Love, Give, and Receive!

One day, as I was walking through the solitude of the woods, I recalled the sacred words spoken by my beloved Master, Sadhu Vaswani, “Life is brief. Our stay upon this earth is but for a few days.”

People tend to forget that life is ephemeral. Sometimes, I think they do not realise that they themselves are mortal! They speak and act as if they will live forever; they want to possess things — possess things permanently! They cling to their possessions as if they own them for eternity. People are so obsessed with their belongings, their houses, their cars, and all their wealth that they do not want to part with them at any cost. I see many families around, bitterly divided over property matters. They fight with bitterness over their share of land, houses, and other possessions. An advocate once told me that several pieces of prime real estate in Pune, worth hundreds of crores of rupees are lying vacant and disused because the members of the family are involved in bitter court battles lasting for years!

I knew of two brothers, one of whom lived in the US, while the other lived in India. The brothers had a dispute over the family property. The younger brother decided to go to the US to settle the dispute and to claim his legitimate share. But alas, on the very day he reached the US, he breathed his last. This man perhaps carried within his heart, the weight of years of bitterness and anxiety. The discord between the two brothers had hurt both of them. The conflict served no purpose. In fact, one of them left this earth disgruntled and unhappy.

Property is a sacred trust given by God; it must be

used to fulfill God’s purposes. No person has absolute or exclusive control over his or her possessions.

Most people live life on the surface. They

live a superficial life, unaware of the goal or the meaning of their life. This life, as I said earlier, is given to us not to possess and own, but to love and give and share whatever we have with those less fortunate than we are. Death can claim us at any time; and then, it may be too late.

(Dada J.P. Vaswani is a humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.)