Even when it comes to possessions, you cannot rest certain that your ideas will find a philosopher nod in agreement. I mean, yeah, one understands that they will not agree with you on virtues. After all, if you and they share the same ideas on virtues then exactly why are THEY philosophers and YOU just a mango person? But...possessions?
And, yet, here is Tiru out to tell you what is a true possession and what is not.
Udaiyavar enappaduvadhu ookkam aqdhilaar udaiyadhu udaiyaro matru - Titukkural
You possess only if you possess zeal; else do you truly possess what you possess? - Loose Translation
Ah! Actually, Tiru is more into defining whether you are a true possessor rather than whether what you have is a true possession. It is more like saying that what you think you possess is not really your possession because to possess anything at all you first need to possess zeal. Sounds sort of like Nityananda in his full glory, doesn't it? Quite unlike Tiru who really does not go in for these Zen type of statements that sound very profound but convey no meaning to you.
But, yeah, glimmers of light pierce that shroud. A simple understanding would be that if you have no zeal, you would take no active interest in your possessions. If you do not take interest in your possessions, do you even KNOW that you possess them? If you do not, does it even matter that some legal document says that you do?
To possess something is not merely to hold onto it. It is also to make use of it. If you own land and take no interest in it and someone else has encroached on it and is putting it to use, who really possesses that land? YOU or that chap who is currently in...err...possession? End of the day, he who is deriving benefit from something IS the guy who truly possesses it, not someone who just has a legal claim to it.
And, yes, that's just another way you will end up truly not possessing what you possessed. I mean, if you fail to take interest in what you possess, sooner or later someone else is going to take it off you without your consent or even, possibly, knowledge.
One can even go so far as to say that the man without zeal does not even possess his own life. I mean, unless YOU have a zeal for life, you are never going to seize the moment and do something with it; never going to live the day. So, then, have you truly lived?
Zeal, ardour, enthusiasm...call it what you will. You get the joy of your possessions only with it; without it all possessions are dross!
