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Where Do Desires Come From? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  We feel a desire and try to fulfill it.
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  It may be a desire or craving for some type of food or drink,
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  or for a particular object of material enjoyment.
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  Or it may be a sexual desire or a desire for companionship,
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  excitement, or any other vital Dr. that wells up in us.
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  In some cases we try to satisfy that desire.
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  In other cases we determine we would like to rid ourselves of
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  that desire, not fulfill it, and be at peace without whatever it
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  is that we crave. Most people do not think twice
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  about it and simply try to satisfy the desire if they have
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  the capacity and opportunity to do so, or harbour a feeling of
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  lack or regret or insufficiency if they do not find a way to do
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  so. Many times we struggle with the
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  desires, such as when we make resolutions, go on a diet, or
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  attempt to change some aspect of our response to the rising of
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  desire. The struggle is generally
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  intense as we feel like the desire belongs to us and we feel
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  like it is part of who we are. We identify with our external
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  ego personality and believe we are exercising free will in the
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  choices we make, and we blame ourselves for lacking the
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  willpower needed to overcome the force of desire when we
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  determine it is contrary to something else we want to have
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  or achieve. If we shift our standpoint,
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  however, it becomes much easier to deal with the force of
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  desire. The ego personality is like a
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  water glass submerged in the ocean of existence.
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  We believe that the unique contents of our water glass
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  means we are separate and distinct from the rest of the
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  ocean, when in reality the same ocean exists both outside the
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  perimeter of the glass and inside, with ocean water
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  constantly flowing in and out of the glass.
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  If we look at our ego personality with a similar
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  viewpoint, we begin to see that what we believe are desires
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  created within ourselves are really a response by our
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  receiving apparatus to waves that move through the universal
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  nature. The response to desire then
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  becomes a matter of how we respond to these external
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  promptings. Once we recognize that they do
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  not belong to us, it becomes easier to simply turn the
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  attention elsewhere and focus on something other than that
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  particular wave of force that is creating a reaction within our
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  awareness, Sriora Bindo writes quote.
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  All the ordinary vital movements are foreign to the true being
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  and come from outside. They do not belong to the soul,
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  nor do they originate in it, but are waves from the general
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  nature procrity. The desires come from outside
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  and to the subconscious vital and rise to the surface.
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  It is only when they rise to the surface and the mind becomes
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  aware of them that we become conscious of the desire.
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  It seems to us to be our own, because we feel it thus rising
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  from the vital into the mind, and do not know that it came
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  from outside. What belongs to the vital, to
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  the being, what makes it responsible, is not the desire
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  itself, but the habit of responding to the waves or the
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  currents of suggestion that come into it from the universal
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  procrity. End Quote.
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  Reference. Sri Aurobindo, Faces of Yoga,
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  Chapter 4. Desire Food Sex page 61.