Shreyas (desirable) or Preyas (pleasurable) – choice is ours!

In our day-to-day life, we are always presented with various alternatives to choose from. For example, in terms of food, we are often confronted with having to choose between food that tastes great but is known to be unhealthy (let’s say French Fries and coke) and a healthy, home-cooked veggie dish which we may not find tasty enough. Similarly, in order to maintain a healthy body and mind, we may commit ourselves to a regular, daily yoga routine early in the morning. When the alarm goes off in the morning, we are confronted with having to choose between staying in the warm, comfortable bed a little longer or making the unpleasant choice of jumping out of bed to practice yoga. 

As we know, we are always faced with similar situations in every aspect of our life, be it work, family, shopping, planning a vacation etc. More often than not, we end up making a choice that is pleasing but not necessarily desirable versus another alternative that may be highly desirable but not pleasing. For the most part we prefer something that is pleasing to one of the five senses – hearing, touch, sight, taste and smell. Choosing pleasant over the desirable may provide instant gratification but can cause incurable harm in the long run. We all know how, by choosing to consume food that is pleasant but otherwise unhealthy, we can end up getting all kinds of serious ailments like high BP, diabetes, cancer etc. 

How do we determine if something is pleasant or not? It is all based on our past experiences that get lodged deep in our memory. When we have a pleasurable experience, it leaves an impression in the mind along with a desire for a repeat of that experience. When a similar desire comes up, we repeat that experience. With every such repetition, the impression in the mind, called samskara, gets stronger and stronger. Now that becomes a natural response, and you may develop a craving for the same experience to happen on a repeated basis. When the need to consume some item becomes totally compulsive, we call that an addiction. 

When we have an unpleasant experience, it leaves a negative impression in the mind along with a desire to avoid similar experience in the future. Now, when we have an experience which is “seemingly” similar to that unpleasant experience, but may be totally unconnected, we still want to habitually avoid that experience. 

Why do we lean toward choosing the pleasant and not what is desirable? Such choices are all driven by the ego (ahamkara). As I wrote in another article, there are four functions of the mind – cognitive mind, intellect, ego and memory. In a majority of situations, the ego tends to dominate the intellect and we end up making a choice that is pleasant irrespective of its desirability. Ideally, we’d want to make a choice which is both desirable and pleasant. However, there are situations wherein what’s desirable is not necessarily pleasant, as we saw earlier when choosing between leaving a warm, comfortable bed or getting out of the bed to practice yoga. 

In one of the ancient texts, Katha Upanishad, there are two verses which talk about the concepts of shreyas (desirable) and preyas (pleasant). 

अन्यच्छ्रेयोऽन्यदुतैव प्रेयस्ते उभे नानार्थे पुरुषंसिनीतः ।

तयोः श्रेय आददानस्य साधु भवति हीयतेऽर्थाद्य उ प्रेयो वृणीते ।।

anyacchreyo’nyadutaiva preyaste ubhe nānārthe puruṣaṃsinītaḥ ।

tayoḥ śreya ādadānasya sādhu bhavati hīyate’rthādya u preyo vṛṇīte ।। (KU 1.2.1) 

Shreyas (desirable) is different indeed, and so is the preyas (pleasurable) different. These two, serving different purposes, bind people. One who chooses shreyas reaps good benefits whereas one choosing preyas does not reach the desired goal. 

श्रेयश्च प्रेयश्च मनुष्यमेतस्तौ सम्परीत्य विविनक्ति धीरः ।

श्रेयो हि धीरोऽभि प्रेयसो वृणीते प्रेयो मन्दो योगक्षेमाद्वृणीते ।।

śreyaśca preyaśca manuṣyametastau samparītya vivinakti dhīraḥ ।

śreyo hi dhīro’bhi preyaso vṛṇīte preyo mando yogakṣemādvṛṇīte ।। (KU 1.2.2) 

Both shreyas and preyas are available to everyone. The wise one, with due consideration, can distinguish between the two. The wise one, then, chooses the desirable over the pleasant whereas the one who lacks intelligence picks the pleasant as it offers immediate gratification and protection (for the body etc.). 

Now that we know that choosing preyas over shreyas can lead to suffering both at physical and mental levels, how can we bring about this change in us that will help us prefer the desirable and not the pleasant? One place to look for answers is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali which provides practical guidelines on how to diminish the role of the ego and make the intellect sharper. That way, we develop higher power of discrimination, called “viveka” which will help us in making the right choice at every step in our life. Patanjali, in the yoga sutras, provides us with the eight-fold path of yoga by practicing which we can attain this discriminative wisdom. Please visit my blog here for a brief summary of the eight limbs of yoga – yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.