Aparigraha the Humane Solution

Author(s): Kamla Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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APARIGRAHA - THE HUMANE SOLUTION
Voluntary simplicity
One major step in simplifying our lives for our peace of mind is to overhaul our attitudes towards possessions. We know that quite often the things we hanker after are not of much value and are frivolous, yet, we are unable to resist ourselves or our desires. This means that our intellectual capacities are not failing us, but that we are too weak emotionally to overcome our frivolous desires. The ability to overcome our desires comes from reducing the gap between intellectual understanding and emotional strength. This is possible by the practice of yoga, which includes withdrawal of senses from sense-objects. Yogic exercises are training methods for not running away from our possessions as such, but for controlling our desires to have more and more possessions. The Gitā aptly says, 'abstinents run away from what they desire, but they carry their desires with them; when a man enters Reality he leaves his desires behind him.' (Chap. 2). If few or no possessions make us peaceful then people below the poverty line should be the most peaceful and contented people. But this is not so, clearly it is not possessions that are real obstacles; the real obstacles are the importance we give to possessions in our minds. So a man whose heart has reached fulf through knowledge and inner experience would automatically remain unmoved by the objects of senses even if they are around him. This is true detachment, which gives a man both time and energy for more satisfying pursuits; and if we find intrinsic value in our pursuits, career, hobby or household duties, we are indeed making our lives, though simpler, rich in our fulfilment. In this simplification drive, we gradually make our needs fewer than our desires and our demand for things fewer than our needs. This is an intensive journey. It is like driving a vehicle in reverse gear, and objectively speaking reverse driving is never purposeless, though difficult, it is meaningful. This in present day economic sense would be equivalent to situation where we move from production to less production and finally to detachment by creating conditions, one after the other, such that the goal is attained. Since, everything is conditional and nothing is unconditional the process has to start as follows:(1) From more variety of production catering to only few in the society to (2) less variety in production catering to more, to