Concentrate on Needs and Spiritual Needs and Not Wants

In the search for success, one must concentrate on needs and not on wants. It is well that man does not get everything he wants, and that the Cosmic Law does not grant wishes that would result in harm.

A child may ask his father to catch him a beautiful poisonous snake, but the father does not fulfill such a dangerous wish. The Divine Law also denies the gratification of harmful, though momentarily pleasurable desires.

Of course, as God’s child, man, with the gift of free will, can, and often does, persist in his longing for things which seem delightful in the beginning but are harmful in the end.

The greater the need, the greater the likelihood that it will be filled. Before you can get what you want, you must develop the power to get at will that which you need.

What Are Your Real Needs?

Food for body, mind, and soul, shelter, prosperity, health, the power of concentration, a good memory, and understanding heart, friends, wisdom, and bliss are some human needs. Plain living, high thinking, and cultivating real happiness within oneself are also real needs.

True happiness is lasting because it is spiritual in nature, whereas the “happiness” based on sense pleasures soon turns to sorrow. Making the senses serve the needs of body and mind leads to true happiness; indulging the senses bring nothing but misery.

A desire for a pleasurable sense object is often mistaken for a natural need instead of an artificially created want.

Wants must not be multiplied; instead, concentration should be directed toward fulfilling real needs, or securing actual necessities.

Focusing the attention on one need at a time is the first step in the right direction. Determine your greatest need, including all the factors of life and true happiness; then devote all your attention and energy to attaining your objective by the quickest method.

Find the Highest Goal of Life and the Shortest Road to Lead You There

Do not wander aimlessly, lost in the jungle of life, with your happiness constantly bleeding away from the thorn-pricks of new desires. You must find the highest goal of life and the shortest road to lead you there.

Do not travel unknown roads, picking up new troubles. Too much wrong ambition is just as bad as passive contentment.

As human beings, we have been endowed with needs, and we must meet their demands. As man is a physical, mental, and spiritual being, he must look after his all-round welfare, avoiding one-sided over-development.

To possess wonderful health and good appetite, with no money to maintain that health or to satisfy that hunger is angonizing.

To have lots of health, lots of weath, and lots of troubles with yourself and others, is pitiable.

To have lots of health, wealth, and mental efficiency, but lack of peace and no knowledge of the ultimate truth, is useless and dissatisfying.

Excerpted from How to Be a Success by Paramhansa Yogananda.

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