Yama #5: Aparigraha (non-greediness, non-hoarding)

Aparigraha loosely translates to not-to-grab-excessively, -amass, or -hoard for future. Otherwise, this drive will disperse our focus from “now” to “future”. Moreover, our greed for existence is the strongest of all, apparently; existence as we understand it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but…

A story…

A seeker goes to a Rishi, who has a small ashram on a river bank. This rishi is very famous and has local landlords, kings and other rich men as his followers. At the time when the student approaches this master, he is washing his spare drape-cloth (cloth robe) in the river. He washes it and spreads it on a large rock to dry, and starts to walk back to the river to complete his bathing ritual. As he was walking, the student asks, “you have so many rich men in your following, why are you living in this dilapidated hut, with just two drape-cloths for a wardrobe?” At about that same, a breeze arrives and picks up the drying drape-cloth, and makes it fly away… This forces the rishi to run behind it to ensure that he does not lose it. He finally catches it, turns to the student, and tells him: a single spare is distracting me so much from my practice, how much time will I have to spend if I possessed all the things you are talking about? Then he goes on to teach this student about how to lose the fear of future and perceived nonexistence…

As we know very well, our mind is a forecasting machine. This is an extremely important capability, but we need to make sure that it is not stuck in the overdrive mode. Yogis never recommend 180 degree turns either – actually they discourage us from doing that. Like how Krishna discourages Arjuna from leaving the battlefield to goto forests, to meditate…

Digging a little deeper, this contemplation is about “grabbing and hoarding for future”. At the gross level, this manifests as grabbing stuff from “NotMine” corner and hoarding it in the “Mine” corner. At the subtlest level, it’s our limited understanding of time, and our partitioning of Time between Mine (lifespan) and NotMine.

The gross level aspect is a little easier to comprehend: the frontal-self or the “I” is designed to protect what it thinks is real – the body, and the perceived life it hosts. The first chakra is obsessed with this. But the intellect keeps flashing to the mind that the lifetime is not forever.

If we can’t exist forever, our frontal self sees making copies of ourselves and leaving them behind as the next best thing to extend our own existence on earth. This drives the desire to make as many copies of ourselves as possible – progeny. This happens in collaboration with the second chakra, which essentially deviates itself from creativity and rejuvenation aspects to accomplish this. Now, the next part is not only to make copies, but to make sure that these copies survive and are provided for…. through passing down of wealth – inheritance. Greed, grabbing and hoarding originate from this subtle drive, installed by “nature”. Of course not everyone has the same amounts of this drive – the more open the lower chakras are, the less we feel this urge. Yogis ask us to be cognizant of this and balance this with other objectives. No right or wrong levels.

Another related aspect is pain – pain avoidance is a defense mechanism that evolved to ensure self-preservation. The psychological aspect of this drive is a lot worse than the actual pain itself – needle prick is a good example. If we are told that those two things – pain-free life, and long, long lifetime – are somehow granted to us, then do we stop hoarding and possessing stuff? Just one more thing.. The third component to hoarding comes from our (mis?)understanding of happiness. The mind lulls us into thinking that “having more” buys us happiness. Not only that, our mind wants us to have more than the other members of the “tribe” we belong to, neighbors, colleagues etc… The mind uses that as the guide. Without those comparative metrics, the mind is lost – mind works on contrasts, and for that, it needs a background. This is the contribution from the third chakra…. from our “self-identity”.

The subtlest of these is our view of time. According to our own assessment, we are temporary entities. The “Me” in us wants to extend our lifetime into future as much as possible. In Yoga Psychology, a lot of suffering in the final years is attributed to this “clinging” – the mind won’t let the body go. With intellectual awareness, and psychological fortitude, the body can separate from the Self very easily – the foundation for “iccha-mrityu”, or “death-on-demand” – it allows the individual to determine that moment. That is the essence of the famous “mrityunjaya” mantra.

ॐ त्र्यं॑बकं यजामहे सु॒गन्धिं॑ पुष्टि॒वर्ध॑नम् ।
उ॒र्वा॒रु॒कमि॑व॒ बन्ध॑नान् मृ॒त्योर् मु॑क्षीय॒ माऽमृता॑त् ।

Aum tryambakam yajāmahe sugandhim puṣṭivardhanam
urvā rukamiv bandhanān mṛtyor mukṣīya mā’mṛtāt[

The seeker prays to Siva, in the second line, to release from bondage (whatever is binding the soul to the body and world) when ready, like how a ripe cucumber separates itself from its stem, and grant immortality (return to our original state of deathless Self)…

Is this kind of giving up on life? Isn’t this defeatist in attitude? No, they want us to gain confidence by assuring ourselves that death is just a transition point and learning to navigate will give us confidence to do whatever we chose to do in this life, without the fear of death.  It’s the fear of death and pain that pretty much hold us back from doing a lot of good things to others.

Coming from the other side, what do yogis think of suicide or even euthanasia? They actually argue that they are pointless – the next birth will start exactly where this life ended – to resolve karmic residues! Another topic for another day… But they suggest we use the current body for service of the society and protecting the right. Contribute more than consume…

This is a repeat theme in yoga – when Arjuna was throwing all sorts of excuses to give up on a tough and confusing situation, the master yogi Krishna assures Arjuna: “there was not a time when we did not exist and there will not be a time when we will not exist…. Instead spend the energy to fight for what’s right.” From Samkhya yoga chapter (2.20-2.22):

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः।
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतोऽयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे॥20॥

“It is never born or dies. This (embodied soul) has not come into being or will come into being , nor is coming into being right now. This (embodied soul) is unborn, eternal, perpetual, ancient. It is not killed when the body is killed”||20||

वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि।
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही॥22॥

“Just as a human puts on new clothes after abandoning the old ones, like that the embodied soul moves onto dawn other new bodies after leaving the old ones”||22||

We will come back to this topic at some point, but the yogic theme for this yama is: if we know how to transition comfortably through birth and death points, and know how to be happy between those two points, which is our lifetime, then our attitude towards things changes, including how we practice “aparigraha”… This transition from fear to confidence drives the transition from hoarding to sharing. What we call Yoga is nothing more than a collection of tools to beat such fears to gain confidence in future!

May we all be blessed with a practical understanding of Yamas _/\_/\_/\_