Asteya--Non-Stealing: The Third Yama

by

Mitch Hall

    Asteya is the third yama (essential ethical principle) of raja yoga. Its literal translation from Sanskrit is non-stealing, and it refers to not expropriating anything that rightfully belongs to another person. As asteya follows ahimsa (nonviolence) and satya (truth) in the sequence of the yamas, it can be inferred that it is intrinsically related to those first two principles. The connections are evident since violence and deceit are common means and consequences of depriving others of what is theirs. Non-stealing can be applied to respecting other people’s rights to their material belongings as well as to their creative products and immaterial attributes, such as ideas, identity, reputation, means of livelihood, freedom, and dignity. Plagiarism is just as much a violation of asteya as bicycle theft. All cultures have developed ethical norms, laws, and negative sanctions for violations of asteya in order to protect people’s property and to prohibit stealing. However, when privileged elites have disproportionate power and influence over government, they can evade the consequences of the laws and violate the principle of asteya with impunity.

    Whereas citizens may normally be more frightened about street crime than about corporate crime, Woody Guthrie wryly observed in these song lyrics: “As through this world I’ve wandered, I’ve seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen.”1 In the decades since the venerable folk singer wrote those words, the guns have become more lethal, and the power of the fountain pens has been amplified by computers. In 2004, the FBI estimated that while robbery and burglary cost this country $3.8 billion, white collar crimes, including “corporate fraud, bribery, embezzlement, insurance fraud, and so on,” cost over $400 billion per year.2

    Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s vision of asteya, the third of his 11 vows to guide his life, was far-reaching. He wrote, “Non-stealing does not mean merely not to steal. To keep or take anything which one does not need is also stealing. And of course, stealing is fraught with violence.” 3 Gandhi’s emphasis on needs, as opposed to wants, calls into question the consumerism that predominates in this capitalist economic system. In other writing, Gandhi expanded on what asteya meant to him:

    We are not always aware of our real needs, and most of us improperly multiply our wants and thus, unconsciously, make thieves of ourselves. One who follows the observance of Non-stealing will bring about a progressive reduction of his own wants. Much of the distressing poverty in this world has risen out of the breaches of the principle of Non-stealing.4

The implications of Gandhi’s interpretation of asteya are profound. According to the United Nations Human Development Report of 1998, “the 225 richest individuals in the world have a combined wealth of over $1 trillion, which is equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 per cent of the world’s population, or 2.5 billion people.”5 If those super-wealthy individuals were to have donated only 4 per cent of their assets, specifically $40 billion per year, according to UN Development Program calculations, this could have fed, clothed, housed, provided hygienic water, free schools, and free health care for ever one of the poor of the earth. In Gandhi’s perspective, the excessive wealth and privileges of the few constitute robbery from the poor.

    According to Robert Merton’s sociological strain theory (1957), people who believe in culturally approved success goals of getting rich yet lack access to culturally approved means to attain them are more likely than others to resort to illegitimate means such as stealing and selling stolen property in pursuit of those goals.6 Whereas some violations of asteya may be accounted for with this theory, it does not account for the self-inflation of privileged AIG executives who recklessly brought their corporation to the brink of ruin, received from the government $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money, and then appropriated $450 million of that to give themselves lavish bonuses.7

    Not only are ordinary working people being robbed by such shameless violations of asteya, but so are future generations who will be born into a situation in which the government has enormous debts to be paid from the taxes on their wages for their labors, provided they are even fortunate enough to get a job, however low paying. In this society, as of 2004, CEOs earned salaries on the average 90 times higher than those of the average workers in their companies. With stock options and other privileges, CEO earnings were about 500 times higher than those of average workers.8 In the Gandhian perspective on asteya, these CEOs are robbing from the workers.

    The intrinsic connections among ahimsa, satya, and asteya are demonstrated by aggressive global actions by large corporations as portrayed in the following:

    “In the most widespread form of mass violence, giant                         transnational corporations, owing no allegiance to any one nation and maintaining the right of corporate personhood, usurp control over arable land, water, oil, gas, and other minerals. They control market places, work forces, media, and the regulatory functions of government and leave in their wake the casualties of structural violence. These casualties include children who die of curable     and preventable disease; impoverished villagers, forced to travel long distances to work in dangerous factories for negligible wages; children and young women forced into hard     labor, some enslaved, some trafficked for the global sex industry, and some forced into the only viable local economy--drugs.”9

Calling such predation, often backed by military and paramilitary force, by the euphemisms of “globalization” and “free-market economy” is tantamount to lying, and the violence and robbery are evident.

