Ichchhaa means Desire and desire means a great longing to expand. The desire has been condemned for centuries. Almost all the so-called saints have been against it, because desire is life and they were all life-negative. Desire is the very source of all that you see, and they were against all that is visible.

A desire without any object, a desire without being goal-oriented,  a desire which is unmotivated and pure is godliness. Desire is not to be destroyed; it is to be purified. Desire is not to be dropped; it is to be transformed. Your very being is desire. To be against it is to be against yourself and against all. To be against it is to be against the flowers and the birds and the sun and the moon. To be against it is against all creativity. Desire is creativity.

The Eastern scriptures are perfectly right when they say that God created the world because a great desire arose in Him - "a desire to create, to manifest, a desire to make many from one, to expand". But these are only metaphors; God is not separate from desire. Desire means a great longing, to expand, to become as huge as the sky. What the man who wants to have more and more money really wants is not money but expansion, because money can help you expand. You can have a bigger house, you can have a bigger garden,  your territory will be bigger, your freedom will be bigger. The man who is after money may not know why he is after the money. Go deeper into his unconscious, help him to meditate, and he will be surprised to find that the desire for money is not really the desire for money; it is the desire to expand.

The same is the case with all other desires. People want more power, more fame, longer life, better health, but what do they desire in these different things? The same, exactly the same: they want to be more. They don't want to remain confined; they don't want to be limited. It hurts to feel that you are definable, because if you are definable then you are just an object, a commodity. But all these objects of desire, sooner or later, disappoint. Money becomes possible one day, and yet expansion has not happened; you may have a little more freedom of choice, but that does not satisfy you. The desire was for the infinite, and money cannot purchase the infinite. If you watch carefully, money, power, and prestige etc nothing satisfies. On the contrary, they make you more discontented. Why? That is because when you were poor there was hope that one day the money would come to you and you would relax and enjoy. Now that has come, and there seems to be no sign of any relaxation. You are even tenser than you were before, you are even more anxiety-ridden than you were before.

Desire in itself is not wrong. Desire is a power, desire is an energy which if used properly can do wonders in your life; but money, power and prestige are wrong objects of desire. You can have a sword and you can kill somebody but that is not the only power of sword and for this reason only the sword cannot be categorized under ad objects; you can also save somebody's life with the same sword - both are the powers of the same sword. Decide which power you want to achieve? The desire has to be purified and transformed to make its right use, because it is your only energy. The mediocre way to transform desire is to change the object. Don't go after money, start going after God. There is no seed of desire because desire is the seed of all. Desire is the ultimate seed of everything. To transform your energies, be creative. Slowly, you will see transformation happening of its own accord.
(Excerpted from the Book of Wisdom)

All desires for worldly things are outward desires and all outward desire is God-negative; while all inward desires are God-centric. Nothing was outside God even before God desired to expand. Desire arose inside Him. He expanded it within Himself. Life originated within Him. Sky originated in Him. Nothing expanded outside Him. When a man wants to have more and more money, he really wants is not the money but the expansion outside. Money can only help you expand outside but not inside. And such expansion (outside) is mostly at the cost of expansion inside. You can have a bigger house but very small space inside. You become a slave to your possessions. Your freedom gets lost, for example, you return to that same home daily. You crave to get back to the same house when you are away from that house.

The same is the case with all other desires. If you watch carefully, money, power, prestige - nothing satisfies the man. On the contrary, they make you more discontented. Why? Because they project a future but by doing that you miss the present. So, focus on present to expand inside instead of dreaming a future or suffering a past for that matter. Worshipping God is one sure shot way to get desire purified and transformed. Do not go after money, start going after God. Desire is a form of energy that can neither be created nor be destroyed. Transform it towards some good aim. To transform your energies, follow scriptures. You will see transformation happening by itself.

The Aatmaa is unattached (Nissang, Vi-raag, Nir-lipt etc). Aatmaa is desireless (Nir-ichchhaa, ichchhaa-virahit etc). Aatmaa is without pleasure and pain (Sukh Duhkh Vivarjit). These arise only when the intellect is present or alive. They are not present in deep sleep because at that time the intellect is absent. Hence attachment, desire, pleasure and pain belong to the intellect and not to Aatmaa.

The above-mentioned four experiences are interrelated. When we lack something in life we feel a sense of dejection, unfulfilment or a sort of incompleteness etc. Such a feeling causes our intellect to devise a method for filling up the void and thereby to regain a sense of completeness or fulfillment. Such a plan entertained by the intellect causes a stream of thoughts to flow from us to the object of acquisition or gratification. In the initial stage when the flow of thoughts is thin, the thought-flow is called attachment (Raag). When the same thought gets gather more bulk and momentum, the flow intensifies to become a desire (Ichchhaa). When a desire is fulfilled it produces joy (Sukh) and when it remains unfulfilled it produces sorrow (Dukh). These experiences are interpreted by the intellect which is considered to be the enjoyer or experiencer of these mental conditions. They do not exist in in the state of deep sleep when the intellect ceases to function. They rise again in the waking and dream states when the intellect resumes functioning, hence these experiences are related to the intellect and not to the Aatmaa.

The Kathopanishad states, "when all the desires of the heart are overcome, this very mortal becomes immortal and experiences the Aatmaa here in this very life. When the knots of the heart (Hridaya Granthi) are untied and man is free from worldly attachments, he becomes immortal." That summarizes the whole of Spirituality.