CHAPTER II

DESIRE.

1. THE NATURE OF DESIRE.

WHEN the Monad sends forth his rays into the matter of the third, fourth, and fifth planes, and appropriates to himself an atom of each of these planes,[73] he creates what is often called his “reflexion in matter”, the human “Spirit”, and the Will-aspect of the Monad is mirrored in the human Atma, whose home is on the third or atmic plane. That first hypostasis is indeed lessened in powers by the veils of matter thus endued, but it is in no way distorted; as a well-made mirror produces a perfect image of an object, so is the human Spirit, Atma-Buddhi-Manas, a perfect image of the Monad, is, indeed, [305] the Monad himself veiled in denser matter. But as a concave or convex mirror yields a distorted image of an object placed before it, so do the further reflections of the Spirit in, or involutions into, yet denser matter show but distorted images thereof.

Thus, when the Will, in its downward progress, veiling itself farther on each plane, reaches the world immediately above the physical, the astral world, it appears therein as Desire. Desire shows the energy, the concentration, the impelling characteristics of Will, but matter has wrenched away its control its direction, from the Spirit, and has usurped dominion over it. Desire is Will discrowned, the captive, the slave of matter. It is no longer Self-determined, but is determined by the attractions around it.

This is the distinction between Will and Desire. The innermost nature of both is the same, for they are verily but one determination, the Self-determination of the Atma, the one motor-power of man, that which impels to Activity, to action on the external world, on the Not­-[306]Self. When the Self determines the activity, uninfluenced by attractions or repulsions towards surrounding objects, then Will is manifested. When outer attractions and repulsions determine the activity, and the man is drawn hither and thither by these, deaf to the voice of the Self, unconscious of the Inner Ruler, then Desire is seen.

Desire is Will clothed in astral matter, in the matter which by the second life­-wave was formed into combinations, the reaction between which and consciousness would cause sensations in the latter. Clothed in this matter, the vibrations of which are accompanied with sensations in consciousness, Will is modified into Desire. Its essential nature of giving motor-impulses, surrounded by matter which arouses sensations, answers by im­pelling energy, and this energy, aroused through and acting through astral matter, is Desire.

As in the higher nature Will is the impelling power, so in the lower nature Desire is the impelling power. When it is feeble the whole nature is feeble in its [307] reaction on the world. The effective force of a nature is measured by its Will-power or its Desire-power, according to the stage of evolution. There is a truth underlying the popular phrase, “The greater the sinner the greater the saint”. The mediocre person can be neither greatly good nor greatly bad; there is not enough of him for more than petty virtues or petty vices. The strength of the Desire-nature in a man is the measure of his capacity for progress, the measure of the motor-energy whereby that man can press onwards along the way. The strength in a man that impels to reaction on his environment is the measure of his power to modify, to change, to conquer it. In the struggle, with the Desire-nature which marks the higher evolution, the motor-energy is not to be destroyed but transferred; lower Desires are to be transmuted into higher, energy is to be refined while losing nought of its power; and finally the Desire-nature is to vanish into Will, all the energies being gathered up and merged into the Will-aspect of the Spirit, the Power of the Self. [308]

No aspirant, therefore, should be dis­couraged by the storming and raging of desires in him, any more than a horse-­breaker is displeased with the rearings and plungings of the unbroken colt. The wildness of the young untrained creature, and his rebellion against all efforts to control and restrain, are the promise of his future usefulness when disciplined aid trained. And even thus are the strainings of Desire against the curb imposed by the Intelligence, the promise of the future strength of Will, of the Power-aspect of the Self.

Rather does difficulty arise where desires are feeble, ere yet the Will has freed itself from the trammels of astral matter; for in such case the Will to Live is expressing itself but feebly, and there is little effective force available for evolution. There is some obstacle, some barrier, in the vehicles, checking the forthgoing energy of the Monad, and obstructing its free passage, and until that barrier is removed there is little progress to be hoped for. In the storm the ship drives onward, though there be peril of wreck, [309] but in the dead calm she remains helpless and unmoving, answering neither to sail nor helm. And since, in this voyage, no final wreck is possible, but only temporary damage, and the storm works for progress rather than the calm, those who find them­selves storm-tossed may look forward with sure conviction to the day when the storm­-gusts of Desire will be changed into the steady wind of Will.

