A Deadly Disease Lurking in most of us....

Today, as i continue with my discussion of Astanga Sadhana, I will introduce my readers to a deadly disease lurking in many of us. I rightly expect all of you to stand up and say, it is impossible, we are perfectly healthy. Well, please allow me to complete and then you can decide for yourself whether you have the disease or not. 

Let me start with a story since all of us love stories. There was once a pious man who lived on a hill focusing his life on spiritual activities. He used to subsist on just a pair of bananas left by some villagers nearby. Knowing that there would be bananas outside his house, a naughty monkey used to wait for the man to go into his meditation and run away with the banana. Owing to the noise created by the monkey, the man used to get up and try to chase the monkey, without any success. This went on for quite sometime and the man got fed up. He hatched a plan to teach the monkey a lesson. One day, he got a narrow mouthed vessel and kept the banana inside it and sat for meditation. As usual, the naughty monkey came and saw the banana in the vessel. It put its hand inside the vessel and caught hold of the banana and tried to take out its hand. However the mouth of the vessel was not large enough to permit the fist of the monkey with the banana to come out. The monkey kept on tugging at his hand, without leaving the banana. It tried to run. But it could not move quickly enough to avoid being caught. The man came from behind and caught the monkey and put it in a cage for life and the monkey lost its freedom forever. 

Well, think of the above. The monkey could have let go of the banana and run away. But it held on to the banana and was trapped. This is exactly the disease I am talking about afflicting many of us. I would like to christen it as " holdingonitis" since we also hold on to things without realizing the impact. Whereas, the monkey held on to a physical object, we as humans hold on to physical objects, mental objects, intellectual objects etc. The other day, I was trying to clear off our garage since it was filled with stuff. As I went through the items, I did not feel like throwing off my first marks card, my first coat, my first cricket bat etc. As i kept things aside that I did not want to throw, I realized I had ended up holding on to almost everything I had accumulated over several years. What greater example of "holdingonitis" for physical objects? 

Most of us also accumulate memories and emotions. We remember our first love, our first kiss and are happy with the memory and the emotion it brings. At the same time, we hold on to memories of grief at the death of a pet, hurtfulness when we were let down by someone and experience sadness. So, we end up with another case of "holdingonitis" where we hold on to emotions.

Next comes our tendencies to hold on to anything that is a ego booster or anything that is conceptual. We remember the title we won several years ago and gave us an ego boost. I know of a friend who won a prize in a general knowledge contest when we were in college and he makes it a point to remind everyone of it through social media posts every year ! Again a case of "holdingonitis" at an intellectual level where we hold on to past successes, glories, trophies, etc. 

Now that I have hopefully established the case that many of suffer from holdonitis, what is the consequence? Just like the monkey, which held on to the banana and lost its freedom, we are losing our freedom. Freedom what what, one may ask? As I have covered earlier, each one of is Infinite and Self Fulfilled. We are the very embodiment of happiness. But, due to an illusion of Maya at the Macro level and Ignorance of reality at the individual level, we look outside for happiness and hold on to objects assuming they give us happiness. The more we hold on to objects, the more we are bound to the Ego. As the Ego, strengthens, it weakens the connection with the Supreme and we are bound to the phenomenon of life and death, happiness and sadness forever. The only way to get rid of this bondage is by letting go.

I will end this discussion with another story I had told earlier. The Gods, Demons and Humans went to the Creator and asked him how they can be free and achieve bliss. To each of them, the creator just said, "Da". Since the Gods were enjoying excess luxuries, HE said they have to exercise DAma, which in Sanskrit means Restraint. Since the Demons were wicked and violent, HE said they should practice DAya, which in Sanskrit means kindness. Finally to the humans, HE said, we have to practice DAna, which means the act of charity or giving up, which is the antidote for "holdingonitis". 

To summarize, 

a. As part of Astanga Sadhana, Aparigraha is the fifth of the five yamas. 

b. Aparigraha (Sanskrit: अपरिग्रह) is the virtue of non-possessiveness, non-grasping or non-greediness.

c. "Holdinonitis" can be at physical, emotional or intellectual level.

d. The cause of "Holdinonitis" is Ignorance of the Reality.

e. The Outcome of the disease is loss of freedom.

f. The only cure for the disease is to let go.

Please buy and read any of these books:


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

The Spirit of Spirituality