proper manner. Nature vehemently contradicts this step taken by asmita, and this
force with which nature pulls the individual sense towards its universal structure is
really the dynamo that is behind the projection of desire. Though desire is really
inscrutable—it cannot be rationally analysed, and intellectually it cannot be subjected
to investigation of any kind—it is certain that at the deepest background of this
activity of the mind, called desire for the objects of sense, there is the pull of the
organic nature of all things. It is the inability of the individual sense to keep itself
really aloof from things that is responsible for its attraction towards other objects.
This deeper truth is not known to any individual on account of its weddedness to the
activity of the senses. That the reason behind the pull of the subject towards the
object is something different cannot become obvious to one’s consciousness because
of the projection of this I-sense by externalisation through the senses. The senses
diversify this I-sense, externalise it, and make it impossible for the individual to
know the undercurrent of unity which is the cause for this attraction. There is a very
foolish pouncing of the subject on the object, completely oblivious to the rational
ground that is there, on account of which it is made to operate in that manner. There
is a great rationality behind the manifestation of desire, but it works very irrationally.
The rationality is the unity of things, but the irrationality is the feeling that things are
outside. Because of this irrational element present in the manifestation and function
of desire, there is no satisfaction of desire. Since every effort at the fulfilment of
desire goes hand in hand with hatred for certain other things in the world, it is
impossible to avoid psychological tension wholly, because the love for a thing, which
is simultaneous with hatred for something, is the essence of tension.
These two activities of the mind—raga and dvesha, love and hatred—cannot be
avoided as long as there is this false conviction that one can exist, or does exist, as an
absolutely cut-off individual with a prestige and a pedigree of one’s own. Hence,
avidya has caused asmita, and asmita manifests itself perpetually in its action as
raga and dvesha. Thus this love for pleasure in life is also the love of life. We love life
very much; but it is not life that we love—rather, it is the pleasure of life that we love.
If it was all horror and death-like pangs, one would not love life. But there is a drop
of honey mixed with the venom of tense activity, and one is after the little drop that is
sticking even to the blade of grass which can cut one’s tongue—due to which, life is
kept moving. The intense clinging one feels for one’s own life is the vehemence with
which love for pleasure manifests itself. There is a joy in existing, and there is a joy in
coming in contact with things. This joy is the cause of self-affirmation in the bodily
individuality, which is the love of life and the hatred or fear of death.
There is a perpetual anxiety that death may overtake us, and this is the last thing that
anyone would expect in this world. One fears death because death is the negation of
all pleasure. It destroys the body. It destroys us, as we can conceive ourselves, and
together with that, all that is the value of this individuality also goes. Why do we exist
in this world? We exist to enjoy pleasure. This is what the mind tells us; otherwise,
what is the purpose of existing? This pleasure will be annihilated by death—so there
is fear of death. Thus, fear of death is the same as love of life. While the perception of
pleasure in an object of sense creates a desire for it, and the perception of the
contrary in an object creates an aversion towards it—sukha anuśayī rāgaḥ (II.7) and
duḥkha anuśayī dveṣaḥ (II.8)—there is a simultaneous clinging to one’s own body. This
love of life is present even in the wisest of people, says the next sutra: svarasavahī
viduṣaḥ api tatha ārūḍhaḥ abhiniveśaḥ (II.9). Abhinivesa is love of life, clinging to the