P 99 102 Giving up of Possession

[While giving upadesha at Prayag, once Sri Charan (Guru Dev) said]

There was a pundit in Kashi who was a big admirer of Ramayana; he was very versed in Ramayana; he often went for satsang. Once he got the opportunity in a private meeting and he said – “Maharaja! We spend the whole day turning the mala beads and narrate so many stories of Bhagvan. But our mind doesn´t become calm”.

Sri Charan replied: “It is evident that you have not dedicated your mind completely to Bhagvan. If it has been dedicated to Bhagvan then Bhagvan takes care of the mind; and you have not to worry about whether it is calm or not. You have had concerns; from this it is obvious that you have not removed your possession over mind. And while you still have possession over it what then have you dedicated to Bhagvan? When you remove your possession from it then Bhagvan can have his possession on it and then he will take care of it.
Only one can have possession on one thing at a time. Either you keep your mind in your possession and govern it by your own or remove your possession completely from it and let it go in the possession of Bhagvan. And then become free from concerns for a settled or unsettled mind. Bhagvan will do whatever he thinks is right.”

One sadhu wanted a little piece of land from a landlord to build a hut of his own on the bank of the river Sarayu; but the landlord was not ready to give it to him.
Once Sri Charan was passing by over there. So, the sadhu came and said: “The landlord pays special homage to you, he will give the land if you talk to him.” Sri Charan asked the landlord the reason for not giving the land. He said:”Bhagvan! I don’t have any objection to giving the land. I could give the land even today; but the entire city’s garbage gets dumped over there. In order to remove garbage from there we will have to face troubles from everyone.” On this Sri Charan said: “Why do you bother about removing the garbage, the one whom you give it he himself will manage it. You remove your possession over it, that´s all, and then your responsibility is over. On this he immediately gave the land.
The significance of this is when one’s possession over mind is removed, then the garbage which is the agitation of mind is removed by the one who takes it. If mind being dedicated to Bhagvan in this way still remains restless, then it means that the mind has not been dedicated completely. We should dedicate our mind completely to Bhagvan – should remove our possession over it completely – then our responsibility is over. And then there is no need to get agitated for a settled or unsettled mind.”

The other name of attachment is possession. The relationship between mind and samsara (world, cycle of birth and death) through the bond of vasana (latent tendencies, strong desires) is only attachment. The root cause of this is ahamkar (ego, I-ness); therefore as long as you have not dedicated your ego to Bhagvan so long your possession over mind cannot be completely removed. And without Bhagvan having got full possession over mind, the restlessness of the mind cannot be removed and without removing of the mind´s restlessness the state of peace cannot be realized.
Therefore giving up of possession is the root cause of highest peace.

Just as the worldly meaning of giving up of possession is making donation, so the supreme meaning of giving up of possession is real bhakti (devotion).

After your ego has been merged in Paramatma then the individual existence is mingled with the universal existence and the whole universe becomes one´s own.

When a river has entered the ocean and has become completely merged then the river acquires the qualities of the ocean.In the same way when the source of vasanas of the individual ego has been dedicated to the bottomless big ocean in the form of Paramatma then in that moment it gets the power of Paramatma.But the dedication of the mind to the full nature of paramatma does not happen instantly – the miserliness of human life of previous births has long been ongoing.In order to get rid of this the authors of the shastras have told that there are eight more introductory steps before atma–samarpan (complete self-devotion).
These are the very nine steps of navadha bhakti (mentioned in various scriptures like Ramayana or Bhagavad Purana) out of which atma-samarpan is the last one. Atma-samarpan is the very climax of bhakti.When one has dedicated all one´s possessions to Bhagvan then one has established an indiscriminate relationship with Him and at the end one becomes the very nature of Bhagvan.
But only he gets this ability when he goes attentively through all the eight steps of bhakti step by step according to the rules in order to enter the final ninth stage.
Success is not attained by attempting to lessen the characteristic features of bhakti by unauthorized arbitrary means of pujan (worshipping), path (reading), bhajan (devotional singing), kirtan (chanting) etc.
Therefore having understood the process of devotion according one´s own competence from a Sadguru and sticking to it then only the desired success can be obtained by entering in the pure form of bhakti.