Tie your camel, but don’t let your possessions possess you!

Ownership is not our natural state. Then why fuss over anything now?

Referring to my blogpost yesterday, on the spiritual lesson I took away from the Ilayaraaja-SPB issue, a reader asked me if I was asking people not to claim ownership. I told him that at a deeply spiritual level any form of ownership is irrelevant. But we live in real world. Where money is an object – and an important one at that. So, it is indeed appropriate to protect your ownership of things – your material or intellectual assets. There surely is a need to take credit, accept a byline, display authorship for any of your work and possess a title deed for patents, property or such assets in your name. And if anyone infringes or encroaches on your ownership, you must firmly request them to step back. So, I am not saying ownership is irrelevant at an operational, everyday living level.

But when what you possess, starts possessing you, well, then you have lost the plot. Then you have lost the game of Life. Then suffering sets in.

Any art form which is universally acclaimed and loved by people, for the joy they experience in immersing themselves in that art, belongs not just to its creator. It belongs to the creator’s admirers as well. Now, a Raja Ravi Varma original must not be copied. That would be infringement. But in today’s digital world, so many image copies are floating all over the net. People admire them. They view them. Trying to control such action will be impossible. And if you try to, you will only lose your inner peace. So it is with Ilayaraaja’s music. This perspective I offer from a purely, practical, real-world, point of view.

On a spiritual plane, all ownership is irrelevant. Your own Life is given to you and will be taken back without your permission. (Even if you execute a suicide, by the law of Karma, it is still per a grand cosmic design.) What ownership do you want to control when you can’t even own or control your own Life? Yet, I believe in the principle of tying your camel. Trust in God But Tie Your Camel is an Arab proverb. One day Prophet Mohammed noticed a Bedouin leaving his camel without tying it. He asked the Bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The Bedouin answered, “I placed my trust in Allah.” At that, Mohammed said, “Tie your camel and place your trust in Allah.” Which means you have to do what you have to do, but don’t get attached to your action, don’t get bound by it, don’t expect a result that you want, simply trust the process of Life.

There was a time in my Life when I tried to protect everything and control everyone around me. I sweated – actually lost sleep literally – a lot over what we believed were our intellectual property rights. I fought rabidly over my opinions and ideas. But then I was so unhappy doing all that. And then everything I owned or thought I controlled was taken away. (Read more here: Fall Like A Rose Petal.) When I introspected I realized ownership is a not our natural state. We came wearing nothing. It doesn’t matter what we are wearing when we depart. When in our natural state we own nothing, why fuss over anything now?

So, I have this simple principle – enjoy expressing yourself. Offer whatever you have to the Universe, with a lot of love, selflessly. Tie your camel, but be easy with your possessions – surely don’t let them possess you!

Don’t judge others; especially, when you have not walked their path

We must completely avoid judging, or at least opining and commenting on, the lives of people whose path we have never walked.

Shreekumar Varma Photo Courtesy: The Hindu/Internet

Our good friend, the acclaimed writer and poet, Shreekumar Varma was abducted last fortnight in Senegal, in Western Africa. He has since been freed and is hopefully back home in Chennai. Shreekumar had, it appears, been to Senegal to sell an original painting of Raja Ravi Varma. Interestingly, Shreekumar also hails from Raja Ravi Varma’s family. The story of his abduction broke a couple of days ago in India and his subsequent release has been going viral on social media. What baffles me is the way people are judgmental about Shreekumar and his predicament.

Some of the questions being asked or judgments being pronounced are:

·    Was a ransom paid for his release?
Was the painting itself the ransom?
Shreekumar was a fool to be lured to Senegal to sell an original Ravi Varma painting
Something’s fishy about his visit and the whole story
I wouldn’t ever sell a Ravi Varma original
Maybe he was selling the painting without his family’s knowledge

Now these questions and points of view may be arising out of curiosity because Shreekumar’s story is in the public domain. But is it necessary to pass judgment on matters that don’t concern us directly or of which we have no or limited knowledge. Just because you are on social media, and there is an opportunity and space available to air a comment, don’t opine on people and events that you don’t know anything about.

People who know Shreekumar and his wife Geetha will agree that they are surely among the most genial people on the planet. We have known them only over the last three years, but we have immense regard for them. They conduct themselves with so much humility – despite their lineage and all their accomplishments – and dignity. No one I know knows under what circumstances Shreekumar made that trip to Senegal. I personally don’t think it is relevant. He got into a messy situation there. And the local Indian Embassy, the Ministry of External Affairs and his family worked on securing his release and safe passage back home. Simple. And period. There ends the story. I don’t think anyone has the right to dissect, analyze and pronounce judgment on a matter such as this – especially when they are so totally removed from the truth and the facts.

We have seen how social opinion colored and condemned the passage of justice in the Aarushi case – the Talwar couple serve a jail sentence when there’s not a shred of evidence against them! Vaani and I have also been at the receiving end of unsolicited public pronouncements and judgments. So, we surely know how it feels. We have learnt to be detached from what people have to say about us. But sadly not everyone may have that ability.  

Let us understand and appreciate that people – that includes you and me – do things in Life with their own rationale and logic. Sometimes, things go horribly wrong despite all the intent and planning. So, people do end up in a circumstance that they never quite believed they will ever be in. Everyone’s story has only one truth. And unless you know what that truth is, don’t speculate, don’t opine, and most important, don’t judge anyone. Apart from puncturing the morale of those you judge, it is, quite honestly, a total waste of your time and, seriously, none of your business!