2. THE AWAKENING OF DESIRE.

To the astral world we refer all our sensations. The centres by which we feel lie in the astral body, and the reactions of these to contacts give rise to feelings of pleasure and pain in consciousness. The ordinary physiologist traces sensation of pleasure and pain from the point of con­tact to the brain-centre, recognising only nervous vibrations between periphery and centre, and in the centre the reaction of consciousness as sensation. We follow the vibrations further, finding only vibrations in the brain-centre and in the ether permeating it, and seeing in the astral [310] centre the point at which the reaction of consciousness takes place. When a dislocation between the physical and astral bodies occurs, whether by the action of chloroform, ether, laughing-gas, or other drugs, the physical body, despite all its nervous apparatus, feels no more than if bereft of nerves. The links between the physical body and the body of sensation are thrown out of gear, and conscious­ness does not respond to any stimulus applied.

The awakening of Desire takes place in this body of sensation, and follows the first dim sensings of pleasure and pain. As before pointed out[74] pleasure “is a sense of ‘moreness’, of increased, expanded life”, while pain is a shutting in or lessening of life, and these belong to the whole con­sciousness. “This primary state of con­sciousness does not manifest the three well-known aspects of Will, Wisdom, and Activity, even in the most germinal stage; ‘feeling’ precedes these, and belongs to consciousness as a whole, though in later stages of evolution it shows itself so much [311] in connexion with the Will-Desire aspect as to become almost identified with it”. “As the states of pleasure and pain become more definitely established in consciousness, they give rise to another; with the fading away of pleasure there is a continuation of the attraction in con­sciousness, and this becomes a dim groping after it” - a groping, be it noted, not after any pleasure-giving object, but after a continuance of the feeling of pleasure - “a vague following of the vanishing feeling, a movement - too indefinite to be called an effort - to hold it, to retain it; similarly with the fading away of pain there is a continuation of the repulsion in conscious­ness, and this becomes an equally vague movement to push it away. These stages give birth to Desire”.

This arising of Desire is a feeble reach­ing out of the life in search of pleasure, a movement of the life, undirected, vague, groping. Beyond this it cannot go, until Thought has developed to a certain extent, and has recognised an outer world, a Not­-Self, and has learned to relate various objects in the Not-Self to the pleasure or [312] pain arising in consciousness on contacting them.

But the results of these contacts, long before the objects are recognised, have caused, as above indicated, a division in, a forking of, Desire. We may take as one of the simplest illustrations the craving for food in a lowly organism; as the physical body wastes, becomes less, a sense of pain arises in the astral body, a want, a craving, vague and indeterminate; the body, by its wasting, has become a less effective vehicle of the life pouring down through the astral, and this check causes pain. A current in the water that bathes the organism brings food up against the body; it is absorbed, the waste is repaired, the life flows on unobstructed; there is plea­sure. At a little higher stage, when pain arises, there is the desire to escape from it, the sense of repulsion arises, the con­trary to the sense of attraction, caused by pleasure. There results from this that Desire is cloven in twain. From the Will to Live arose the longing to experience, and in the lower vehicle this longing, appearing as Desire, becomes on the one [313] hand a longing for experiences that make the feeling of life more vivid, and on the other a shrinking from all that weakens and depresses. This attraction and repul­sion are equally of the nature of Desire. Just as a magnet attracts or repels certain metals, so does the embodied Self attract and repel. Both attraction and repulsion are Desire, and these are the two great motor-energies in life, into which all desires are ultimately resolvable. The Self comes under the bondage of Desire, of Attraction-Repulsion, and is attracted hither and thither, repelled from this or that, hurried about among pleasure and pain-giving objects, as a helmless ship amid the currents of air and sea.

3. THE RELATION OF DESIRE TO THOUGHT.

We have now to consider the relation that Desire bears to Thought, and see how it first rules and then is ruled by the latter.

The Pure Reason is the reflexion of the Wisdom-aspect of the Monad, and appears in the human Spirit as Buddhi. But it is not the relation of Desire to the Pure Reason [314] with which eve are concerned, for it cannot, in fact, be said to be directly related to Wisdom, but to Love, the manifestation of Wisdom on the astral plane. We are to seek rather its relation to the Activity-aspect of the Monad, showing itself on the astral plane as sensation and on the mental as thought. Nor are we even concerned with the Higher Mind, which is creative Activity, Manas, in its purity; but with the distorted reflexion of this, the lower mind. It is this lower mind which is immediately related to Desire, and is inextricably inter­mingled with it in human evolution; so closely joined, indeed, are they, that we often speak of Kama-Manas, Desire-Mind, as of a single thing, so rare is it, in the lower consciousness, to find a single thought which is uninfluenced by a desire. “Manas verily is declared to be twofold, pure and impure; the impure is determined by desire, the pure is desire-free.”[75]

This lower mind is “thought” on the mental plane; its characteristic property is that it asserts and denies; it knows by difference; it perceives and remembers. [315] On the astral plane, as we have seen, the same aspect that on the mental plane is thought appears as sensation, and is aroused by contact with the external world.

