One’s Body is a Pledged Article, And not an Owned One
Tradesmen often possess gold in the form of ornaments. When there is need for money for conducting their trade, the tradesmen pledge the ornaments with a bank and obtain money against them. When the amount can be spared, they redeem the ornaments. Someone happened to mention this to Shri Maharaj. Shri Maharaj queried, “What would happen if one were to bring home for use the ornaments so pledged with the bank?” The bank official said, “It would be a crime.” On which Shri Maharaj said, “When God brings some one into this world, he pledges a body with him, and takes a loan symbolized by one’s span of life. As thelife gets spent, day after day, the loan gets repaid. When the span of life comes to its end one day, the body has to be returned to God. If one says that this body belongs to oneself, and acted accordingly, is the behaviour not like bringing pledged ornaments for use at home? Accepting that the body is an article belonging to God, and only pledged to us, we should constantly maintain an awareness of this. Thereby one’s bodily consciousness will automatically vanish. Then, just as the ornaments are returned when the loan has been repaid, and the banker does not feel bad about it, one ought not to feel anything when God takes the body back at the end of the life time. When this stage has been attained, one will have secured mastery over the dread of the final moment.
