Bhagavatam-daily 129 – 11.09.01 – Posssessiveness produces pain

More easily stay situated in nairasha in attachment at the material level thank you so parigraha is possessiveness attachment to possessions of possessiveness in general possessiveness certainly leads to misery so whatever one becomes attached to that becomes the cause of the misery so possessiveness about that make for different people it may be different whatever they consider the most dear that becomes the cause of misery from him on the other hand one can attain unlimited happiness so who can attain this unlimited happiness tadvidvan one who understand that possessiveness leads to misery and yes to akinchana akinchana means one who does not possess anything one who does not have rather the possessive mentality so now in this chapter the avadhut brahmana will continue talking about the spiritual masters so here actually he is going to he’s in this verse he’s setting up the scene for describing what he learned from the next spiritual master that is the kurara bird who will be mentioned in the next verse so totally the seven most spiritual masters will be talked about already 17 have been talked about and in that way it becomes 24 and lastly the body itself is added as one spiritual master so it becomes the 25 spiritual masters in total and now here he says parigraha is possessiveness now in this world possessiveness or possessions are glamorized so much that people often think you are defined by what you own you are your car you are your house you are your dress you are your watch you are your cell phone now obviously people know that they are different from these objects but they think of these not just as utilities but they think of them as status symbols lifestyle demonstrators and thus they want to possess these of more and more flashy nature or those which will give a statement that is higher and higher that oh i am i belong to this social or financial bracket if i have this cell phone and that way people try to people imagine that by having better positions they are actually becoming better in the sense that they are rising in society’s eyes but every it is said that every possession possesses us that means whatever we possess that possession we have to take care of it and while taking care of it we have to go through anxiety we have to go through worry tribulation and the tribulation is distressing because we have to protect it we have to maintain it we have to parade it there’s anxiety it may be damaged anxiety it may get stolen so we have to invest our emotion our time not just our money but after your emotion our time in it and so every possession possesses us and the more we are possessive about the possession the more it possesses us and because no position is going to stay with us permanently either the position will leave us or we will leave the position that position will leave us means that it we may that it may be lost to us even while we are alive somebody may have a very flashy cell phone and then somebody might steal it or it might break it might fall and break and become damaged or we may lose it another way in the sense that it may lose its glamour we purchase a very expensive cell phone in order to make a statement a fashion statement or a status statement but then as soon that model goes out of fashion many of the companies which which are into especially consumer products often they prosper by having brand obsolency which is planned obsolency brand obsolency means they make the brands obsolete by getting something new and advertising the new thing very much aggressively so by such glamorization by such advertisement they actually distract people away from any higher purpose of life so they just people get just caught in getting newer and newer and so newer things and there’s no end to this kind of aggrandizement because when they get new thing after some time that new thing becomes old-fashioned outdated and something else becomes new and then they have purchased that and after that another one another one it just goes on and on so people often accumulate debts or become filled with anxiety they have money and so they have they have enough and yet they never have enough they have enough if they were ready to live with their needs but they never have enough because so because the greed is there and greed is often not only there in our their heart but the aggressive propaganda of the media also fuels greed and in this way the possessiveness creates it creates unlimited misery and and actually what is considered special what is considered attractive by one person may be different than what is considered attractive by another person now in a particular according to this can be because of mental orientation or it can be because of cultural glamorization so in a particular culture a particular kind of car may be considered very modern and fashionable another kind of country that car may be quite a routine so by from culture to culture what a person may be attached to may change so culture is largely shaped by external influences and from the mental influence of some people may just like certain things but whichever way it is the specific possessions to which people may be attached may be different but the generic principle that possessiveness leads to misery that is universal and but when one understand this that there is it creates constant anxiety and then eventually that anxiety ends in misery so on the other hand one can get happiness now of course just by renouncing worldly things one cannot get unlimited happiness it is not just through renunciation the renunciation acts as a foundation for spiritual connection and it is a spiritual connection that will give unlimited happiness but from the person’s perspective if one just can get rid of the agitation surrounding a possession the relief is so much it appears immense it appears like unlimited and and one who becomes with one one who understands this truth that possessions possess us so that person becomes that wise person with one becomes now means not necessarily a person who has nothing but a person who does not have attachment to anything so it’s not that a there are two we could say that there are two kinds of akinchana the external akinchana and the internal akinchana the external akinchana is one whose pocket is empty person doesn’t have much money and internal akinchana is one whose mind is empty of material desires is empty of greed it’s filled with the devotion and the desire to serve krishna that person the person whose pocket is empty may have a mind filled with desires so akinchana is not a is not a financial situation it is a psychological disposition and one who understands truly deeply assimilates the truth that possessions for the possessiveness leads to misery renounces possessions and in that way becomes akinchana so kunti maharani also uses the word akinchana in the first canto in the eighth chapter in her prayers and she says that your name can be called out wholeheartedly by those who do not have a possessive mentality those who are akinchana because when we don’t have material possessiveness then our hearts are not occupied by only possessions and then the throne of our heart we have vacated it so that krishna can occupy the throne then then throne krishna comes and occupies it and we want krishna to come and occupy the throne otherwise we don’t even want him to come because we feel that maybe other things will be better why do i need krishna here and in that way we stay entangled so akinchana we can all strive to become less possessive about our positions by becoming more possessive about krishna by placing krishna in the throne of our heart and holding on to him holding on to his remembrance his service firmly and keeping him on the throne of our heart so by becoming spiritually possessive we can actually relish anantamsukham apnoti we can relish eternal