What does man really want? Why does he not get it? || Acharya Prashant, on Guru Kabir (2019)

Lust and ire, two enemies dire, plunge one in the sea of vice. And when all the five and jealousy join, you lose all your zeal for Him. Says Kabir—O gentlefolk do ponder, can leaf once detached rejoin the tree?

~ Kabir

Questioner: Kindly help me understand the meaning of these lines. Guru Kabir seems to be talking about the things that make one lose one’s zeal for the Beloved. If these things can come in the way, does that mean that the yearning pre-exists in us all already?

Acharya Prashant: Obviously. In your movements throughout the day, in your gossip, in your work, your past times, your pleasures, your sadnesses, your goals, your targets, it doesn’t matter what you are thinking of, it doesn’t matter what you are wanting—you are wanting nothing but fulfillment, aren’t you? God is the name for the final fulfillment.

What do you want when you wear a new dress? What do you want when you watch a movie? What do you want when you try a new dish? Fulfillment, right? That’s God’s name—fulfillment. Nobody has ever wanted anything but That. It’s just that we are creatures of flesh and blood, so even as we want That, we want That in flesh and blood, in material, because we know of nothing else. Given our physical condition, given our mental limitations, we cannot want God, the absolute or the infinite or the formless, so we keep wanting a thousand miscellaneous things in thousands of forms. But actually, we are wanting just one.