By Gurudevi Nirmalananda   

There are two types of desire. I will call the most common one the “passing desire.” It is a desire that arises from an inner feeling of being incomplete.  

This inner feeling makes you sense you lack something, which makes you desire something to complete you. It is a desire to get something from outside of you, which gives you a sense of fulfillment that lasts for only a short time. It might be a desire that is easy to fulfill, maybe to eat something or to phone somebody.  

It might be something that takes longer: a desire to spend more time with somebody or to go a particular place on vacation. It could be a long-term process, like the desire to be successful in your profession or to support someone who is going through an illness.  

This type of desire may even feel like a compelling need for something, because it arises from an inner sense of being incomplete. This is the source of almost all of your desires and it motivates all of your actions. You are trying to fill up the bottomless well inside, the well of “lack.” 

There is another type of desire, which I will call a “true desire.” It arises from a deep inner sense of fullness. This desire is a recurring desire. It keeps coming back to you, arising from somewhere profound within you. It is not really a desire; it is foreknowledge of your own destiny. 

Excerpt from Yoga: Inside & Outside, page 127