Is something possessing you? Or are
you possessing something?
I saw a
lead story in The Economic Times last
week saying the iPhone 6S which launches in the US on September 25 will be
available in the Indian grey market for Rs.1 Lakh – instantaneously. When I
read the story, I could not help but reflect on the way some people look at
Life. (Disclosure: I have never owned an iPhone. Ever since the iPhone launched
I have been unable to afford one. My current phone is a basic Samsung
smartphone that my friend has helped me acquire.) The fact that grey market
entrepreneurs in India are seeing a business opportunity here is evidence that there
are people who want to have that phone now. But I wonder why people can’t wait
for an official India launch – after all isn’t India a big market for all
ranges of phones? Perhaps, allowing logistical and regulatory delays, the
iPhone 6S may well be available here by year-end. I am not even talking about
the monetary price that people are willing to pay, I guess there is a spiritual
perspective, a heavier price that people have to pay actually, to consider here
– in reality, isn’t the iPhone 6S possessing these people while
it only appears that they are rushing to possess the phone?
The
iPhone 6S is but a metaphor. All of us are possessed, in fact enslaved, by our
thoughts, by things we have bought and by opinions that we have cultivated. In
our trying to build an identity for ourselves, what we have started to focus on
is what we want to possess; in wanting more of such possessions we are missing
the point that the possession has begun to possess us! And what possesses us
goes beyond the material realm. I have a friend who believes that the world
must go on appreciating his work – he is world-famous and a legend in his
field. But he craves for validation and public appreciation – constantly. When
he or his work doesn’t get noticed or talked about, he feels miserable. Now,
who’s possessing whom – does my friend possess the attention he gets or does
the attention that he doesn’t get possess him?
There’s nothing
wrong in seeking attention if you can get it or buying what you want if you can
afford it. But to become obsessed with what you want will leave you suffering
when you don’t get what you want. It’s a simple truth that you miss – if you
own something, you are its Master. If something owns you, it is the Master.
How many
Masters do you have? Review your Life – from a ruinous habit to your car to an opinion
to your thoughts to a parent to a spouse, anything or anyone can be controlling
you. Even if you have one thing or person controlling you, you are living enslaved.
To be free, you must stop wanting, stop obsessing. You must
let go and simply learn to be happy with whatever you get and whatever there is.
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