NON-ATTACHMENT
Non-attachment is one of the main teachings
of Lord Mahavira (c.599-527 BCE). He was the 24th and last
Tirthankara of Jainism.
A Tirthankara is a supreme spiritual
teacher. He is “one who has conquered the cycle of rebirth,
attained perfect knowledge and established a path for others to achieve
liberation.”
Lord Mahavira’s teachings consist of: (i)
Non-violence i.e. advocating non-injury
to all living beings in thought, word and action. (ii) Truthfulness (iii) Non-attachment which also means non-possession and detachment
from people, places, and material possessions. (iv). Anekantavada i.e.
non-absolutism of truth and reality which are not final but conditional and have
many challenges to it. In fact, opinions about every rule, law, faith, belief,
and conviction, etc., differ from one another and each one has some different element
of truth and reality in its composition. (v). Equality. It means that every
soul has the potential to attain divine consciousness.
Non-attachment is non-possession and
is also known as Aparigraha.
It is unfortunate that human beings
are greedy by nature. Their lust for more is unlimited. They lack contentment.
Their desires go on multiplying. Initially, they humbly seek one house and when
they get it they pray for the second house and thus the number of houses sought
by them go on becoming larger and larger. What is true about houses is equally
true about other possessions. They want to be recognized as the richest persons,
not the poorest ones. They fail to realize that all the possessions in this
world are un-exportable to the other world at the time of a person’s death.
The German religious reformer Martin
Luther (1483-1546) said: Lord God, I thank
thee that thou hast been pleased to make me a poor and indigent man upon earth.
I have neither house nor land nor money to leave behind me.
It is painful for a human being going
to the other world to think that he has to leave behind all his possessions.
Non-attachment , that is
non-possession, is a blessing. It is sensible to replace possessiveness by
contentment which means “a state of peaceful happiness, satisfaction, and ease
of mind, often characterized by being pleased with one’s current situation or
possession without desiring more.”
*******
G.R. Kanwal
1st April 2026
i
No comments:
Post a Comment