Defining Aparigraha
The word ‘aparigraha’ (अपरिग्रहः) is derived from the root word ‘grah’ which means to hold or grab something. Adding the prefix ‘pari’ alters the meaning only slightly to mean ‘hold onto something’. Adding the second prefix ‘a’ negates the meaning of the word and thus ‘aparigraha’ is variously translated as ‘non-hoarding’ or ‘non-possessiveness’, non-indulgence’ or ‘non-greed’ etc. This is the fifth of the five Yamas that we have been talking about so far.
Understanding Aparigraha
So, why is hoarding not recommended by Patanjali? Someone might say, "I have all the money and I can buy whatever and as much as I want; moreover, I have a big enough house where I can store everything that I own." Well, first of all, there is a lot of time, effort, energy and money involved in acquiring all the possessions. Once we have the possessions, we develop a sense of attachment to them. Once we are attached, we develop a sense of fear – fear of loss, for the items that we possess. In order to protect our possessions, we start worrying about buying insurance against them. We install security alarm systems around the house. Eventually, all these attachments and fears make our life quite unhappy, even miserable, despite all the valuable possessions.
I would like to relate a story about a tennis buddy who had just bought a Mercedes car. I was living in New Jersey at the time and was a member of a tennis club where I used to play about 3 to 4 times a week in the morning 6-7:30 AM. This friend was one of my regular tennis playing partners. After he bought his new car, he would park the car in the last spot in the parking lot to avoid someone hitting or scratching his car. In the winter months, this would mean walking more than a hundred yards in extreme cold temperatures and sometimes through as much as a foot of snow on the ground. Everyone else, of course, would vie to park the car closest to the entrance gate to avoid having to walk in the cold. But this guy was "happy" torturing his own body in the cold weather while protecting his newly acquired prized possession. Well, guess what? About a month after he bought the car, we noticed that he hadn’t shown up for a tennis game in more than a week. When he did come back, we found out that he had met with an accident in which his car was totaled. He was so devastated with the loss that he didn’t even want to come for tennis any more!
But, you might say, I do need some material possession to live and survive in this life. Yes, indeed, that is true. That is where we need to learn how to distinguish between "wants" and "needs". There are items that are required for our living needs – basic necessities like a car, home, clothing, groceries and the rest. What is important is that we avoid the temptation to buy something that we "want" because we saw an attractive TV ad for that item recently. Or, we buy some item in large quantity just because it was on "sale" and we could afford it.
Does this mean that we shouldn’t buy a Mercedes car even if we can afford it? I would say that there is no harm in owning an expensive or luxury car or home as long we do not develop a sense of attachment toward that item. If I own everything with a sense of ‘detachment’ then I would not feel ‘devastated’ even if my multi-million dollar home were burnt to ashes in a fire, or my Mercedes gets totaled in an auto accident. Obviously, this attitude needs a level of spiritual maturity that enables us to treat every gain or loss as just another "passing shower"!
Our ancient texts talk of two principles – in Sanskrit they are called ‘shreyas’ and ‘preyas’ which are mentioned in the yoga scriptures. ‘Shreyas’ is something that is preferred (something useful or beneficial) and ‘preyas’ is that which is pleasurable (but may, in fact, be harmful). There is a nice verse in the Kathopanishad (1.2.2) which talks of these two:
श्रेयश्च प्रेयश्च मनुष्यमेतः
तौ सम्परीत्य विविनक्ति धीरः ।
श्रेयो हि धीरोऽभि प्रेयसो वृणीते
प्रेयो मन्दो योगक्षेमाद्वृणीते ॥ ॥ कठोपनिषद् – 1.2.2 ॥
This can be translated as follows – "We are presented with two options – preferable and pleasurable. A wise person knows how to distinguish between the two. He picks the preferable over the pleasurable. The unwise man, who is concerned with the growth and protection of material objects, selects the pleasurable."
For example, in the old days (before the days of sugar-coated capsules), a medicine for treating fever was almost always bitter in taste and thus highly undesirable. However, the result of taking that medicine, that of reducing the fever, was generally most agreeable. Similarly, we are always attracted to food that tastes good but is ultimately damaging for our health. Acquiring possessions through ‘dharmic’ (righteous) means and using them so we can lead a ‘dharmic’ life is ‘shreyas’; the opposite is ‘preyas’ and thus undesirable.
