The Tug of War

Recently, I attended a 3-day Girls Camp at Wada (around 80kms from Mumbai). It was totally amazing and rejuvenating. Not only did we have fun but we also learnt many important lessons and truths of life from some Senior devotees. 

One of the things that particularly interested me was the topic of  "Wants and Needs". There is always a tug of war between these two things. Sometimes our wants become stronger and sometimes our needs. We devotees are not yet Paramhamsas who are above this and are satisfied by fulfilling only their needs. Neither are we totally materialistic that we don't mind our wants increasing that our actual needs are forgotten. We become sandwiched. We surely have needs but we also have wants. So when this tug of war happens, we become disturbed, confused, irritated, etc etc. To sum it up - "NOT HAPPY"

The basic principle taught to us was -

       When my wants and needs become the same, we can actually become Happy !!

When we are clear that this is my need and that is what I want then we become peaceful. 

Basically there are three categories of needs - Spiritual ,Physical and Emotional. Our Ultimate Need is Spirituality. However our body convinces us to be happy with the second and the third and not bother about the most important first need. Another thing was taught that seemed practical and real - We are not happy but if we can somehow connect with the real source of happiness - Lord Krishna, we can always remain happy.

Some interesting things were explained - 

By becoming Spiritually inclined towards Krishna - 

   We want to be Tender, not Weak.

   We want to be Strong, not Arrogant.

   We want to be Content, not Complacent.

   We want to be Detached, not Indifferent.

   We want to be Wise, not Otherwise.

   We want to be Humble, not Stupid.

   We want to be Cool, not Cold

Finally, I would like conclude by saying that this camp was really enlivening and we learnt things like Sharing, Dependence, avoiding Procrastination, being Proactive, Chanting sincerely, reading Scriptures, Listening and many more.