When a pleasure has been experienced, and has passed away, Desire arises to experience it again, as we have seen. And this fact implies memory, which is a function of the mind. Here, as ever, are we reminded that consciousness is ever acting in its threefold nature, though one or other aspect may predominate, for even the most germinal desire cannot arise without memory being present. The sensation caused by an external impact must have been many times aroused, before the mind will establish a relation between the sensation of which it is conscious, and the external object which has caused the sensation. At last the mind “perceives” the object, i.e., relates it to one of its own changes, recognises a modification in itself caused by the external object. Repetitions of this per­ception will establish a definite link in memory between the object and the [316] pleasurable or painful sensation, and when Desire presses for the repetition of pleasure, the mind recalls the object which supplied that pleasure. Thus the mingling of Thought with Desire gives birth to a particular desire, the desire to find and appropriate the pleasure-giving object.

This desire impels the mind to exert its inherent activity. Discomfort being caused by the unsatisfied craving, effort is made to escape the discomfort by supplying the object wanted. The mind plans, schemes, drives the body into action, in order to satisfy the cravings of Desire. And similarly, equally prompted by Desire, the mind plans, schemes, drives the body into action in order to avoid the recurrence of pain from an object recognised as pain-giving.

Such is the relation of Desire to Thought. It rouses, stimulates, urges on, mental efforts. The mind is, in its early stages, the slave of Desire, and the rapidity of its growth is in proportion to the fierce urgings of Desire. We desire, and thus are forced to think. [317]

4. DESIRE, THOUGHT, ACTION.

The third stage of the contact of the Self with the Not-Self is Action. The mind having perceived the object of desire, leads to, guides and shapes the action. Action is often said to arise from Desire, but Desire alone could only arouse move­ment, or chaotic action. The force of Desire is propulsive, not directive. Thought it is that adds the element of direction, and shapes the action purposively.

This is the ever-recurring cycle in consciousness - Desire, Thought, Action. The propulsive power of Desire arouses Thought; the directive power of Thought guides Action. This sequence is invariable, and the clear understanding thereof is of the profoundest importance, for the effec­tive control of conduct depends on this understanding, and on its application in practice. The shaping of karma can only be achieved when this sequence is under­stood, for evitable and inevitable action can only thus be discriminated.

It is by Thought that we can change Desire, and thereby change Action. When [318] the mind sees that certain desires have impelled to thoughts that have directed actions which were productive of unhappi­ness, it can resist the future promptings of Desire in a similar direction, and refuse to guide actions to a result already known as disastrous. It can picture the painful results, and thus arouse the repellent energy of Desire, and can image the blissful outcome of desires of the opposite kind. The creative activity of Thought can be exerted in the moulding of Desire, and its propulsive energy can be turned into a better direction. In this way Thought can be used to master Desire, and it may become the ruler instead of the slave. And as it thus asserts control over its unruly companion, it begins the trans­mutation of Desire into Will, changing the governance of the outgoing energy from the outer to the inner, from the external objects that attract or repel to the Spirit, the inner Ruler.

5. THE BINDING NATURE OF DESIRE.

Since the Will to Live is the cause of the forthgoing, of the life seeking [319] embodiment and appropriating to itself that which is necessary for its manifestation and persistence in form, Desire, being Will on a lower plane, will show similar characteristics, seeking to appropriate, to draw into itself, to make part of itself that whereby its life in form may be maintained and strengthened. When we desire an object, we seek to make it part of our­selves, part of the “I”, so that it may form part of the embodiment of the “I”. Desire is the putting forth of the power of attraction; it draws the desired object to itself. Whatever we desire, we attach to ourselves. By the desire to possess it, a bond is established between the object and the desirer. We tie to the Self this portion of the Not-Self, and the bond exists until the object is possessed, or until the Self has broken off the bond and repudiated the object. These are “the bonds of the heart”[76], and tie the Self to the wheel of births and deaths.