Essentially, then, Aparigraha, implies that we possess only what helps us meet our basic needs in life. Anything that we possess over and above our basic needs is a result of greed and is a potential source of unhappiness. Some classical commentators on the yoga sutras take it to mean that one reject claims of "I" or "mine" over material objects, including the physical body, any items received as gift or even presented through sense experiences. When one is given to greed and indulgence, he is naturally precluding himself from spiritual growth and self-realization.
Practicing Aparigraha
When a person is fully established in the yama of Aparigraha, he is free from fear, hate, disappointment, attachment, anxiety and pain.
In Sutra 2.39, Patanjali provides us the fruits of being established in Aparigraha:
अपरिग्रहस्थैर्ये जन्मकथंतासंबोधः॥३९॥
aparigrahasthairye janmakathaMtaasaMbodhaH
"When stabilized in aparigraha, one obtains full knowledge of past, present and future lives". The word "katham" means "how" and when the suffix "taa" is added, it means "how-ness". Literally, the sutra can be translated as, "Being established in Aparigraha, one attains realization of how-ness (how and why) of different incarnations"
It should be noted that the desire to know one’s past and future are not a matter if idle curiosity. The main purpose is to realize that all that we identify with (physical body, mind, intellect, material possessions etc) are perishable and impermanent. Thus, it is futile to get attached to non-permanent entities. With this realization, one develops higher states of non-attachment which helps in gaining self-realization.
I must admit that I don’t fully understand the implication of this sutra. It is not clear to me how knowledge of past and future is obtained through aparigraha. It is somewhat easier to understand how when the mind is cleansed of the samskaras through the practice of non-greed or non-attachment, one can get a view of the past. However, unless we believe that the future is nothing but a reflection of the past, I don’t understand how aparigraha can bring about knowledge of the future.
I would love to receive your feedback.
I would like to chime in on your question regarding how non-grasping can reveal past and future incarnations. First remember that even the past in our current life time is essentially a past incarnation – the same with future incarnations. Now let’s start with the concept of samtosa as a reference point: samtosa implies that we should accept the world “as it is†and be consciously present in the now no matter what is happening. Samtosa is ultimately about trusting that what we have and what we are in the moment is necessary for our path. The thing about now is that it is not a fixed point “in time,†but rather it is a timeless and novel moment-by-moment arising. It is the “still†point where the subsiding past and rising future intersect. When we are present in the moment and not attached to anything, we can get a glimpse of everything in a flash of the timeless now – all of the whys of the past and the direction of our future come together in that moment.
Now for non-grasping: how many times do we push our lives in a certain direction, only to meet with resistance after resistance? Maybe we do this because we truly believe this “one thing†is our destiny. However, when the door to that perceived destiny does not open, then it is time to stop and surrender the grasping and the wanting for that one thing. Wanting and attachment not only take us out of the present moment, but they also they lock down our perspective to only the smallest of viewpoints and possible outcomes.
When we stop limiting our perspective through wanting, then a world of infinite possibility has an opportunity to come into our view. Maybe that one person or that specific job was not the one and to let that idea go makes the way for the true one. Look at this translation of the Sutra (2.39) from Chip Hartranft: Freedom from wanting unlocks the real purpose of existence.
I have discovered this in my sadhana as well: when I let go of where I think I am going, the gift of my practice emerges. I may be straining to come into Bhujapidasana and unable to do so, but if I keep going and do not let myself get stuck in the trying, later in the practice I may come into the most amazing backbend ever (and that indeed has happened to me). Life is just like that. Ultimately, the message is to let go and see what life offers you. Let it show you what it has in store for you. Joseph Campbell once said that we have to be willing to let go of the life we think want in order to live the life that awaits us.
Thank you so much, Jesamine, for sharing these wonderful thoughts. I like when you say that in the present moment “we can get a glimpse of everything in a flash of the timeless now”.
Given that you are interested in deepening your study of the sutras, I would like to point you to my Yoga Sutra blog (http://yogasutrastudy.info/) where I post a summary of different sutras based on discussions in the bi-monthly study group meetings. I also have provided translation of the sutras by several different commentators as well as recordings of the sutras in Sanskrit and English. If you happen to visit the site, I would love to get your feedback.
