the student.

Therefore, all the efforts of man in this world are finally baseless. He is born like a psychological pauper and dies like a psychological pauper, but in the middle he looks like an emperor. This is no good. We do not want to go like paupers. Let us have some education, some knowledge.

Swami Krishnananda

END

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To be continued  ...