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Understanding Desire and the Absence of Desire · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  When seekers take up the spiritual path, they try to
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  follow the guideline to reject desire.
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  They will frequently say I don't desire anything.
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  In many cases, however, this is an obfuscation by the vital
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  nature, manipulating the mind to accept something which is not
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  entirely accurate. Let's break this down.
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  One thing that may occur is that the individual actually is
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  having his needs met one way or the other and need not seek out
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  or choose anything as it is already there for him.
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  The desire in such a case could only be seen if the
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  circumstances would be changed and the various items or people
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  providing the support were removed from the picture.
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  Would the individual still say they have no desires when the
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  abundance is no longer there providing it to them without a
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  lot of thought or effort? Another thing that occurs is
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  that the secret tries to offload the desire and its fulfillment
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  to someone else, and knowing how things generally work out, he is
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  able to accept the result. Another is simply that the
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  desire is there, but the vital nature is telling the mind that
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  it is not really a desire, but something else.
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  As long as the mind is willing to go along with that, things
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  continue as they were, and the vital has its desires met.
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  Even our prayers reveal the desires lurking in our being.
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  When the prayers are conditional such that our love, support, and
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  action are based on having our wishes met, we are projecting
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  desires onto our relationship to the Divine when we pray for a
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  specific wish to be fulfilled. Money, relationship recognition,
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  etcetera. We are expressing desires all be
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  it in a prayerful way. When the psychic being comes
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  forward it changes from a demand type of prayer to a self giving
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  type of prayer. Thy will be done aligns more
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  with the psychic approach than any request for a specific
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  result. Similarly, when the separation
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  of the witness consciousness from the external nature occurs,
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  the seeker who identifies with that witness consciousness will
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  find that he harbours no desires.
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  He observes as the bird who acts as the observer, the external
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  nature which eats the sweet fruit of the tree.
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  In the colorful language of the Upanishad, there's an apocryphal
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  tale that bears repeating. The divine singer Narod is
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  travelling through the world and comes across a Yogi practicing
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  austere penances for many years. The Yogi asks Narod how much
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  longer until he obtains liberation.
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  Narod replies 4 more lifetimes. The Yogi is disconsolate that
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  after all that effort he has to undergo such a long additional
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  period of austerity to fulfill his desire for liberation.
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  His expectation for early liberation and the desire that
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  fueled his efforts have been frustrated.
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  Norad continues on his way and comes across a devotee singing
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  and dancing with ecstatic abandoned under a tree.
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  This devotee asks the same question.
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  When will I achieve liberation? Norad replies, As many leaves as
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  there are on this tree, that is how many lifetimes you will have
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  to undergo before achieving liberation.
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  Hearing this, the devotee sheds tears of joy and in an ecstatic
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  feeling declares that he is blessed to have the divine near
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  him. As he works through the process,
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  for however long it takes, a voice comes down out of heaven
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  and advises him, You are liberated this moment.
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  We see here the difference between desire and absence of
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  desire, Sri Aurobindo notes quote.
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  Everything which it hankers after is desirable to the vital.
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  But the desire has to be rejected.
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  I won't. Desire is quite the right thing
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  to say. Even if I don't desire cannot
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  yet be said by the vital, still there is something in the being
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  that can even say I don't desire and refuse to recognize the
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  vital desire as part of the true Being.
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  It is that consciousness which the peace and power bring that
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  has to be recognized as the true I and made permanent in front.
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  End Quote Reference Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Looking
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  from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, page 155.