The desire behind all desires

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, an intense desire for liberation, is a prerequisite?

Acharya Prashant(AP): Classically, it has been put that way. The Scriptures talk of mumuksha (desire for liberation). But that intense desire is not a desire with the same quality as that of normal, ordinary desires. It is a very latent thing. It is not something that would scream from the surface. It is not something that would shout from the rooftops — “I want liberation.”

It is the desire behind all desires.

And one has to be a little watchful, a little meditative to be in touch with it. Otherwise, you will be in touch with only with what you superficially want.

For example, you want to change your job. If you are not attentive enough, you will say, “My desire is to get a new job.” But actually, your desire is of deepest Liberation. So mumuksha is actually the one desire, behind all desires. And if you make it superficial, if you start saying explicitly that — “I want Liberation, I want Liberation,” then you have reduced and trivialized mumuksha.

Q: Do we have to think about it day and night?

AP: No, you don’t have to. Because you are anyway thinking about something day-in and…