These bonds between the desiror and the objects of desire are like ropes that draw the Self to the place where the [320] objects of desire are found, and thus determine its birth into one or another world. “On this runs the verse: He also who is attached ever obtains by action that on which his mind has set its mark. Having obtained the object of action he here performs, he comes again there­fore from that world to this world for the sake of action. Thus is it with the desiring mind.”[77] If a man desires the objects of another world more than the objects of this, then into that world will he be born. There is a continuing tension in the bond of Desire until the Self and the object are united.

The one great determining energy, the Will to Live, which holds the planets in their path around the sun, which prevents the matter of the globes from scattering, which holds our own bodies together, that is the energy of Desire. That which rules all is in us as Desire, and it must draw to us, or draw us to, everything into which it has fixed its hooks. The hook of Desire fixes itself in an object, as a harpoon in the whale at which it is flung [321] by the harpooner. When Desire has fixed its harpoon in an object, the Self is attached to that object, has appropriated it in Will, and presently must appropriate it in action. Hence a great Teacher has said: “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee … if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee”[78]. The thing desired becomes part of the body of the Self, and, if it be evil, it should be torn out, at whatever cost of anguish. Otherwise it will only be worn away by the slow attrition of time and of weariness. “Only the strong can kill it out. The weak must wait for its growth, its fruition, its death.”[79]

6. THE BREAKING OF THE BONDS.

For the breaking of the bonds of Desire, recourse must be had to the mind. Therein lies the power which shall first purify and then transmute Desire.

The mind records the results which follow the appropriation of each object of [322] Desire, and marks whether happiness or pain has resulted from the union of that object with the embodied Self. And when, after many appropriations of an attractive object, it has found the result to be pain, it registers that object as one which should be avoided in the future. “The delights that are contact-born, they are verily wombs of pain.”[80]

Then arises strife. When that attractive object again presents itself, Desire throws out its harpoon and seizes it, and begins to draw it in. The mind, remembering the painful results of previous similar captures, endeavours to check Desire, to cut, with the sword of knowledge, the attaching bond. Fierce conflict rages within the man: he is dragged forward by Desire, held back by Thought; many and many a time Desire will triumph and the object will be appropriated; but the resulting pain is ever repeated, and each success of Desire arrays against it another enemy in the forces of the mind. Inevitably, however slowly, Thought proves stronger, until, at last, victory [323] inclines to its side, and a day comes when the desire is weaker than the mind, and the attractive object is loosed, the attach­ing cord is cut. For that object, the bond is broken.

In this conflict, Thought seeks to utilise against Desire the strength of Desire. It selects objects of Desire that give a relatively lasting happiness, and seeks to utilise these against the desires that swiftly result in pain. Thus it will set artistic against sensual pleasure; it will use fame and political or social power against enjoy­ments of the flesh; it will stimulate the desire to please the good, to strengthen abstention from vicious delights; it will finally make the desire for eternal peace conquer the desires for temporal joys. By the one great attraction the lower attrac­tions are slain, and cease to be any longer the objects of desire: “Even taste (for them) turneth away from him after the Supreme is see”[81]. The very energy of Desire can tear it away from that which brings pain, and fix it on that which brings bliss. The same force that bound is made [324] to serve as an instrument of freedom. Wrenching itself away from objects, it will turn upwards and inwards, attaching the man to the Life whence he came forth, and in union with which consists his highest bliss.

Herein lies the value of devotion as a liberator. Love, turning to the Supreme, sees Him as eminently desirable, as an Object for intense desire, and this burns up attachments to objects that keep the heart in bondage.

Only by the Self as Thought can be mastered the Self as Desire; the Self, realising itself as the life, overcomes the Self embodied and thinking itself to be the form. The man must learn to separate himself from the vehicles in which he desires, thinks, and acts, to know them as part of the Not-Self, as material external to the life. Thus the energy that went out to objects in the lower desires becomes the higher desire guided by the mind, and is prepared to be transmuted into Will.

As the lower mind merges itself in the higher, and the higher into that which is Wisdom, the aspect of pure Will emerges [325] as the Power of the Spirit, Self-deter­mined, Self-ruled, in perfect harmony with the Supreme Will, and therefore free. Then only are all bonds broken, and the Spirit is unconstrained by aught outside himself. Then, and then only, can the Will be said to be free. [326]