In many of my training programmes, I often ask the participants about their most valued possession. The answers are almost always related to something material and the reasons given for the possessions being valued are varied. But that is not the issue. The issue is that they all want those possessions to remain. The mere thought of losing those possessions is a cause for anxiety. This is the irony. What you think will keep you at peace are your possessions. And the fear of losing them robs you of your peace.
But thinking more minutely, perhaps the futility of this paradox can be realised. You think you are at peace because of your possessions. But in reality, you are not at peace because of your possessions. This arises from attachment to those possessions. However, there is nothing inherently wrong with the possessions per se. It is the attachment to them, the hankering that creates problems. As long as possessions are used as aids to living, there is no difficulty. The difficulties begin the moment these possessions become the purpose of living.
The true spirit regarding the objects of possession should be that of non-attachment; an attitude of indifference. Using those possessions without involvement. It is this involvement that keeps you tied to your possessions and you become a slave of those objects of possession. One must learn from the nature of lotus, which remains in the muddy waters without actually getting muddied. Often people think of this state with scepticism, deeming it to be an impossibility. They cannot think of possession without attachment. My car, my house, my property — this feeling is the root cause of troubles.
Think of the objects of possession in a detached fashion. To be used, to be enjoyed. But that is all. The trouble is that people start loving these possessions instead of using them. These people do not understand the true spirit of renunciation, which for them is running away from everything. It is not. This kind of understanding makes renunciation a passive state. But renunciation is not passive withdrawal. It is an active state, a conscious detachment. This spirit frees a person from the mental bondage which creates a dependence on the possessions. Dependence creates a weakness. It creates a fear, fear of losing the possession. This leads to a strange predicament, of obsession with the possessions and anxiety of the imaginary loss.
In Bhagavad Gita, this has been explained lucidly. It is some kind of delusions that we become a victim of because of the attachment to possessions. Delusions of grandeur, that the feeling of owning the possessions creates. And delusions of persecution, that someone is going to take them away. Actually, both these states are imaginary. But the problems that arise due to these imaginary states are real. When possessions become an obsession, problems are bound to arise. In fact, obsession for possessions is a sick mental state that makes one accumulate unnecessary things.
look around you and take stock of your possessions before they start stalking you. Not only does your body need space, your mind and soul too need space. So learn to dispossess. Even otherwise, the possessions do not belong to you. Use them, by all means. But do not get used by them. Free yourself from the trappings of your possession. For that is the way to real happiness.
The writer teaches management at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand). He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com