Recently I came across a young man who was suffering from guilt. He had a good job which he gave up for the sake of a better one but unfortunately the new job failed to come through at the last moment. Now he is jobless and his parents are supporting him financially. But he feels miserable and guilty for living on his parents’ money.
What is the cause of this suffering? An answer came to me today while exploring the first line of ‘Esavasya Upanishad’ which goes like this:
Sanskrit:
Esavasyam idam sarvam yet kim cha jagatyam jagat
Tena tyaktena bunjeetha ma ghritha kasya sviddhanam.
English translation by Sri Aurobindo:
All this is for habitation by the Lord, whatsoever is individual universe of movement in the universal motion. By that renounced thou shouldst enjoy; lust not after any man’s possession.
Conceptually we know that the universe in its creative unfolding is emerging out of one fundamental force, we know that there is only one energy that diversify into multitudes, we know that there is only one life that animate all that is living, there is only one Self behind innumerable selves, there is only one Being behind the multitude of beings.
This universal Being or Self is here seen as the Lord who inhabits all what so ever. All wealth belongs to the Lord of the universe, not to you. Therefore renounced you should enjoy.
We do not own the sun or the sunrise, yet it is wonderfully enjoyable to watch the sunrise; so is the blue sky and the cloud formations, so is the starlit sky and the moonlight, so are the wind and the rains. We do not own the air we breathe, the air that animates me goes forth to animate something else and goes further from life form to life from, from nation to nation animating the whole world. It is a universal energy animating all that moves.
Money too is a universal force animating the mankind. The force behind money does not require metallic coins or paper notes or electronic means to move from one place to other. However mankind has structured its movement through material and electronic means so that it can be measured, owned, controlled and manipulated. Mankind is struggling to master this force through these devices and yet the lordship eludes all the attempts, systems burst and crumble over time.
However for a short while one has the illusion that this is my money or this is my parents’ money or my neighbor’s money. We have this urge to own, to be the master, the lord. Borrowing money from someone is to surrender one’s lordship, to become a slave. Slavery is dreadful and one struggle to gain lordship over not only money but also of all the forces of Nature. Story of man is filled this struggle.
The deeper truth is that all wealth belongs to the Lord of the universe but we cannot see this truth as long as we live in the limitations of the ego. Ego is the boundary condition that separates one from the other, ego divides everything into mine and not mine which an illusion of the limited perception. All suffering comes from this division. The sense of ownership is an illusion of the ego.
Our young man suffers from guilt because he is bound by the limited idea of ownership even when the money is coming through his parents.
Does anyone feel guilty for breathing all the time? No, because no one owns the air. When the ownership is introduced the struggle and wars are bread as consequences. The idea of ownership and attachment breads suffering.
Everything belong the Lord of the universe who inhabits and animates all that moves. What comes to you comes from the Lord of the universe, what goes out from you goes out to the Lord of the universe.
Therefore renounced thou shall enjoy says the Upanishad.
