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Shedding of Karma (Nirjarā)
I am only knower. Therefore, possessions cannot be mine. [208] Annotation
After explaining the fact that the possession of the Self is the Self only, here in this stanza Acarya Kundakunda advances the same point in a different manner by saying the following:
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(i) If substances other than the Self (soul) become my possessions then I become a non-living entity.
(ii) But I am only a knower, I always have consciousness, I never become a non-living entity, therefore, the so called possessions cannot be mine.
Question: When someone says that this particular house is mine then how would he become a non-living entity simply by such acceptance?
Answer: (i) When one accepts in true sense that he is the owner of a house (or for that matter owner of jewelry, physical body, etc.) then he also accepts that he is a person in true sense, not a soul. After accepting oneself as a person, one automatically accepts the death of that person at some point of time. Thus he not only sees his identity as a living person in the present but he also sees his identity as a non-living or dead person in near or distant future. In short, when one realizes (in true sense) that this house or this thing is mine then he is also realizing that he is a person in true sense. It means he is also realizing that at some instant he would become non-living or dead. Thus in his realization he is going to become non-living entity at some point of time.
(ii) If one visualizes oneself as the soul and recognizes the personality associated with him as a 'combination of his soul and the physical body then the story becomes different. Such a being may also utter such words that this house or thing or the physical body is 'mine'. But he knows and realizes that his 'mine' is not mine in true sense. He knows that his 'mine'
