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What is possessiveness?
karmic particles always remain companions of the soul.
So also, karmas are considered as possessions because they are acquired by the soul at all times, in every moment. There is never a moment in worldly life when fresh karmas are not integrated into the soul. Even in the thirteenth,2 most sublime stage of spiritual development, the soul is not truly free of karmas, because although there is complete purity of thought, karmas do arise even if just to be destroyed in the very next instant.
The total absence of body and karmas happens only in the liberated condition, not in the worldly one. So, in this worldly sojourn, the soul admits the body, and also the karmas at all times. As Mahatma Gandhi has said:
If you reflect on the body in the context of truth and the soul, then you will realize that it is also a possession.
Apart from the body and karmas, wealth, property and other means of enjoyment including relationships are, indubitably, possessions.
In such a framework, no one can be said to be free of possessions. Not even the naked monk. He also accepts his bed of wooden slab and grass, a pot for his daily routines, a peacock feather for protecting the creatures that may come in his way, texts to enhance his knowledge and of course, disciples. Hence, if acquiring of objects is defined as possessiveness, then there is no one in this world who can practice the vow of non-possessiveness.
As long as one is in this world, one is hounded by necessities. A person engrossed in spiritual practices also needs to keep his body healthy and active. It is not possible for the body to exist without its necessities. Of course, most of the times, we do not discriminate or stop to think about whether a certain need is really a need or a desire.
Necessities can be fulfilled, but the fulfilment of wishes and
The Jaina path of spiritual purification consists of fourteen stages known as guṇasthāna. Beginning with the first stage of false perceptions due to excessive passions, the seeker gradually evolves and reaches higher and higher, shedding karmas and passions along the way. The thirteenth stage is the stage of omniscience.
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