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need for safety and trust, autonomy and control, assertiveness, sexuality, mastery, creation, and self-preservation. Many of our needs, wants, and desires are part of our natural growth and development.
Western psychology, in the main, considers that happiness comes from the gratification of desires in a socially acceptable way. Sai Baba teaches that the gratification of desires does not lead to ultimate happiness. He tells us to put a ceiling on desires because ultimately they lead only to temporary pleasure followed, in time, by pain. “Pleasure is the interval between two pains, and pain the interval between two pleasures,” Sai Baba says. Rather, the goal of life is to find the inner source of eternal happiness, which is boundless love.
Happiness is union with God. (SSB)
Swami points out that beyond the gratification of basic needs and desires we develop the unnatural drive to acquire and consume far beyond our biological needs. We yearn for unending gratification of sensory pleasures and aspire for wealth and position that bring no lasting happiness.
Putting a Ceiling on Desires
To counter the self-destructive impulse of chasing aer unchecked desires, Swami presents a program called “Ceiling on Desires,” which teaches balance and restraint in dealing with food, energy, time, money, and knowledge. When we subdue desires and offer all our thoughts, words, and deeds
to God we draw close to His love. We experience this love in our hearts and not in objects of the outer world. Looking for lasting love and happiness in objects outside ourselves only leads to frustration and sorrow.
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