Thoughts on Asteya

Not stealing. Non-covetousness. Trustworthiness.
Easy, right? You may think, "oh, I am not a thief and I would never think about taking someone else's possessions. It is easy to practice asteya." Desire, greed, craving, lust--these are reasons that drive people to covet and steal. But it is not just about shoplifting or robbing a bank. Steya (stealing) has many levels of influence on people. It really boils down to usage and attachment of things.

If you make someone wait for you, isn't that stealing their time? If you plagiarize, that is stealing ideas. If you borrow a hammer from your neighbor, forget to return it, then he can not find it when he needs it you have stolen his opportunity to fix something. Once you begin to look at everything you do in terms of usage, you begin to understand exactly what it means to practice asteya.

I have three yoga mats. And I am coveting a fourth. Do I really need four mats to practice yoga? Absolutely not. One yoga mat is dirty from being used as a magic carpet outside by my son all summer (I suppose I can write that one off as a "toy" now). Another yoga mat I bought because it was cheap--but it smells bad and is too slippery to use even after trying to roughen it up. The third mat I use regularly and there is really nothing wrong with it. But I find myself coveting a yoga mat made from plant resin because it is environmentally friendly. By purchasing all of these mats away from other people that could have used them, the factories have to make more mats. I have created demand from my desire. The factories steal resources from Nature to make mats that I don't even use. So, in essence, I am stealing from Nature.

Satchidananda describes this sort of stealing from Nature in detail in his commentary of the yoga sutras. He says we breathe air from Nature, we eat food from Nature, we wear clothes made from Nature...we USE everything from Nature. We need to give back to Nature. It's not just about replanting. It's also about keeping the air we breathe or the water we drink clean; pumping waste into our resources is stealing from every living thing that needs to survive.

Satchidananda also describes stingy people as stealing money. They lock it away from other people who need it. The money sits there--eventually a thief will come along and free it. Necessity is another reason steal. Look at someone staving for food. He steals food because his body needs it. Is he the thief, or is the one who is hoarding the food the thief? By not sharing wealth, he is taking up usage that another requires to survive.

Yoga Sutra 2.37 states "to one established in non-stealing, all wealth comes." Of course! If you eliminate desires, reduce your needs and stop coveting what you don't have (which also helps establish santosha), then it is easy to be happy with what you have. And anything else that comes to you is wealth beyond your dreams.

Desikachar describes asteya also as trustworthiness. If people know they can trust you not to steal or covet, they put their confidence in you. They will want to share with you, no matter how precious the item.

To practice asteya, respect others, love Nature, and let go of attachment. Shift your attitude to let everything come and go as it will. Things will start to want to be with you--a reverse psychology.

For instance, I would like my son to sit and behave with us at the dinner table. Most evenings he protests. As I forced him to sit and eat, he would cry and throw a tantrum. Once I let go of my attachment to having everyone sit at the dinner table together, things changed. My son wiggled to get down. I said, "OK, but you must let us finish dinner. Go play." He did, but then he came back. He wanted to be with us. He crawled back into his seat, and started to eat. Peace.