Regards,
– Subhash
Jesamine has put forth pretty relevant thoughts. Here is a minor addition based on A little bit of my personal experience.
Non-hoarding helps unclutter one’s space; that includes the mind. This leads to better VISIBILITY, of the past we lived, the present we are in, and the future that’s unfolding.
Non-hoarding is a state of being. Since it’s non-transactional, it does not consume our energy; that include the mental energy. It relieves our cognitive BANDWIDTH for us to engage more with what is here and now. After all, hoarding is an act of filling the holes in the baggage of the dead-past, and/or building the defenses against stuff perceived in the unborn-future (which in turn is a reflection of our past journey, except in case of weather bureau’s storm prediction).
Non-hoarding leaves us less to deal with. That makes our personal eco-system relatively sparse. Consequently, it enables more ATTENTION – focus – upon what is. (same effort spread over less stuff.
Non-hoarding takes us away from the act of hoarding, which in time atrophies the behaviors associated with hoarding, leading to a state of our material DETACHMENT.
Visibility-Bandwidth-Attention-Detachment respectively enhance our sight-strength-selectivity-space to enjoy what we all have by SEEING THINGS AS THEY ARE. That to me is the apex of being a human.
Disclaimer:
I have structured the above as a spontaneous stream of thought and seek your forgiveness if it poses any conflict in itself or with what your beliefs are.
Very nicely put, Ajay. Thanks a lot for your insight. It’s still not very clear to me, though, as to how by ‘uncluttering’ the mind, one can view the past and the future. Can you throw some more light on it? Thanks.
If we look at the “mindstuff†as energy which has the power to expand and contract, we can see that identification with our eternal nature is expanded awareness and identification with the mind’s myriad modifications is contracted awareness. Clutter would be a manifestation of modifications of the mind. We access (or rediscover) the eternal dimension (samadhi) when, through pratyahara, dharana, and dhyÄna, we harness the energy of awareness itself, which until that point, is dispersed into the world of forms and therefore weakened.
In terms of time, realization of the eternal dimension sheds light on timelessness (expansion of awareness), whereas, identification with modifications (Yoga Sutra 1.2) narrows time down to fixed points (contraction of awareness).
There are self-existing dimensions (stages) “in between†the eternal dimension and space/time (Yoga Sutra 3.12-15) and all of them exist simultaneously. It is from the infinite interaction of these dimensions that the universe came into being. We can observe this process at the microcosmic level by watching our thoughts unfold out of a state of stillness.
The dimension of time is the field in which things appear to be contracted to fixed points. When awareness is contracted like this, one can only see past and future as memories or unknown. As one learns to expand awareness through (samyama?), it is as though one can then “rise above†the dimension of time, where one sees various lives passing by like movie frames. When there is clutter, the energy is not strong enough to do this.
Hi Jesamine,
Expansion of awareness through the practice of Sanyama (dharana, dhyana and samadhi) are well established in the yoga sutras. We transcend time and space only after we attain full liberation (kaivalya). So, I am still struggling to see how Aparigraha can bring about the same level of expansion in awareness which allows us to reveal the secrets of past and future.
I wish you all the best in your journey to discovery, Subash.
Subhash you have shared your thoughts on ‘aparigraha’ with clarity, Yes non-hoarding and non attachment explained in the Mercedes example too is quite explicit. Even the comments add meaningful dimensions to the the discussions. A great learning for me.
However I feel the state of ‘aparigriha’ would lead us to the highest point of spirituality – being in the present moment. With no concern of the past or future.
Hope you pardon my simplistic understanding of this profound state.
Many thanks & cheers!
It is so nice to read your comment, Dilip. Yes, I agree that by cultivating aparigraha, one can reach a high state of spirituality. The highest state of spirituality, according to Patanjali, is Kaivalya which is complete freedom of the individual atma from any identification with the mind/body complex. To arrive at this state, Patanjali says that even the last trace of ‘samskara’ (past impressions) in our chitta must be made ineffective. Whether or not aparigraha alone will get us to that state is something that we need to experience for ourselves.