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Baba


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Re: Unique Disease Growing in USA

To: AM-GLOBAL
From: Cinmay Deva
Subject: Re: Unique Disease Growing in USA
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:08:17 -0400

Baba


== RE: UNIQUE DISEASE GROWING IN USA ==

~ Part 3 ~

Namaskar,
With great interest I have been following this thread about hoarding. I see this a lot in my area.

As we all know from the earlier letters on this topic, hoarding is a disease of the materialist, i.e. those trying to derive unlimited happiness from finite objects. We should help cure such people with proper spiritual practice & Baba's teachings.

That said, here is one trick employed by the business community in cahoots with doctors in order to ensure that people keep on purchasing new products. They try to stigmatize "hoarders" so consumers will throw away old items and purchase new ones.
See how the entire cycle works.

1. At the outset, companies pay huge money to create advertisements that encourage common people to purchase more and more of their products - promising that this will bring satiation and contentment. In turn, those common people buy the products.

2. At the same time those big business executives know that if the people buy and buy and accumulate more and more then the people will not have space to purchase new products.

Now see the trick that those corporations do.

3. Those companies give psychologists and doctors large sums of money (i.e. payoffs) to research and conclude that those who keep all their old things are diseased - they are "hoarders". The companies do this to stigmatize such persons - then people will be less inclined to keep older products, in which case they will have more space in their house for purchasing new items. This is the trick that is played.

4. Drug companies also get involved in this scam. Their aim is to name or create a new diseases for those who "suffer from the over-accumulation of products", i.e. hoarding. The drug companies want doctors to formally label this as a disease so then they (the pharmaceutical companies) can sell drugs for this disease and make a profit. Is it any wonder then that each and so many "new mental illnesses and diseases" are discovered and identified each year. One report mentioned that 250 new psychiatric illnesses were identified last year - some or more of which are related with hoarding.

When in fact we know that the real disease behind hoarding is materialism itself. With a proper mental outlook people will not purchase so many things which they can never even use in this lifetime like 400 pairs of pants, 75 pairs of sandals, etc.

5. So see the irony or cheating tactic: Those wealthy people who purchase new products and throw away their old ones are deemed as being fine and ok by the medical world. They do not suffer from any psychic disease - so say the doctors and the psychologists. Why? Because they have space to buy more products.

In comparison, those less wealthy people, who accumulate and hold onto their old products, are termed as "hoarders" and are labeled as mentally ill. Why? Because they do not have space to purchase more products. For this reason companies do not like them. So such poorer people are branded as being "diseased" by the medical field. When in fact their mental condition is no different from those who are purchasing new items and throwing old ones. The only superficial difference is that the business corporations want to glorify those who have space to buy new items and stigmatize those who hold onto old items and do not have space for new ones.

6. So the whole thing is one big scam to stigmatize hoarders and convince others to purchase new and throw away old. Those who purchase new and throw away old are "OK". Psychologists do not have any problem with the ultra wealthy for buying more than they can use, whether it be 500 shoes, 2000 sariis, 100 cars, etc. So long as they are buying and supporting those capitalist companeis, they do not suffer from any disease.

7. Of course we all know that anyone looking for peace in the external plane by constantly buying new things is a hoarder. The root cause of their problem is materialism, not how messy or organised their house is, nor how often they throw things away. Buying more products than one can use in order to satisfy mental longing is the definition of a hoarder, and their disease is materialism. Until we show such persons the path of santosa, aparigraha and sadhana, they will continue to try to fulfill their infinite desires by mundane avenues like accumulating material possessions. But their approach will be futile and they will suffer.

8. Below is Baba's wonderfully humorous and satirical story that is related with this entire topic of hoarding. That is followed by links to the earlier postings on this topic.

Namaskar, 
Cinmay


Note 1: BABA'S STORY ABOUT WEALTHY HOARDERS

In Baba's remarkable story - from "In the Land of Hattamala" - He is grossly pointing out the disease and crude ways of the hoarder / materialist. The villain of the story is one witch who just wastes her money and time accumulating things. She is a real hoarder who collects saris and other items for her so-called psychic satisfaction. You can say that Baba's below story is a hilarious satire on hoarding / materialism.

[In this story the witch has a stutter or stammer so when she says her servants name, she says, Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha, when in fact the name is simply Bodha.]

Here then is Baba's story:

The witch said to Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee: “Today, I’m going to Dhaka. I shall board the plane wearing my sky-blue, saffron and violet coloured sari. When I get off the plane I shall wear my cream, green and red coloured sari. Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee, is it clear?”

Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee said, “M’Lady, as soon as I got word of your intended trip to Dhaka, I went and purchased 700 different types of sari from the boutique. Your 7,32,432 saris in the cupboard will remain untouched.”


Madhumita listened in utter amazement. One person needs so many saris? She asked Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee: “Hey, brother, how can someone possibly need such a large quantity of saris? Where do they all come from?”


Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee said: “Every year 20 million rupees are budgeted for purchasing saris.


“There are muslin saris from Bishnupur, grey-coloured saris from Burdwan; close knit, wide red bordered saris from Contai; finely woven saris from Antpur; finely striped saris from Phorashdanga; 500 kinds of old-fashioned saris from Dhonekhali made of cotton interwoven with silk; cotton saris from Santipur with wide silver and golden coloured borders; 100 kinds of Santipur saris for casual wear; fully embroidered saris from Murshidabad with traditional multi-patterned designs; the Baluchor  varieties of heavy silk saris, all kinds of saris from Dhaka, saris from Bajitpur, 2000 kinds of saris from Tangail. Besides all these there are pure silk saris from Murshidabad; coloured, pure silk saris from the loom; saris with very bright borders from Boshoa-Bishnupur; the best kind of silk sari from Bankura-Bishnupur; raw silk saris from Tatipara. And besides all these there are the most modern saris which earthly beings have yet to see.”


Madhumita asked Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee: “What sorts of saris are those, brother?”


Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee said: “For example, one sort is Ding-Dong sari? Do you know what it is?”


Madhumita replied: “Of course I don’t.”


Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee said: “That sari, when worn by the witch, makes a ‘ding… dong…’ sound just as if someone is striking a bell. There are also cymbal saris which when worn, sound just as if someone is playing the cymbals in accompaniment to a kiirtan 34 song. And there are also sitar saris, asraj saris, tampura 35 saris, and so many more I could tell you about! ”


Madhumita listened in astonishment. Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee further added: “The latest discovery of them all is the cricket sari. We bought one only yesterday. While this sari is worn the musical sound as that produced by crickets is constantly heard.”


Madhumita asked: “Where are all those saris kept, brother.”


Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee said: “In a huge cupboard whose top scrapes the very sky itself.”


Madhumita asked: “What do you do when you want to take a sari out of the cupboard?


Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukherjee said: “We use a ladder. We have 3 or 4 mile-long ladders for the purpose.”


Madhumita asked: “Doesn’t the witch ever give a sari to anyone as a gift?”


Bo-Bo-Bo-Bodha Mukheriee said “If anyone goes to ask her for one, the old witch screams out ‘Kak… kak… kak…’ just like a jackal. She says: ‘I need every single sari. Some for wearing when I go to Dhaka, others for wearing to London, some for wearing during my evening strolls, and some for wearing when I go down to Hell to give a lecture.’ If anyone comes to get a sari from her she says: ‘Since you don’t possess any saris and come from a poor family why don’t you go and drown yourself in the River Ganges? These days there’s plenty of water in the Ganges at Calcutta.’”



(From "In the Land of Hattamala", Part 1)






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