Desire breeds wishes. Wishes cause birth and also death. When man is devoid of desire, he need not go through birth and death. The next birth is the result of unfulfilled desires in this life and is determined by them. Those who have no trace of desire for material objects can achieve the awareness of the Atmic reality.

In fact, the desire to know God, to love God and be loved by God is not a desire which binds. When awareness of God dawns in all its splendour, every worldly, sensual desire is reduced to ashes in the flames of that Awareness. The individual self will turn towards the Universal Self as soon as desire comes to an end, and delights in supreme Peace, Paramashanti. The self must break off all contact with non-self so that it can earn immortality.

Your thoughts play a vital role in shaping your life. That is why you are advised to watch your thoughts and to welcome only good ones. Man is a heap of thoughts. Vidya stabilises good thoughts in the mind of man, and thus rises to the status of Atma Vidya. For example, a chair evokes an idea in your mind of a certain form having a certain name. The word wood does not produce that idea and that name-form. The value of that name-form is dependent on the usefulness you attribute to the wood. The relationship between you and the material world must be such as to make the desires flee from you, not to make desires more intensive and extensive.

Really speaking, no one loves or desires any article or thing, appreciating it as itself. One loves it at all times for only selfish reasons, for one's own sake. No move is indulged in by man without a specific purpose. But the learning derived from Vidya will reveal that the individual is not entirely responsible for even the motive which prompts him. The Karma or Activity is not fully one's own! It is one's Karma that elevates or degrades one's status.