Ektaji, since Paramatma desires to experience (Jijivisha), can one say that Paramatma is desireless? 

Answer:

Brahman is called desireless, not Paramatma, because Brahman is not an entity that desires. Desire can arise only where there is a sense of incompleteness. Brahman is Pūrṇam, absolute completeness. What can the Infinite possibly desire? Then what is Jijīviṣā? Who is desiring to live, to continue, to manifest, to experience?

Jijīviṣā belongs to the first movement of manifestation, not to Brahman in Its absolute nature. When the motionless Absolute [Primordial Awareness] appears as Witness Consciousness, as the first manifestation of Māyā, there arises the primordial urge to know ‘Who Am I?’ Since Māyā is not something outside Brahman, scriptures may loosely say that Brahman desired to become many, or that Brahman has Jijīviṣā.

In actuality, the Consciousness that attempts to answer the question ‘Who Am I?’ is Paramatma. Paramatma creates an idea to answer the question and projects the answer as a manifestation. So the sequence is:

• • Brahman realizes ‘I exist’ =>> The sense of ‘I AM,’ or the Witness Consciousness, appears as the first Mithya, borne of Maaya.
  • Witness Consciousness projects the first dream thought =>> Paramatma or God is the projector, and its desire is the projected.

Hence, Maharaj says, ‘I Am before God.’

One must not assume Brahman to be a person sitting somewhere and deciding, “I want to live. I want to create.” That itself is the mind projecting the Waker’s psychology onto Brahman. At the level of Brahman, there is no movement: No desire. No intention. No becoming. No continuation. Brahman simply IS. Within that changeless Being appears the urge to manifest, the urge to experience, the urge to preserve, the fear of non-existence, etc. All of this belongs to the field of manifestation called Paramatma.

To be very precise, Brahman does not have a desire for Life. Brahman is Life itself. Raise your direct seeing to the Absolute standpoint; even this so-called first desire never actually happened to Brahman. Brahman did not become the manifestation. The manifestation merely appears in Brahman.

Therefore, there is no contradiction.  Jijīviṣā is within the projection. Desirelessness is the nature of Brahman, the stage on which the projection appears and disappears. The stage remains ever untouched.