What is the difference between a need and a desire? Are your needs connected to your desire?
Simply put, a need is what you ought to do while a desire is what you want to do. Hunger is a need that has to be satisfied — but having a gourmet meal is a desire. Having a mode of transport is a need — but owning a fleet of premium cars is a desire.
Needs are pretty much generic but desires are very individualistic — and that is what sets people apart.
Needs keep changing with time and when one need is satisfied, it gives birth to another need. But desires keep on increasing — they are never satisfied. A person with a desire of being very wealthy will be stuck finding ways to earn more and more. No amount of wealth will satisfy his desire. This obsession will detach him from his actual needs and make him restless.
Sometimes, we are not able to differentiate between our needs and desires. We only realize this after fulfilling them — left with only regrets. All our life we run after money, power, or fame, only to realize later that we lost what we needed in the pursuit of what was unnecessary.
But desire is not bad. Not having a desire at all is very dangerous. All great stories are based on a person's desire to achieve something. All conquests, discoveries and inventions happened because somebody desired them. Desire is the essence of life.
Following a desire is not wrong in itself. What is wrong is following a desire without realizing what you actually need. Needs and desires have to be aligned. When a desire goes way beyond the need and becomes completely detached from it — that is when problems arise.
Understand the difference between your needs and desires, and align your desires to your needs. It is a balance you have to maintain to attain peace and have no regrets.
Wishing you Peace and Abundance — Ashay
