Aparigraha the Humane Solution

Author(s): Kamla Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 72

64
(4)
APARIGRAHA - THE HUMANE SOLUTION
All human passions, such as anger, conceit, crookedness, attachment, ego, etc. have their root in external objects or possessions which create disturbance in the mind of the individual. Therefore, selfcontrol of one's possessions and consumptions is necessary.
The above presumptions are different from the conventionally accepted basis of ethics as belief in God, transmigration of soul, rebirth, karma etc. They can, however, become helping conditions to establish oneself in aparigraha at a time when one is losing inner strength of firmly adhering to the ethical principle he has accepted.
Thus, related with these postulates there are certain conditions which help the individual in seeing the importance of aparigraha in his life; these are :
(1) Awareness about self and its destiny; the perishable nature of the material world, the changing nature of the universe, the smallness of our entity as a person in the world, realisation of the truth, that 'even if I am the richest man of the world today, I may discover somebody richer than me tomorrow'.
(2) The confidence of our self-dependence, our competence to handle difficult situations and our fearlessness to face exigencies or emergencies to help cultivate the attitude of aparigraha would be another condition. With our possessions and belongings and our attachments to them we try to find some excuses to live and so we lean on to them; these are only superficial sources of our strength; the real strength lies in our inner capacities so that we do not need external things to depend on. The psychology of ownership is based on the false assumption that whatever belongs to me will continue to belong to me for ever. It is theoretically known to everyone, not only to saints and philosophers but to the common man, the man on street, the literate and the illiterate, even a ‘sušikṣita' Cārvāka would also accept it. But unfortunately it is not practically realised. (3) Another condition of aparigraha which is often mentioned in the Jaina scriptures is non-violence. Without non-violence aparigraha