    From the perspective of psychology, individual violations of asteya can result from different motivations, including anger, hostility, vengeance, narcissism, poor moral reasoning, lack of personal boundaries and respect for the rights of others, need, desperation, greed, envy, compulsion, and vain attempts to compensate for feelings of inner emptiness. The impulse-control disorder of kleptomania accounts for only five per cent of the stealing that occurs. It follows a buildup of tension in the person with the disorder, provides temporary relief from anxiety, and result in regret, remorse, guilt, and self-loathing.10

    In reflecting on ethical principles, it behooves one to take an honest look at one’s own conduct. In my own life, I apply asteya in various ways. As a scholar, I enjoy and take pride in properly referencing ideas, information, and writing drawn from other sources. This is a principled intellectual approach to giving credit where it is due. My lifestyle is simple, and I do not have luxuries or desires for material aggrandizement. I grew up in modest circumstances and have worked from a young age. Those who raised me set good examples of supporting oneself through honestly earned wages from one’s own labor. Having chosen a service-oriented career in which I have worked in education, the peace movement, writing, and the non-profit mental health field, I have not accumulated monetary wealth because this sort of career is modestly reimbursed in this society. However, more lucrative professions held no appeal for me. My own moral principles are well established and internalized at this stage of my life’s journey, and it never even occurs to me to take anything that has not been freely offered or that I have not earned or bought myself. My sense of honor, dignity, and self-respect would be compromised if I were to violate asteya.

    As a mental health counselor, I work with disadvantaged youth, some of whom have violated ahimsa, satya, and asteya or associate with others who do. A challenge in helping them to discover their deeper potentials for living in consonance with such virtues is to refrain from being judgmental, moralistic, or prescriptive in talking with them. Reactions like that would only further toxic shame and intensify resistance on their parts. Rather, I work with empathy, acceptance, and respect, guiding them into the sort of self-exploration and observation of social reality that may help them to move to higher levels of moral reasoning and deeper self-understanding and caring for the rights and feelings of others. It is a subtle art to help another human being to develop emotionally, cognitively, and ethically, and the methods vary when working with a group versus working with an individual. In a group I was co-facilitating at your agency with about a dozen teens on probation, my co-facilitator and I gave them a moral dilemma. It went like this. What if they saw a fancy sports car parked along the street with the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition with no one around? Would they take the car? Only two said no, and the reason one of them provided was that it looked too easy, so it must be a setup. Only one said he would not do it because it was wrong. The rationalizations they gave were typical. For example, a few agreed that anyone that "stupid" deserved to have the car stolen.  In the course of the group session, I raised questions and gave examples that might perhaps induce some cognitive dissonance so that the youth could begin at least to get glimpses that they could think, feel, and act more ethically according to the golden rule of not doing to others what they would not want others to do to them. So, in my current work, I am able to promote the practice of asteya and the other yamas through cultivating therapeutic relationships with children and youth who have not benefitted from adequate guidance, mentoring, and nurturing with emotionally stable, compassionate adults. Another way that I promote asteya is in my writing on peace psychology in which I address the issue of structural violence by which powerful, privileged elites pursue their own greedy advantages, leading, in Gandhi’s words, to “much of the distressing poverty in the world.”   

    From the foregoing discussion, it follows that observance of the ethical principle of asteya derives from psychological health; caring that the basic human needs of others be met; compassionate concern to prevent the suffering of others; a developed level of moral reasoning; cultural norms that value and support asteya; commitment to human rights; and spiritual insight into our true being and fulfillment.

    A widely quoted Kenyan Proverb implicitly calls for consideration of asteya with regard to future generations: “Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was lent to you by your children.”11 Current generations on this earth are, in the light of this proverb, trustees of the ecosystem for future generations. In this sense, asteya is being massively violated through the ecocide represented by global warming, the extinction of species, toxic pollution, and depletion of natural resources such as water. Future generations will be robbed of a viable earth unless human creativity is marshaled on a grand, unprecedented scale to preserve the natural balances on this precious planet. Gandhi’s definition of asteya is a call to fulfill our true needs by reducing our wants. If wisely and widely adopted, this approach to asteya can contribute to the well-being of present and future generations. The ethical wisdom of the past, as expressed in the principle of asteya and the other yamas of raja yoga, can guide us to human fulfillment in the present and can empower us to provide for the future of life on this earth. Om shanti peace.

   

References

1.Woody Guthrie, Pretty Boy Floyd, retrieved November 12, 2009 from http://garynelsonacousticroots.wordpress.com/2009/04/07/more-some-will-rob-you-with-a-six-gun-and-some-with-a-fountain-penhouse-preparing-to-legalize-payday-loans-with-391-aprs/

2.David M. Newman, Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life (6th Edition), (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2006).

3.Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi, Bapu-ke-Aashirvad, November 24, 1944. Retrieved November 4, 2009 from http://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/gandhiphilosophy/philosophy_11vows.htm

4.Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi, Yeravda Mandir, p. 20. Retrieved November 4, 2009 from http://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/gandhiphilosophy/philosophy_11vows.htm

5.James Gilligan, Preventing Violence, (New York, London: Thames & Hudson, 2001), p. 82.

6.Newman.

7.Mike Lupica, Towering Greed is Just Business as Usual at AIG, New York Daily News.com, March 16, 2009, retrieved November 12, 2009 from http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/03/15/2009-03-15_towering_greed_is_just_business_as_usual.html

8.Shanon Lyon, CEO Salaries: What is the Average Salary of a CEO? Pay Scale, July 3, 2008. Retrieved November 12, 2009 from http://blogs.payscale.com/content/2008/07/ceo-salaries--1.html

9.Marc Pilisuk & Ellen Gaddy, Can the Peace Movement Succeed, Peace Movements Worldwide: History, Psychology, Practices. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, in press).

10. http://www.psychologyinfo.com/problems/impulse_control.html#top

11. For example, see http://www.heartwoodethics.org/2-teaching/respect.asp