Stories for when you feel Struggling with Desire

Vidura counseled Dhritarashtra through 500 shlokas of wisdom about leadership, ethics, and self-control before the great war.

Ajamila, a fallen brahmin who lived 88 years of sinful life, called out to his son named Narayana at death. This inadvertent chanting of the Lord's name summoned Vishnu's messengers who rescued him from Yamaraja's servants.

Surpanakhas rejected advances and wounded pride led her to trigger the great war. Uncontrolled desire sets catastrophic events in motion.

King Bharata renounced his kingdom but became attached to an orphaned deer, causing rebirth as a deer. In his final birth, he pretended to be dull to avoid worldly entanglements. When robbers tried to sacrifice him, goddess Kali emerged and destroyed them.

Young Nachiketa, sent to Death by his angry father, waits three days at Yama's abode. Granted three boons, he refuses wealth and pleasures, persisting in asking about death's mystery. Yama reveals the eternal Self (Atman) is unborn and undying - immortality comes through Self-knowledge, not rituals.

Prajapati teaches the same syllable 'Da' to gods, humans, and demons. Each interprets according to their nature: gods hear 'Damyata' (self-control), humans hear 'Datta' (charity), demons hear 'Dayadhvam' (compassion). Wisdom is tailored to the listener's disposition.

King Rantideva fasted 48 days. When food arrived, successive guests came - a brahmana, laborer, man with dogs, and outcaste. Seeing Krishna in all beings, he gave away everything including his last drop of water. The guests revealed themselves as Brahma, Shiva, and other demigods.

Despite mastering all sciences, sage Narada lacks inner peace. Sanatkumara guides him through 15 progressive stages - from Name through Speech, Mind, to Space and beyond - culminating in Bhuma (the Infinite). Happiness exists only in the Infinite, not in finite things.

Queen Madalasa, a Self-Realized soul, teaches her infant sons profound wisdom through lullabies: 'You are pure, awakened, spotless.' Her first three sons renounce the world. At her husband's request, she raises the fourth, Alarka, to be a righteous king.

Young disciple Upamanyu undergoes extreme penance for Shiva. When tested with offers of worldly boons, he refuses everything except direct vision of Shiva. Pure devotion without material desires.

Kacha becomes disciple of demon guru Shukracharya to learn the Sanjivani mantra. Devayani falls for him but he refuses her love to protect the sacred knowledge, choosing duty over desire.

Queen Madalasa was a self-realized yogini who taught Vedantic wisdom through lullabies. Her first three sons became renunciants; when the king requested otherwise, her fourth son Alarka became a righteous warrior-king, showing both spiritual and worldly paths.

Sthulabhadra, consumed by infatuation with dancer Kosha, renounced everything after his fathers death revealed lifes impermanence. Years later, to test his detachment, he spent the monsoon retreat in Koshas gallery. She tried every seduction, but he remained unmoved. Recognizing his transformation, Kosha asked for spiritual instruction and became a devoted follower.

Lord Neminatha was proceeding in a grand wedding procession to marry Princess Rajimati when he heard cries of animals being held for slaughter for the feast. Overcome with compassion, he immediately freed all animals, abandoned his wedding chariot, and walked to Mount Girnar to become a monk, embodying the supreme principle of ahimsa.

Prince Dara Shikoh was poisoned by his brother Aurangzeb. Despite Mughal enmity toward Sikhs, Guru Har Rai provided rare medicines needed. When Sikhs questioned why he helped an enemy, the Guru replied: With one hand man breaks flowers and with one hand offers them, but the flowers perfume both hands alike.

The gopis of Vrindavan loved Krishna so completely that they abandoned all duties when he called. Their devotion surpassed all scholarship—when Uddhava came to teach them philosophy, he realized their love achieved what his learning could not. Pure devotion itself is the path.

Shiva's eternal meditation on Mount Kailash represents the deepest dhyana yoga teaching: pure consciousness, witnessing all without being touched. When desire-god Kamadeva tries to disturb him, he's burned by Shiva's third eye—showing that awareness itself dissolves attachment.

Nachiketa renounces life itself (accepting his father's curse), then comfort (waiting three days at Death's door), then every substitute Yama offers—wealth, pleasure, long life—for the one thing worth knowing: what happens after death. Each renunciation opens a door to deeper truth.

Tulsidas's obsessive love for his wife led him to cross a river on a corpse. Her rebuke—'Love Rama with half this devotion and be free'—transformed him. He renounced not because the world was bad but because his attachment was too strong. Emptied of one love, he filled with another and wrote the Ramcharitmanas.

Prince Meghakumar learned from Mahavira about his past life as elephant king Meruprabha. During a forest fire, when a rabbit jumped under his raised foot, Meruprabha held his leg aloft for two and a half days to avoid crushing it. His leg became stiff; he fell and died in agony, but his supreme compassion earned him rebirth as a prince.