Conquest Of Desire

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The Buddhist scripture, the Dhammapada. also says very much the same thing. "Complete nudity, coils of matted hair, unwashed body, going without food, sleeping on bare ground, smearing one's body with ashes, or even remaining motionless in the same posture for days cannot purify a man unless he has conquered his desires".

Conquest of desire is Kaivalya, the highest goal of man. It is the end and aim of all man's activity; it is his highest attainment. It alone yields absolute peace and supreme bliss. Conquest of desire alone leads to a fearless, free, and happy life. The man who has conquered desire is not haunted by sorrows or worries. He alone is the master. Emperors in this world and Gods in the other are his servants.

But the conquest of desire is not easy. Only the devotees of Jnana can overcome desire. A man may fast and leave aside his food untouched, but his mind will still revert to the thought of food. By force of will, he may keep away from worldly enjoyments, but his mind will still remain attached to such pleasures. In fact, until a man fully realizes the Self, his mind cannot be completely free from desire. He who seeks to conquer desire, except through the realization of the Self is verily attempting the impossible. There is nothing as holy as Knowledge. There is nothing so great, so divine.

In 1920, I passed some time in Rishikesh as a brahmacharin. In those days. I met and talked to many mahatmas deeply learned in the Vedas-men who had detached themselves completely from the world, who had conquered desire and realized the self. Many of them were very old and now I find them no longer here.

Their chief abode in those days was a small, thickly wooded island called Jhati, surrounded on all sides by the scared Ganga. Now even that Island is almost gone, owing to the fluctuations in the course of the river. In this way, and in several other ways the number of the holy men, who once inhabited Rishikesh has dwindled and is still dwindling, but there was a time when their number was considerable.

Just one look at them could lift up a man's soul, far more than the reading of several holy texts and numberless commentaries. To cite one instance, there was the mahatma who, oblivious of all sense of danger, went on repeating "Shivoham. Shivoham" ("I am the blissful Self, I am the blissful Self"), as he was being carried away by a ferocious tiger. If listening to his story can invoke courage in the heart of the hearers and raise them to high levels of thought, how much more effective should have been the sight of that holy person !

One such mahatma was Swami Visudhananda, more familiarly known as Baba Kali Kambu Wallah. He came to be known by that 'peculiar name because he generally used only a piece of black cloth to cover his body. He was an ascetic among ascetics. His life, totally free from the acceptance and hoarding of wealth, was a perfect model of innocence and piety. In spite of his greatness, for a long while he remained a stranger to fame. But at last, paradoxically as it would seem, his fame began to spread and riches began to rain down at his feet. To pursue the man who spurns her is an odd, but well known characteristic of the goddess of wealth. Wealthy men now place themselves at the disposal of this ascetic, enabling him to provide the ill-clothed, poorly fed sadhus of Rishikesh with clothing and food. .

Even when he had become the lord of great wealth, he remained a bhikshu, completely detached from all worldly pleasures and desires. The life of Baba Kali Kambu Wallah demonstrates how a sadhu who comes by wealth because of tendencies carried over from previous lives, should conduct himself. The extensive and efficient arrangements he has made in Rishikesh and other places in the Himalayas for ministering to the needs of sadhus are simply wonderful. and as long as Rishikesh and Kedarakhand (the land washed by the Ganga and the Alakananada) exist, his name will be remembered with gratitude and reverence.

About the author

Swami Tapovan Maharaj

Swami Tapovan Maharaj was that pristine glacier of Self-knowledge through whom flowed the Ganga of Vedantic Wisdom of Swami Chinmayananda, the architect of the Chinmaya Movement. Swami Tapovanam was a saint of the highest order, a consummate Vedantin, strict teacher, a compassionate mentor, and a poet whose every thought throbbed with ecstatic awareness, and a sage of unsurpassed wisdom and tranquility. This article is from his work, Himagiri Viharam (Wanderings in the Himalayas)