COOLED BUT LATENT LONGING

 
In the process of unwinding, however, the sanskaras get weakened and annihilated by the flame of longing for the Infinite.

Longing for the Infinite may be the cause of much spiritual suffering. There is no comparison between the acuteness of ordinary suffering and the poignancy of spiritual suffering which a person has to go through while crossing the planes. The former is the effect of sanskaras and the latter is the effect of their unwinding.

When physical suffering reaches its climax a person becomes unconscious and so gets relief from it, but there is no such automatic relief for spiritual suffering. Spiritual suffering, however, does not become boring because there is also intermingled with it a kind of pleasure.

The longing for the Infinite gets accentuated and acute until it arrives at its climax, and then gradually begins to cool down. While cooling down, consciousness does not altogether give up the longing for the Infinite, but continues to stick to its aim of realising the Infinite. This state of cooled but latent longing is preliminary to realisation of the Infinite. It has at this stage been the instrument of annihilating all other desires, and is itself ready to be quenched by the unfathomable stillness of the Infinite.