Eknath Easwaran's Commentary
When human beings reach a state in which their physical wants are more than satisfied, when the optimum level of material abundance and physical comfort is reached, something in us feels an unpleasant sense of satiation. Absorbed up to then in the pursuit of prosperity and material security, we begin to feel restless, dissatisfied with the limits of life as it is being lived, constrained by the lack of challenges – and of love.
Then it becomes possible to hear a still, small voice speaking from deep below the conscious level of our mind, from beneath the level of conditioned desires. The voice was always there, but we were so busy with other things that we did not hear it. “I want an earth that is healthy, a world at peace, and a heart filled with love,” it is saying. “I want my life to count.”