The Father says, ‘Be ignorant of the knowledge of all desire’. Only when you yourselves have come out of that quicksand of desires will you be able to free others.

Baba calls the children ‘Kamdhenu‘ or the ones who fulfil the desires of all. Am I still busy fulfilling the desires of my own mind? If the desires of your own mind are not fulfilled, how would you fulfil the desires of others?, asks Baba. The greatest desire was to attain the Father. Now that that elevated desire has been fulfilled, all other smaller, limited desires are included in that one elevated desire.

Limited desires are generally a trace or progeny of the vice of lust – a lust for money, for name, fame, glory….the list is endless. The problem with having limited desires is that they don’t allow me to oppose Maya. Maybe someone at work got the project I was aiming for. If I am attached, I develop a subtle jealousy for the one who got it, I feel anger, I feel like I’ve been disrespected. Now, I am tempted to not offer my co-operation to them on the project: ‘let them do it if they are so smart…’, ‘If they want my help, they should have thought about that before pushing me aside..’ etc. I side with Maya and oppose my brothers and sisters. The limited desire for name, credit, recognition etc. don’t allow me to do unlimited service with an unlimited stage. They keep me in mediocrity.

The usual tendency is to then justify my feelings by thinking: ‘but I am right, they did me wrong, I have a right to feel the way I do’. But this is a victim mentality, Baba points out. Service, by definition, is not about ‘being right’ or ‘winning’, it’s about unity, it’s about brotherhood, it’s about working together on God’s task to make it successful. ‘Being right’ or the false sense of justice is the classic trap Maya uses to isolate me and get me to step out of the game. For as long as you still have the desire to glorify your own name or feel that you are “such-and-such” and ask why no one sought your advice, or why your opinion isn’t valued, there will be obstacles in service, Baba teaches. Therefore, renounce any desire for regard and remain stable in your self-respect. Then, regard will follow you like a shadow.

Sometimes, I get clever with Baba and say: ‘Baba, if this project becomes successful, we will become famous and that is good for service! This is why I am working so hard on this…it’s not for me, it’s for service..‘. Baba smiles at the innocent children! According to the law of Karma, such children, Baba explains, will receive a signal in their mind to alert them – they will become increasingly confused and discontent. They might do well on the project, outwardly they might be eating, drinking and being merry but the mind will be discontent. They might have a temporary spike of happiness but then it disappears. They will not be able to experience the supersensuous joy and sing the song from their heart of: ‘having found the Father, I have found everything, there is nothing more I need’. Instead they feel: ‘Baba, I have found You but I want this too!’. Their desires of ‘I want, I want’, are never satisfied. Unless you are ‘ignorant of the knowledge of desires‘, unless you have come out of the quicksand yourself, you will be unable to pull your brothers and sisters out, you will be unable to help Baba in His task of world transformation, He says.

Sometimes, the desire is subtle. I pay special attention to someone who praises me. That too is like accepting fruit in a subtle way, Baba teaches. It prevents me from doing altruistic service. By performing one elevated act, you receive one hundred-fold fruit in return, but you have to remain ignorant of all temporary and limited desire. Desire (iccha) finishes all good (accha) acts, He teaches. It finishes all cleanliness where I forget Baba and the fact that I am a server and instead think a lot about the response I received, how good I am, how helpful I am…I develop a ‘savior’ consciousness.

‘To be a conqueror of lust means to be a conqueror of limited desires‘, teaches Baba, ‘and one who conquers lust conquers the world‘. This is why the description of the final, perfect form of a Brahmin is of one who is ignorant of all desire. Become a beggar in terms of temporary desires, He teaches. This is an old world, there is nothing but sorrow here. Do I experience this? For as long as you have even a slight trace of interest in this old world, for as long as you don’t experience the world to be tasteless, for as long as your intellect doesn’t feel that everyone is already dead, it is possible that you would still desire some form of attainment, He cautions. The Father says: Manmanabhav – yours is One Baba and none other. When I remain connected with the Father, I remain full of eternal attainments- He fulfills my every need, every desire, all my relationships not just for a short time but I become full for the whole cycle. Now, by remaining stable in the stage beyond sound, become a conqueror of lust in the stage of retirement, that is, become a sample in front of the world, He says.

Only when you yourself become completely ignorant of all desires will you be able to fulfill the desires of many other souls. Have no desires for yourself, but think about how to fulfill the desires of others, and then you, yourself, will automatically become full. Your younger brothers and sisters are looking to you elders, they are calling out to you: ‘Fulfill our desires. Fulfill our desires for happiness and peace’. The Father asks: ‘Will you fulfill your own desires or will you fulfill their desires?’