________________
What is possessiveness?
One must eat food to sustain life. ?
The problem arises when sustenance is not given as much importance as enjoyment and indulgence. Food is necessary for life, but not spices. They do not satiate hunger in any way, they only satisfy the palette. Likewise, ornamental vessels of brass, gold and silver, expensive furniture do not serve the purpose of hunger. These external decorations are only to please the ego. If we examine the things we desire, we will find that very few of them are actual necessities. In fact, our needs are so minimal that fulfilling them does not require much effort on our part. Most of the trouble we take is for exhibitionism and ego-satisfaction.
I ask you - should wealth be worshipped or the individual? Once, a well-known and wealthy person came to meet me. We had a discussion on various issues out of which there is one I would like to share with you. In the course of our discussion, a question arose whether in today's world a person is not respected as much as his wealth is. He said, "When I was a poor ordinary man, nobody ever greeted me nor responded to my greetings. But today when I have wealth and extravagance, everybody greets me. In fact, I sometimes answer by saying, "Alright, I will pass on your greetings.” One day someone asked me, “Whom will you communicate my greetings to?" I answered, "You greet not me, but my wealth. If it was me you greeted, it should have happened when I was not as wealthy. Therefore, I will pass it on to Goddess Lakşmi who resides in my life in the form of my money."
One who has the potential to rise above this platform created by society and make a true evaluation of personal qualities is a truly humble person. His wisdom remains unaffected by his success.
Let me tell you another incident. Once, a rich man and his cousin were invited for a meal to a poor man's house. When the cousin saw the crumbling house of the host, he questioned, "What kind of a hell have we come to?" The rich man answered, "Instead of looking at the external appearance and residence of a person, try to focus on his pure emotion of hospitality. This is not an invitation by the crumbling house, rather it is a loving 7 javaṇattāe bhuñjijā
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
