Desires propel the activities of an individual. In the attempt to fulfil them, God's help is sought since the task ahead may not be easily achieved. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna states that He is the indwelling being in all aspects of creation and that people seek Him specifically for four different reasons — wealth, relief from sorrow, knowledge and devotion to Him. The last category stands high in the spiritual ladder indicating that a true seeker would eventually leave aside materialistic and other desires to aim for the highest goal of life, salvation.
Spiritual practice should begin with a dislike for worldly matters, said Swami Gautamananda in a lecture. When we have to live in this world, we pray to God for the fulfilment of our worldly desires. We should always believe that it is through God's grace that all things happen. We have to keep away the desires that can ruin our spiritual efforts. These desires arise in our mind. We should know when to reject and renounce them. Anger, desire, greed, delusion, haughtiness and pride obstruct our effort to concentrate on God. We should learn to tackle them with dispassion (Vairagya) and discrimination (Viveka). When we feel our ego rising, we should think of Ravana or Hiranyakasipu and the fate they met because of their self esteem and pride.
God's incarnations serve this purpose while also establishing righteousness and destroying evil. The aim of an incarnation is to make people follow the right path.
In some incarnations, He reveals His Supremacy, while at times He chooses remain an ordinary person and mingle with the common people, like a king in disguise. Lord Rama and Sita never revealed their divine identity and remained the son of Dasaratha and daughter of Janaka. Lord Rama upheld the high values of truth, righteousness and compassion while vanquishing the evil forces — the demons who obstructed the ritual practices of the sages in the forest, and Ravana who had abducted Sita. We should learn to desire only God. To seek oneness with God in one's thoughts is the goal of meditation.
