Desire versus aspiration7

Desire versus aspiration. Desire binds; aspiration liberates. Desire wants to possess; aspiration wants to renounce. Desire means plus, plus, plus material wealth. Aspiration means minus, minus, minus material wealth. Aspiration means plus, plus, plus spiritual wealth — love, devotion, surrender, purity, gratitude and self-offering.

He who desires sings most pitifully his life's poverty-songs. He who aspires sings most soulfully God's Prosperity-Songs.

He who desires wants to possess each and every thing, each and every individual in the entire world. He who aspires wants only those things that will help him transcend his abundant limitations and teeming imperfections. He knows that he needs help, and the things that can help him he welcomes and invites to come to his rescue.

A desiring man prays to God to get God's all-conquering Power. An aspiring man meditates on God to get God's all-fulfilling Love. A man of desire wants to show the world his capacities, his strength. A man of aspiration devotedly and soulfully places all his incapacities — his insecurity, doubt, fear, uncomely thoughts and everything else that is unaspiring in him — at the Feet of his Lord Beloved Supreme.

A man of desire wants to dominate the world. He wants the whole world to surrender to him. A man of aspiration wants to establish his universal oneness-heart with the rest of the world. How? On the strength of his self-giving, which is the only way to bring about world peace.

A desire-intoxicated man, like Julius Caesar, wants to say to the world: "I came, I saw, I conquered." An aspiring inspiration-man wants to say to the world: "I came, I loved and I am becoming inseparably one with you."

A desire-intoxicated man at every moment wants to show his superiority and lord it over the world. An aspiring inspiration-man wants only God's Compassion-Eye to guide and lead the whole world to its ultimate Destination, the Destination that is flooded with infinite Light and Delight.


HPO 7. Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 16 March 1989.

From:Sri Chinmoy,My heart's peace-offering, Agni Press, 1994
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/hpo