37. Eradication of Desire

At all times and to all creatures, 
the seed of ceaseless births is desire.

If you must desire, desire freedom from birth.
That will only come by desiring desirelessness.

Here no fortune is as dear as desirelessness;
and even there, nothing like it can be found.

Purity is but freedom from desire, 
and that comes from thirsting after Truth.

They say only those who have renounced desire are renunciates.
Others, though they have renounced all else, are not.

As it is desire, above all else, which deceives a man,
ascetics rightfully dread it.

Desisting from all desire-driven deeds, a renouncer
finds liberation approaching, just as he desired.

He who has no desires has no sorrow.
But where desire exists, endless sorrows ensue.

When desire, sorrow's sorrow, dies away,
undying bliss prevails here on Earth.

It is the nature of desire never to be fulfilled, but he who utterly
gives it up is eternally fulfilled at that very moment.