The discomfiture of Desire

Sri Rāma

1. Desire is boundless in this dark night (of Self) in the creative, senstient consciousness, blemishes and faults flash around like owls (in the night).

2. I am dragged to dryness and decline by the distressing grief which is causing internal heat and making me cliant with stupidity. It is like the earth drying up due to sun's heat.

3. -4. The demon of ambition, desire, and longing is dancing in the forest of my mind, which is blinded by infatuation.Verily, the buds of grams, called cares and enxieties, bloom in the bright gardebs if gold by word-made dew drops.

5. A vicious ecstasy arises due to internal illusions, moved by desires, like wavesrising in a sea.

6. The river of desire is flowing over my mountain of a body, making uncontrollable sounds of agitation.

7. In spite of my desire to restrain the speed, the "Chataka" called mind is being dragged by vicious desire to some unknown destinations like a blade of straw being blown off by wind.

8. Like a rat which bites away the strings of a "Veena", my desires are destroying the good qualities in me.

9. I am whirling around in the circle of anxieties and cares, like a dry leaf in water, like a straw in winds and like a cloud in autumn sky.

10. Unable to rest in my intellect, and Self, I am struggling in the net of agonies like birds in a net.

11. -12. Dear sir, I am burning in the flames of desire. I do not know wether the heat will subside even by nectar. This mad, wild horse of desire speeds out to far off places and returns back, thus whirling around the distant horizons.

13. The stupid and ignorant desire oscillates and moves up and down like a waterbucket-rope constantly. It (desire) is full with confusing knots.

14. With indestructible knots, and lumps and inside one's body, people are carrying the load of desire like a rope-bound buffalo.

15. Desire weaves a net around people, like a hunter around birds, in the shape of sons, wife, and such.

16. Desire is like a dark night in autumn. I am afraid of it even though I am a courageous person. I am like a blind man who can see. Though happy, I feel unhappy (in the presence of desire).

17. Desire is like a black cobra. It is vicious. With her soft touch, she showers poison even if one touches it (mildly).

18. Desire is like a black demon. It breaks one's heart.Full of deceit, it dishes out only misery and misfortune.

19. Desire cannot delight a decayed and wearied body. It is like a sluggish "Veena" (which cannot entertain).

20. The creeper of intense desire (Trisna) is like one which is long, wiry, oozing oily, unctuous substances making the whole thing impure (to touch). It causes madness.

21. Trisna causes sorrow. It is empty and useless. It does not yield any fruit. It is inauspicious.It is cruel.It is like a faded bouquet of flowers.

22. Trisna is like a shrivelled and dried up lady of desire.It cannot attract any one's mind.Yet, it runs after everything without any result.

23. The great "Veena" of "samsara" is a confused confluence of many "Rasas". This trisna is an old dancer on this world-theatre of pleasure.

24. The poisonous creeper of trisna in this jungle of "samsara" is full of flowers called old age, fruits of calamities, and wild strokes.

25. This trisna is like a sapless weary dancer. She dances without any zest and goes about dancing to all places even where she cannot please.

26. This wavered peacock of trisna tries to dance at inaccessible places. She dances at the advent of fog and dew and ceases on the arrival of sun.

27. This Trisna is like a river during rainy season. It surges for a moment and for a long time, remains empty.

28. Trisna takes refuge in persons like a wandering bird which moves from one lifeless tree to another.

29. Trisna is like a fickle monkey which tries to jump across impossible lengths, eats fruits though not hungry, and is unable to stay at one place.

30. The actions of trisna look like the actions of destiny (acts of god), always moving from one foolish, absurd action to another absurd action.

31. Trisna is like a bee.One moment it is on top in the sky and the next moment it is down in the nether regions. At another moment, it moves around the quarters.

32. Of all the problems of "samsara", trisna is the one which gives lasting grief. Situated even in a palace, it runs into difficulties and afflictions.

33. Trisna offers the highest disease. Like an array of clouds which prevent the view of sun, casting deep fog around, trisna prevents the vision of the Absolute.

34. Like the rope-bound animals, the minds of people engaged in worldly actions are bound by the rope of trisna.

35. Trisna is a multicoloured rainbow, long and empty, seen in an empty place (sky).

36. Trisna is like the rainless, catastrophic autumn for the crop of "Nirguna", the state of qualitylessness.It is dew for the knowledge-lotus. It is long night for ignorance.

37. This trisna is an actress in the drama of "samsara". It is a bird flying in the theatre of action.It is like an antelope in the forest of the mind. It is "veena" for the music of memory.

38. Trisna is a large wave in the sea of worldly activity.It is a chain binding the elephant of delusion.It is the largest branch of the banyan tree of creation. It is moonlight for the lotuses of grief.

39. It is the pearl casket of old age, death and such sorrows. It is always intoxicated with the mental and physical diseases.

40. Trisna is like the sky which is clear for a moment , dark for a while, and covered deeply by fog at another moment.

41. When the body is exercised to peace trisna subsides, the way darkness leaves when a cloudy night passes off.

42. Trisna beats the mind into a state of dumb agitation, the way vicious fever throws one into a state of swoon.

43. When thoughts are abandoned, all grief of people will end.Giving up thinking, is the mantra/cure for the vicious fever of trisna.

44. Trisna is like a fish in a tank which bites the grass and lawn thinking that they are meat, again and again, in search of food.

45. Desire for a woman and affliction of sickness draws out even a normally dignified person like sunshine which stretches a lotus.

46. Trisna is like the bamboo tree with knotter bamboos full of thorns and undergrowth. It loves the gems (left by the serpents moving in the tree).

47. Oh, what a wonder! Wise men are cutting asunder this unbreakable, tough trisna with the sharp sword of discriminating intelligence, "viveka".

48. O Brahman, this trisna in the heart is sharper than the edge of a sword. It is fiery than hot balls of steam. It is harder than diamond.

49. Trisna is like the fiery cone of a flame burning bright, but scorching for touch.

50. Even the best of men, who is wise, valorous, and majestic like "Meru" is made into a piece of straw by trisna in an instant.

51. This trisna is like the vast fields of "Vindhya", darkened by thick fog, and masses of dust and covered by inaccessible thick forests.

52. The purport and meaning of everything in this world is one and only one. However, each one acquires a different meaning and target, depending on the body it wears (in which it is situated).Trisna abides in this wavering and fickle world in the same way like the differing sweetnesses (though sweetness is one) in water and milk. (Trisna manifests in several ways in several people)