Everybody wants something. This is called desire, or kAma by the ancients. To desire is to manifest. Only the Unmanifest is truly beyond desire. So the fact that we exist (have manifested) means that we have desire. This is how it all started. In Hindu philosophy, desire is simply the root of all existence (rather than being the root of all evil).
We go about life trying to satisfy these desires, and our underlying objective is to maximize happiness (or pleasure) and avoid pain. Depending on various factors and circumstances, we perceive that we are successful in this objective to varying degrees. This leads to individual perceptions such as "Overall I am a happy person", or "I am mostly sad". Regardless of these individual differences, from time to time everyone does get thwarted in their desire (to either experience happiness or avoid pain) and then experiences frustration when their desire is not fulfilled. Then the unknown external factors that resulted in the outcome that led to this frustration make us feel disconnected from external reality (be it Nature or other people).Â
Given a choice most people would like to lead a happier life. Most advertising, self-help programs, organized religion, life-coaches, and psychotherapy are all designed to address, and sometimes exploit, this unconscious desire in man. Usually they provide some temporary rationalization that reinforces the person's ego to get them through the depressive bump, but they do not address the root cause of the problem. Very few even acknowledge that there are internal states beyond the Western concept of ego, and that these can be accessed and controlled by an individual. Therefore, all these methods eventually fail to provide a permanent solution. Nevertheless, those who want to lead a happier life are right to want this because life is meant to be enjoyed. The Upanishads also say that life is to be enjoyed, but it needs to be done skillfully. For this one needs to know who is the enjoyer, what is being enjoyed, and thus how to enjoy.
A few others might feel they are suffering more than their fair share, and may thus come to believe that all life is misery. In a sense their perspective is also valid (although it is really attachment that causes the misery and not life itself). People who are usually happy get put off by sayings like "Attachment is misery". But many religious approaches prey on the unhappy side of man, and use morality to condemn sin and the fear of retribution to instill faith and belief. This kind of blind faith is as undesirable for true spiritual growth, as much as say living a life outside the religious fold. In contrast, the message of the Upanishads is a positive message that says life in the world should be enjoyed. But it takes self-control to get the the point where one can understand the true import of skillful enjoyment.
Besides wanting to maximize happiness, we also desire to have a complete understanding of life's basic questions that is beyond doubt. What are these basic questions? Simply stated these are:
From where did I come into this world, and why?
What is the purpose of my life in this world?
Where will I go when I die?
What is the nature of external reality?
How to sustain joy and diminish pain and sorrow?
We all have made up some provisional answers to these questions, but we don't often examine them closely and ask why these provisional answers have not led us to unity and bliss. Mostly we just ignore these questions or set them aside by filling up our lives with work and other things to do so we feel we are extremely busy and don't have the time to think about these matters. But truly speaking, they never go away and without answering them we end up living like sleepwalkers.
As I mentioned earlier, it is the disconnection from the external world (other people and Nature) that makes a person sad, and severely reduces our capacity to experience our true nature and enjoy life. Even if this is not acknowledged in the conscious waking state due to ego defenses, this is true because this disconnection is a disconnection from our Source. However, just running around hugging people and trees is not going yield a permanent solution either. Clearly, a systematic approach is called for. Yoga, VedAnta and Tantra provide such a systematic approach.
Now of all the desires, there is one desire worth cultivating. That is the desire to have a complete understanding of one's true nature that in turn leads to a profound understanding of the external world and life in its entirety: in the here and now, before birth and beyond death. This desire that is called Brahma jijnAsa (the desire to know Brahman) in the Vedas and Upanishads leads to the experience of bliss, unity and wisdom.
This desire when properly channeled through sAdhanA leads one to find the Source within, which is the Atman. Then one has to discover the connection and identity of that Atman with Brahman, which is the Source of all that we see as external and internal.
But just reading about it is not a permanent solution either! While that can be a useful start in the sense of having a good map of how to reach the destination, reading the travel guide cannot be a substitute for taking the trip! When that journey is successful, it leads to a skillful way of living and enjoying that is based on an understanding that is beyond doubt. For those who are interested in finding out more, here is an invitation to sAdhanA.