How can we survive without having Desires - Part 2

Please read Part-1 before proceeding with this post.

HOW CAN ONE SURVIVE WITHOUT DESIRES?

Our survival depends upon our actions, not upon desires. If you merely sit and desire to earn one million, you will never earn. But if you plan well and work hard, you may earn a million or even more. You do not need desires, rather actions.

WHY WOULD ONE ACT WITHOUT HAVING A MOTIVATING DESIRE?

That is the key question, and if we can remember the answer at all times, we will become highly productive and active. Lord Krishna has beautifully answered Arjun's question - "why should I act when I desire nothing?" Lord said - You must act for the following reasons -

(1) Man cannot truly give up actions without first performing them, neither does he attain peace MERELY by physically giving up actions. Performing actions (without insistence) is superior to staying idle, hence we must perform our individual duties which have been prescribed in our scriptures. Unless we perform actions, we cannot practice to remain equanimous in their outcomes, ie. we cannot practice to give up insistence (and even our liking) on the outcome. Eg. unless we eat food, we cannot practice to give up insistence upon eating our desired type of food, or our likes/dislikes towards various types of foods.

A man who merely gives up actions outwardly, but keeps desiring for (or thinking about) their fruits in his mind, he can never attain peace, because he can never get rid of his likes/dislikes. He is only cheating himself and others.

(2) Only actions other than one's prescribed duties, ie. actions done purely for self-interests are harmful, duties performed without insistence are not harmful, rather such actions are supremely beneficial.

The functioning of the entire creation is based upon performance of individual duties. All the elements of nature, all the beings are continuously performing their duties, and that ensures the sustenance and continuation of creation. A person who enjoys services from others without performing his own duties is a thief. But those who first perform their duties selflessly and then partakes of the leftover fruits get freed from all their sins, and they also attain the supreme-most benefit, ie liberation. God resides in the performance of one's prescribed duties.

It is a tried and tested fact that man can always remain equanimous in the outcomes of his duties, but he can never be completely equanimous in resuts of those actions which he does for some self-gain. So you must act for sake of others, your duties are their rights. Safeguard their rights by performing your duties towards them.

(3) No man can ever remain completely idle even for a second, because mankind is FORCED by Nature (his inherent tendencies) to act. Man cannot even survive without performing actions. Even the liberated soul performs his actions according to his inherent tendencies - "prakrit-er gyaan-vaan api" (gita 3/33). No one can forcefully sit idle. Therefore, when we are anyways bound to act, then instead of trying in vain to sit idle and then helplessly acting in wrong ways due to inherent tendencies, let us "choose" our actions wisely. The wise choice is to perform our individual duties as prescribed in the scriptures without insistence and to abstain from any wrong actions.

(4) Setting the right example - One must act in the righteous way and perform one's duties to set the right example. Common men typically follow great men. A man who has become perfectly free from desires does not have any duties to perform, but the other common men will not understand this difference between themselves and the liberated man, and will blindly follow him and sit idle, and this will lead to complete destruction of mankind.

King Janaka (Mother Sita's father) was a liberated soul, he had no desires, yet for setting the right example for masses, he perfectly performed all his duties of a king. Lord Krishna does not need to perform actions for anything, everything is readily available to him whenever he wishes, he does not even have any desires, yet he carefully followed all the duties that applied to him as per the scriptures, only for the sake of setting the right examples. Therefore, a person who is free of desires too should perform his duties just like actions are performed by common men who are attached to fruits of those actions, and he should inspire them too to perform their duties in the righteous manner.