Desire. Poem by Nabakishore Dash

Desires are deeply embed,
ingrained feelings in the mind.
The ways and means to fulfill
them fully and satisfactorily
are very hard to find.

Our desires are unlimited
as the limitless sky.
We remain unsatisfied even though we reach very high.

The rich and poor, the literate
and illiterate, the rulers and the ruled, the wise and foolish,
the deities and demons, the ascetics and worldly are tightly
gripped in the biting jaws of desire.
Desires are the demons
that make us complex and complicated as we proceed
in our endeavor.

Some are avid for name
some vie for glory and fame.
Some crave for power and wealth
while others desire for happiness
and health.
Some desire to be clean and
honest
while others will to
be corrupt and dishonest.
Some desire to kill,
others to save and heal.

Whether desires are
bad or good.
When unfulfilled
perturb our mood.
Invite the miseries of life,
we exhaust ourselves
in our strive.
A train of new desires follow the
old in succession,
like the countless waves in ocean.

Desires are extremely powerful
in mind,
tough to unwind.
For mitigating the miseries
we are in.
Buddha, the enlightened one
offered us a doctrine.
Absence of desires is the pill,
to kill all our ills.
But for the living entities,
it is a vain drill.
Total absence of desire
is impossible in our sphere.
The best we can do is to change
the quality and quantity of desire,
to remain happy where we are, making our lives bit better.