Lesson 26 Possessiveness (Parigrah)

POSSESSIVENESS (PARIGRAH) Parigrah-Attachment for land ,building, wealth, cereals, animals, buffalos etc. or a desire to accumulate more of these & other worldly things is called Parigrah (possessiveness), whoever commit this sin, are called greedy, misers etc. One Seth inspite of possessing huge wealth was very miser. He neither used to give anything to others nor used to eat or wear himself rightly. He used to eat oil cake (Khal or Pinyak)  to fulfill his stomach. Due to this oily smell used to come out of his body and he got the name of 'Pinyakgandh'. He used to tell his children to play Kushti (wrestling) with neighbourhood children so that the oil of their bodies might automatically stick to his children. Once a labour found a box full of gold bars while digging a pond for the King. The Seth purchased ninety eight gold bars at the rate of iron bars one after the other from the labour. The King came to know all about this. He confiscated all the wealth of the Seth & sent his family to jail. On hearing this incident Pinyakgandh broke his legs and because of his excessive greed he went to hell after his death. Therefore one should resist from holding unlimited wealth & should earn the money honestly. We should fix some limit for holding various possessions. Q.1. Why Parigrah has been classified as a sin? Q.2. Who is Pinyakgandh in the picture? Q.3. Which kind of miser he was? Which kind of sin he committed? Why he broke his legs & where did he go after death?