________________
The Science of Reincarnation,
The Toll of Karma
these possessions. One should realize that those items which belong to us today were in the possession of someone else yesterday or in past and will be the property of some one else in the future. If this is correct then why to have so much attachment for such items. This is the cause of greed and opens the gate for other passions. This is known as "Aparigraha" which means non-attachment or minimize the possessions.
We can describe this with a beautiful story. Outside the king's palace, there was standing a traveler, a stranger who traveled to this place from far. There were guards outside the king's palace. The stranger was asking the guards that he wants to stay in the motel pointing towards king's palace. One of the guard said, it is a king's palace and not a motel and pointed a motel across the street. But the stranger was insisting on staying in the motel which was in fact the king's palace. Argument went on and finally the king was informed about this stranger. The traveler was brought to the king.
The stranger repeated the same thing as he had told the guards outside the palace. The king said that it is his kingdom and he is the king of this land and this is a palace not a motel. The stranger looked at him with a smile and said what a wonder! King asked, what? The stranger said that same
115
