Question: How can I separate myself from my physical desires?

Sri Chinmoy: First of all, since you have accepted the spiritual life, you have to ask yourself whether desire satisfies and fulfils you, or not. In your inner being you will feel that it neither satisfies nor fulfils you. Before you actually desire, you have in mind the object or fruit of your desire, and you think that when you attain that object, you will be happy. Unfortunately, what you eventually get is frustration. If you can feel this result before you actually desire, then you can easily turn your life away from desire.

When you are in the ordinary world, you imagine the fulfilment of desire in the form of satisfaction. That is why you get some happiness from trying to fulfil your desires. But when you enter into physical or lower vital desire with your mind, you are caught. You enter into the very jaws of a devouring tiger. When you concentrate on desire, you can feel inwardly that in the beginning there is no light, in the end there is no light and in the middle there is no light. There is only darkness from the beginning to the end and darkness means the absence of divine satisfaction.

For a seeker, aspiration is the most necessary thing on earth. But for an unaspiring person, desire is the most coveted thing on earth. You have to feel that what you want is aspiration and not desire. An ordinary, unaspiring, or even a morally-minded person will need desire because he does not yet have the capacity to go beyond the boundaries of pleasure. But he who wallows in the mire of desire will sooner or later feel that inside desire is frustration and inside this frustration is destruction. For the sincere seeker, divine satisfaction looms large inside aspiration. The moment one begins to aspire he feels true satisfaction. This true satisfaction comes because aspiration has the capacity to identify itself consciously and soulfully with the farthest corner of the globe, with the deepest and inmost being and with the highest transcendental Self. If you feel the real necessity of aspiration you will see that physical, vital and mental desires will stop knocking at your heart's door.

At every moment you have to aim at your goal. If you want to concentrate and meditate on the sun as it rises early in the morning, then you have to face the east, and not some other direction. If you are looking towards the west and running towards the east you will stumble. If you want to be certain of your goal of God-realisation, then you will not look behind you or around you, but only towards the light. You can conquer your physical desires only by running towards the light. Don't think of your physical desires, but think of your aspiration. You have twenty-four hours at your disposal each day. If you spend half an hour, an hour or two hours thinking of physical desires, then be fully prepared to spend at least three times as much time in conscious aspiration. Otherwise you will not be able to make much progress. Be an inner runner and always try to surpass all obstacles that stand in your way. If you run forward with one-pointed determination, limitations and desires will fade away from your life. Aspiration is the only answer. Cry. For outer things you cry; for inner things you can also cry. If you can cry sincerely, you can fly spiritually.

When I think, I sink.
When I choose, I lose.
When I cry, I fly.