Man is usually afraid of losing what he possesses. In our creation, everything is eternally in motion; nothing is static. Noting can really be owned by anyone forever – such a feeling of ownership is illusory.

A farmer was greatly troubled by a rat. No matter where he kept his foodgrains, the rat would manage to get them. Of course, this story is of a time when containers, metal or otherwise, were not known. The farmer tried to hide the grains but the rat always managed to locate them. Finally, he thought of hanging the grains from the roof but the rat managed to jump and get to the hanging grains, too.

Fed up by this loss of his hard – earned grains, the farmer approached a wise man. This man counselled after locating the source of the rat’s strength – the place where the rat stored the stolen grains. The farmer spied on the rat and discovered the rat’s hole. As per the instructions of the wise man, the farmer dug up the rat’s hole and took away the stored grains. From then onwards, that rat was unable to jump much and the grains hung by the farmer were safe.

Sense of security

This story has been taken from Neetisar-Ank, an ancient Indian scripture. The moral of this story is simple – most of the living entities, especially the human beings naturally accumulate. Such accumulations or possessions give them a sense of security and confidence as well as a feeling of achievement. The stored grains gave the rat its strength to be able to jump. Is it wrong then to accumulate or possess? No! it is not wrong to do so but one should know a few rules. To begin with anything obtained illegally would have adverse reaction in future, since God’s justice is unforgiving. As regards legal and moral acquisitions, there are a few golden rules worth pondering over.

Golden rules

The first and foremost rule is that human life is meant for achieving higher goals. In any case all our acquisitions are taken away by death. Therefore, an intelligent person should not neglect his human duty of trying to gain liberation, that is he or she should not be totally engrossed in only gathering material things throughout his or her life. The second rule is not to be attached to one’s possessions because such possessions can be taken away at any time, by a higher force strategy or cunningness as exemplified by the rat which was taking away. Nothing can really be owned by anyone forever; such feeling of ownership is illusory. No wonder, one is usually afraid of losing what one possesses. In fact this is god’s creation and he owns everything here. In our creation, everything is eternally in motion; nothing is static so to say. Can we tell who owned the land wherever we are now, say five hundred years ago?

Therefore, we can conclude that during our temporary stay in our present bodies, let us make the best use of the available facilities and advance ourselves both materially and spiritually. Accumulations should not be the first priority; this should be a by-product only.