“I own nothing but the whole earth belongs to me,” is a line from a Bhil song. What does this mean? Isn’t the law of the land designed to protect what legally belongs to a person?
Practically speaking, since possessions of different kinds are symbols of wealth and achievement, we cannot have a situation where just about anyone can claim what you have earned. That would be theft. But what about this wisdom from the Bhil tribe? Similarly, when Sudha Murthy visited tribals elsewhere, an elderly tribal wondered, “Can anyone own the sky? The rain?”
Can one wear more than one pair of shoes at a time? And have you heard the saying that if you’ve stored anything you have not used for a year, it means that you do not need it and that it actually belongs to someone else?
This article is about what a sense of ownership does to people and the disturbances it can cause. Most thoughts about values and ethics lead back to examples from religious lore. Here are a few instances: In the Ramayana, Sita’s father Videha was a king, but he had delinked himself from all his possessions and ruled only because it was his duty to do so. Great sages went to him to discuss matters of philosophy and his name means that he had even disidentified with his own body (vi-deha). Most unhappy situations arise from peoples’ unwillingness to share. In the Old Testament, there is conflict between Hagar and Sarah, both of whom bear children by the patriarch Abraham. Speaking metaphorically, some people say that in the inability of the two women to share what belonged to both of them lies the origin of the conflict in Middle East today.
Nature has hard-wired this same instinct into all of us for survival. But where does a longing for excess begin? It might start with sweets or groundnuts when young. A certain reluctance to share goes hand-in-hand with the idea that one might put something away and later enjoy it all over again. It progresses to erasers, a notebook or an umbrella. A day comes when a child does not even want to lend his class-notes to a batchmate or keep him updated about what he might have missed. This is about intellectual earning. Why should my hard-won understanding or knowledge become somebody else’s? So goes the thought, and the tree of self-hood grows. The sense of ownership also deepens. To it is attached another emotion: fear. Fear of loss. Fear of being overtaken. Hence the reluctance to share a book or some notes.
When I was in college, there were students who would deliberately place an important reference work on another shelf where no one would think of looking for it and benefit by it. There were students who ripped pages out of books because it was too much trouble to make notes. I’m certain that we all know people of that bent of mind. Who has not seen rich people stepping out of expensive cars to battle with hawkers for ten rupees?
Spiritual thinkers and religious leaders have always emphasised the value of distancing oneself from one’s wealth. Aurobindo explained that money is not meant to be hoarded and gloated over. It is to be used judiciously. Keep it flowing, it has energy and tremendous karmic power. The more you give away, the stronger you will become.
The early Christians held no personal property in their names. Everything belonged to the collective, everything was shared and this was the reason for the rapid growth and power of the community in Roman times. A few centuries later, the Prophet Muhammad said that if your neighbour was starving, you had no business to feast. These are all thoughts that are worth meditating on when materialistic impulses threaten to overwhelm us, when we are hammered relentlessly by advertisements actually telling us that the more things we own, the happier we will be.
Thinking “I am the owner of this car,” is certainly a grand feeling, but it is also a false one. When your emotions and sense of identity are linked with that car (or iPhone, or motorcycle) the slightest damage to it brings unbearable pain. It might be worth remembering every day that we don’t even own our bodies. You have rented your body from the earth. The body is made up of nutrients and riches from the earth to which it will one day return. It is yours only for a certain time-span.
Yet you say you own this land
where you farm or play or walk.
You're just a fleeting steward here.
Ownership is only talk. (Stan Holliday)
There is a German word for the world that surrounds us: umwelt . Actually, there is an umwelt for all the creatures that inhabit this planet, some of which we can never hope to understand, sense or pick up. We accept the reality that is presented to us.
So, is self-preservation, then, a sort of cunning? Me against the world? Is it against community life? No. But hoarding and collecting can become a dangerous addiction, making us more insensitive to people who have far less than we.
A question to ask yourself
What do you put away now that you might be willing to share with others? What would it cost you to do so? How would you work around it?
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