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yajvan
26 July 2007, 04:35 PM
Hari Om
~~~~~~

Namaste,

I have been thinking about this lately and thought to share a POV, and ask your thoughts on this.

What do we really own in terms of possessions? This has come up before on HDF yet we did not have a conversation to any great length. When living in avidya, all things look as if we can possess them, acquire them.

Let me see if I can offer a viewpoint:
I thought to start with a wonderful valli from the Maitreya Upanishad. King Brihadratha decided to go to the forest for sanyas. He prepares his son for the kingdom, and then retires to the forest. Upon doing tapas for some time, the sage Sakayanya muni comes to him ( like a fire without smoke as the story goes). This muni departs the wisdom of Lord Maitreya, the same way as it was given to Sakayanya from the Lord, and that is the knowledge of the SELF.

He explains the SELF, as pure, unbounded and free from states , pure, steadfast, immutable, untarnished, uneager, desire-less( that is the 3 guna's. Being unmanifest, subtle, invisible, non-object, unpossessive, free from states, non-agent, (but) abides like an agent. He tells the King.

The muni also describes the self (of the relative field of life) , that is attached to fruit of actions, white and dark as he calls it 'good and bad' for lack of a better term. Sakayanya says, "Borne along and defiled by the stream of qualities, unsteady, wavering, bewildered, full of desire, distracted, one goes on into the state of self-conceit in thinking, 'This is I' and 'That is mine' one binds himself with himself , as does a bird with a snare."

This notion of 'that being mine' is a distraction of the small self. When we (I) think about it, What can we really say we own? We look to this world and it is made up of the 5 tattva's ( earth, air, fire, water and space). Where have we created any of these elements to say we possess the right to call them our own?

But one says, I pay for the water (apa) tattva that runs to my home, do I not own it? Or the fire that comes from my stove, is it not mine?
Aren't we really paying for a service to use these elements for a time while they're in our mists?

But what of a car? All the tattva's are in an auto. But isn't it 'mine' ? I paid for it? All of these elements come from our good earth, and that has come from our sun. And our sun they say is perhaps a 4 th to 7th generation sun that collected all these elements from past sun's that exploded. All these things come together to offer us the car, water, gas, the shoes we wear, the body we have. All of this has been in the making for billions of years out there in akasha, in space. Where have we created one atom in our contribution of this Universe?

So, how does one look at this? Do we say, I will keep my door open and people can come in and take my chair, it doesn’t matter - its not mine.

This is not what I am advocating. My notion is the following:

These things we possess are useful and allows us a comfortable life - that is a blessing to be counted.
While these things are in our 'possession' it is my humble opinion we should act as stewards and keep these things in good order.
Where we can help others with the application of possessions, the best we can, this makes good common sense.
In the final analysis, all that we touch and come into contact is, itself, an expression of Brahman, and one being mindful of this, is considered wise.Another finer point is , why we care about others ( people, society, animals, fauna and flora) is because we come to terms with these
things are not, in essence, owned by the one that has title to the entity we see, but it is part of the larger 'inventory' of Brahman.

Again, this is what I 'see' as of late… what is your take on this. How do you view the world?

Pranams,

sarabhanga
29 July 2007, 05:37 AM
While these things are in our 'possession' it is my humble opinion we should act as stewards and keep these things in good order.

Why we care about others (people, society, animals, fauna and flora) is because we recognise that these things are not, in essence, owned by the one that has title to the entity we see, but it is part of the larger 'inventory' of Brahman.


Namaste Yajvan,

I fully agree! :)