02.40 – Things may belong, but for how long?
We treasure our belongings, especially those belongings that are worth a lot financially or mean a lot emotionally. Many people go even further, making their belongings the primary purpose of their life and making their belongings their defining identity.
Yet no matter how much we treasure our belongings, how long can they belong to us? At best for a lifetime. Frequently, not even for that long. They become devalued, even decimated, by the passage of time. Or they are dragged away by the vicissitudes of the world. Natural calamities like earthquakes can in one dreadful moment dispossess thousands of people collectively. Or smaller earthquakes within our bodies – heart attacks, for example – can in one heartbreaking instant dispossess us individually.
Though we know at the back of our mind that nothing will belong to us for long, still we feel driven to possess.
Why? Because it is our nature to possess. We just need to find out the belonging that will not let us down, that will belong to us forever.
Is there such a belonging? Yes, there is answers Gita wisdom. The Bhagavad-gita (02.40) points to this everlasting asset – the progress we make on the path to transcendence; the attraction we cultivate towards spiritual reality, ultimately towards Krishna. Time can’t even deplete, leave alone decimate, our spiritual credits; they will stay with us life after life, increasing whenever we perform further spiritual activities. Eventually, their cumulative balance energizes us with an irresistible attraction towards Krishna. This attraction transforms our life-journey, from a doomed chase after non-retainable belongings to a purposeful pilgrimage towards eternal love for Krishna.
And pursuing this spiritual possession doesn’t require us to renounce our material belongings. If we use them in Krishna’s service without becoming infatuated by them, they can become aids, not obstacles, in our spiritual advancement.
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02.40 – In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.