The hunger of the senses can never be appeased; the more one gets, the more one wants. The fulfilment of worldly desire only begets greater longing.

WORDS OF SRI ANANDAMAYI MA-11

INQUIRER: The hunger of the senses can never be appeased; the more one gets, the more one wants. The fulfilment of worldly desire only begets greater longing.

SRI MA: This world is itself but an embodiment of want, and hence the heartache due to the absence of fulfilment must needs endure. This is why it is said that there are two kinds of currents in human life : the one pertaining to the world, in which want follows upon want; the other of one’s true Being. It is characteristic of the former that it can never end in fulfilment - on the contrary, the sense of want is perpetually stimulated anew. Whereas by entering the latter man will become established in his true nature and bring to completion the striving which is its expression. Thus, if he endeavours to fulfil himself by entering this current, it will eventually bring him to the perfect poise of his own true Being.

QUESTION : And the anguish of not having found, the anguish of the absence of God? I have no wish for sense pleasures, but they come to me. I am compelled to experience them.

SRI MA: Ah, but the anguish of not having found God is salutary. What you have eaten will leave a taste in your mouth. You wear ornaments because you wish to, and so you have to bear their weight. Yet this weight is fated to fall off, for it is something that cannot last, can it?

QUESTION: Are there instances when an Enlightened person may be in Ignorance?

SRI MA: You call a person Enlightened, and in the same breath say he may be subject to ignorance? Such a thing, Pitaji, is quite impossible.

There is, however, a state of attainment that is not maintained at all times, where what you suggest may apply; but never in a case of final Realisation. In whatever way you may perceive an Enlightened Being, He remains what He is.

How can there be a possibility of ignorance in what is termed Knowledge Supreme? When you speak of ignorance with reference to a Realised man, it is an example of Supreme Knowledge being mistaken for ignorance. Therefore, you also talk of ascent and descent. Just as there is no question of a body for one who is liberated, so for Him there can be none of rising up and coming down.

Nevertheless, there is a state of achievement in which ascent and descent do exist, really and truly.

Om Namah Shivay