Love, desire in Hindu philosophy
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[http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=the-speaking-tree-There-Is-An-Inscrutable-Design-23092016018039 Pranav Khullar, There Is An Inscrutable Design Behind Desire, Sep 23 2016 : The Times of India (Delhi)
The intense conversation between Sage Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi on the notions of love, desire and possessiveness and the inexplicable feeling of connectedness one feels sometimes with another, is at the heart of the concept of Self expounded in the Brihadarayanka Upanishad. The middle-aged Yajnavalkya is preparing to leave his householder responsibilities and embark on vanaprastha or renunciate stage of life. But before doing so, he wishes to settle all family affairs between his two wives, Maitreyi and Katyayani.
Even as Yajnavalkya begins to explain his intent of dividing all of his property equally between the two women, Maitreyi startles him by asking whether this wealth that she will acquire will give to her a permanent state of happiness and joy . Can it give her perpetual happiness? Yajnavalkya composes himself and tells her bluntly that though wealth will give her material comforts, the satisfaction she will derive from material possessions will be a temporary phase only , and the state of happiness which Maitreyi is alluding to is not possible through such possessions.Maitreyi expresses her dis illusionment with this material settlement and requests Yajnavalkya to tell her of the way in which an unbroken state of happiness can be acquired.
Yajnavalkya expands the concept of wealth now, and explains how a comfortable state of mind operates. The mind derives its comfort through the physical acquisition of wealth or feels satisfied through attaining a particular social status. This conditioning of our mind gives rise to our sense of possessiveness with that external object, and draws a veil on the temporary nature of that external object as well as our own temporariness.
Therefore acquisition of something external does give us happiness we still want to possess, desire, enjoy and feel this happiness, howsoever temporary or imagined it may be. Why does this happen? Yajnavalkya points to an inscrutable design working behind the desires which grip our mind from time to time and which give us satisfaction and happiness when those desires get fulfilled.
The samvad or dialogue between husband and wife picks up pace, as Yajnavalkya puts across his exposition of the inscrutable design behind each desire, longing and possession; behind the need to love and be loved.Behind the mind's desire for a particular thing or person is the desire to be one, to be united with that external object, how ever impossible it practically is. Yajnavalkya goes deeper into this peculiar yearning of the mind to be united with externalities. Actually , he says, it arises out of our longing to be one with our inner Self, without which we feel restless, unsatiated and incomplete. The mind twists this inner longing to make it seem as if happiness could be achieved through external means.
Similarly, the love expressed between two partners, between friends, between parents and children, are all part of a search for that love which alone will make us complete and impart to us a permanent state of happiness.
The search for love, Yajnavalkya says, is the search for the Self, which alone can satiate us completely . No relationship is dearer than the one we forge with our inner Self. Having initiated Maitreyi into this inscrutable principle of life, Yajnavalkya gets up and walks away into the great forest Brihad-Aryanka literally as well.
