PASSIONS (Anger, Ego, Deceit, Greed or 'कषाय' )

Is being passionate a good thing?

Most often people think so. After all, passion has driven us to create some of the humanity's greatest achievements.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Mozart, Beethoven, Newton, and Edison, were all passionate people, who created some of the greatest masterpieces of the world. However, if you introspect deeply, did all of them lead happy lives? The answer to these questions is what most of us do not contemplate upon.

While passion drives us to do great things, it also drives us towards strong negative emotions including greed, jealousy, anger, envy, and pride. History is full of examples to depict the mindless devastations that have been caused to satiate passions. Helen has been the object of one of the most dramatic love stories of all the times and one of the main reasons for a ten-year war between the Greeks and Trojans at Troy. Abduction of Sita by Ravanna at Lanka, the great war of Mahabharata between the Pandavas and Kauravas and several other epics are full of evidences to signify the negative effects of passions.


So what exactly are passions? Passions (referred to as ‘कषाय’ in hindi) can be defined as our internal desires that regulate our day-to-day activities and make us decide our course of action in life.

Effects:

Because our need to fulfill our desires is so great, passion can sometimes cause us to perform despicable acts. It makes us want more than what we have, which often leads to unhappiness. It also gives others power over us, because they can use the object of our passion to manipulate and control us. We are thus robbed of our self-control and freedom.

Mind tainted with attachment is filled with the emotion of love whereas one tainted with aversion is filled with hatred. Love, in its turn, produces avarice. Avaricious mind becomes deceitful, lustful and possessive. Mind tainted with aversion takes pride in riches, caste, power, beauty, etc. Egoistic mind becomes prone to anger and hatred and feeds the fire of quarrel.

Our passions often make us indulge in worldly pleasures. Hence, as long as we continue to have passions, we cannot liberate ourselves from the cycle of birth and death. When we live in attachment and hatred or passions for worldly objects, we hinder the spiritual progress of our soul. Until we are under the influence of passions, our intellect becomes tainted and we may become vicious in our actions. In fact, the whole system of spirituality and all religious tales are designed to subdue passion.

Thus, the passions are the greatest internal enemies of the soul and we should save or protect ourselves from their influences. One should minimize one's passions and desires as they inflame pure thoughts. One should give up egoism, greed and selfishness, have contentment and practice equanimity.

Types:

Primarily, there are four types of passions namely: anger, ego, deceit and greed. (referred to as क्रोध, मान, माया और लोभ in hindi)

Apart from the four main categories, there are other pseudo-passions which may trigger our passions. The activities of laughing or joking, taking pleasure or displeasure in sensual activities, pleasure in sexual activities or having sorrow, fear and disgust, are often reasons that trigger our passions.

Reasons:

Passions are caused by the fruition of previously bonded karmas. Therefore, instead of reacting with more passions to the situations we should stay tranquil or calm in order to break the cycle which causes the bonding of new karmas. Our aim should be to stop the new karmas from coming in and get over the effect of old karmas calmly.

The intensity and duration of karmic bondage depend on passions. Passions can be categorised depending upon the degree of their intensity. The passions of high intensity will lead to the bondage of intense and enduring karmas, while passions of low intensity shall cause the bondage of lenient and short-lived karmas.

Getting away from them:

The special efforts to subdue our passions and destroy our karmas can be achieved only by performing austerities. Austerity means attempting self-restraint or controlling our sensual desires. This can be done by willingly giving away some of our bodily comforts or the things which we are highly attached with. This often enables us to discipline our mind from passions and pleasures.

By controlling our passions, we can attain purity of mind and soul and direct our energies towards attainment of the higher goals in our lives.