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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.

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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?
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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

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