Desire - root cause of all misery

@mallu30 (461)
India
May 8, 2011 5:01am CST
Desire is the root cause of all misery - Buddha 'The enlightened one ' said this. Misery is the complete antithesis of inner peace. And since the root cause of misery is desire, it must be addressed. Now are we to assume that Man should have no desires to achieve inner peace? No, that is not a message. What is required is control over our desires. In order to explain this concept here is an example. Shri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa was once asked about this same dilemma and this is how he answered. 'You have seen a culprit being taken to prison. You see that guards surround him. When you see a King taking his stroll, there are guards surrounding him too. What is the difference? The difference is that in the first case, the guards control the prisoner, while in the other the King controls the guards. The same should be the case with man and his desires. Desies should not control a man but man should control desire. This will lead to elimination of misery and lead to inner peace.
1 response
@webearn99 (1742)
• India
8 May 11
I do not dispute hat Sri Gautama Buddha or Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said. They were right in their own way! I think that desire is the basis of progress. Desire for the right thing followed by action of the right kind. Any one of these going wrong is misery pure and simple, for self and for the world at large.