People’s needs are so few, but their wants are so large. Very few even know the difference between the two. Aab looks around and sees people struggling to have their Wants met. He sees so many who are so fortunate that they never had to strive to fulfill their needs. Persons who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but who were born with a spoon full of nutritious food in their mouth.
Instead of enjoying and celebrating the fact that all their needs are met, many people are constantly devising methods to enhance their wants, and then making efforts to fulfill them. In most cases Aab observes that Needs actually diminish with age, and the older you get the less you need food, clothing, sleep, entertainment, etc. Perhaps to compensate for this reduction in needs, humans develop the greed of wanting more and more –not just in material terms, but also in terms of love, respect, recognition, power, fame …. and even the envy of others.
Aab sits in a remote place away from the bustle of the city and watches a campfire burning. He sees that the more you feed the fire, the brighter it burns. He realizes that the same is true of human Wants. The more one feeds one’s desires, the brighter is the flame of life’s Wants – and then maintaining that volume of fire becomes an obsession, even if the fire is scorching the person with its heat.
So many Masters and Gurus have warned us against letting our Wants go haywire. Aab remembers Jesus Christ who put it so simply, “Dust I am and unto dust I shall return.” And Aab chuckles to himself when he thinks that dust, even if put in a silver or gold container, is still simple dust
