Skip to main content

The loin cloth philosophy

Once, a wealthy and a powerful family man decided to embrace the Zen way of life. So he renounced everything – except for his loin cloth. But the rats in his hut were prying on the loin cloth (good that those were not squirrels) and hence he brought a cat to take care of the rats. Now, the cat needed milk, so he had to bring a cow. The cow needed to be attended, so he brought in a maiden. Shortly, he fell in love with the maiden and went back to square one.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I remembered the ‘simple life’ days when we used to hop rental homes. All that mattered would be 2 sky bags and a taxi. This time home moving was a few bruises, a sore back and shoulders, a loss of 2 kgs of body weight and a week’s time off from work. Mentally, it was like moving Mount Kinabalu. All the time, I had been wondering about how junk got accumulated. And that’s when the story above came to mind.

I consulted Sujatha’s thick yellow book – The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. For the uninitiated, Patanjali was the sage who documented the ‘open source’ version of the Yoga 2500 years ago. To him, it is not just the stretches you do once a week ogling at babes in True Yoga, still cursing your boss, complaining about your bonus and scheming how to cheat income tax in your mind. It is a holistic life style with codes of conduct (called the 8 limbs of yoga). Under the topic ‘Non-Possession' (aparigraha), Patanjali talks about the 4 folds of misery of accumulating objects

Misery 1 : The effort and time spent in researching for, running around, paying and buying objects and the buyer’s remorse that follows. Darn not simple if your spouse is involved in it too.

Misery 2 : The effort and time spent in maintaining things. Typical scene in my home involves us yelling at each other every few hours on unclosed wardrobes, wet towels on the bed, strewn staplers on the floor, un-repaired equipments, unpaid bills…

Misery 3 : Things do wither and expire. The pain of loss and withdrawal syndrome due to that.

Misery 4 : It is getting caught up in the continuous cycle of buying and replacing things. Called ‘upgrading’ in the consumer lingo.

Hmm…. even the possession of just a loin cloth is powerful enough to drag one down. Is there a way out?
Labels:

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 7, 2009 at 1:59 PM

    Learn to catch rats with your bare hands.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 8, 2009 at 12:33 AM

    Why do you need a way out? I am not sure either that the other way will "pull you up".. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Raja SPJuly 10, 2009 at 10:04 AM

    Anonymous, yes, that probably is the approach to the solution. I guess, its about drawing a line on the wants and needs and trying not to get sucked into the 'rat' race. People who lived that way had a fulfilling life and stand a great example ever (Gandhi, Teresa...).

    Cheenu, dont you want your name in that list?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Stunts for Attention

Some little distraction here before we get on with rebooting the universe. I heard some comments about the writing style of that post (Reboot the Universe - part 1) from various channels. The notable one came from Dhaks, universally recognized as Maams. He said, “hmm...u were alright when I met you last... ”. The genius-unexplored Henry was seconding Maams that “its the usual (weird?) Raja” . Hahhaha. Well, my sanity seems to have left with you Maams. Hereafter, please don’t leave me and go! (Nah, this is not a marriage proposal by any means :P). But honestly, I had my serious doubts about how that style would be received. Actually, I don’t have any fixed style of writing. Nor themes or subject matters. I deliberately keep it that way. In acting, there is such a thing called ‘method acting’. I gathered that its where the characters prevailing above and over the identity or the mannerisms of the actor himself. Daniel Day Lewis! Check him out in IMDB and compare (his real looks with)
7 comments
Read more

Reboot the Universe - Final

It started here Little Trisha has 2 things that I like in her. One - she loves reading. Just that her books have rats as the heroes. Duh!! I have been asking her to grow up. Second - she is random. Radiantly random. This was the recent random thing we did together. That day, she influenced me to a soya milk from the Jolly-Bean’s. Now, soya milk can be boring as sewage. So to give it a bang, they add these ‘chewy pearls’ to it. For the uninitiated, chewy pearls are tiny sweet balls, made using tapioca and dropped lovingly into your drink. If you ever crave to nibble and bite into a soft human body part, you shall try the chewy pearls. So we walked out, bought our cups and started drinking. Baby : Jokes time, Daddy! Daddy : Okay…. Where would a bored cow go? Baby : Where? Daddy : Moooooovie, of course! Ouch!! She giggled at that and got chocked with a chewy pearl. And in a short struggle, she managed to shoot it out of her throat onto the floor. First we thought of cleaning it up. But t
8 comments
Read more

Gangs of New York

“On my challenge, by the ancient laws of combat, we have met at this chosen ground, to settle for good and all, who holds the sway over the Five Points!” Its the Dead Rabbits gang against the natives. As Bill roars, wielding his butcher’s heavy knife, I would already be there next to him in his gang of natives. With McGloin and Hellcat Maggie to my right. This is Martin Scorsese’s movie – “Gangs of New York" New York in the 1800s, was not a city but rather a furnace where a city someday might be forged. It was absolute mayhem and chaos everywhere. Everyone is fighting against every one else - immigrants with the natives, corrupt politicians with themselves, people against a pervasive poverty, 2 opposing police departments, hordes of looting fire brigades, cholera and a catastrophic civil war. “The Five Points” – a slum at the cross junction of 5 streets (Mulberry, worth, cross, orange and little water) is the axis of all the evil. The root of all the rival gangs - Dead R
4 comments
Read more