परिग्रह

Parigraha is the act of grasping and holding on to things, together with the feeling that they are “mine”. In the Gita the word appears where the text describes a person who works without being bound.

Verse 4.21 describes the practitioner who is free from craving, has the mind and self under control, and has given up all parigraha. Doing only the action the body needs, such a person incurs no fault. Verse 18.53 lists parigraha among the things to be set aside, along with ego, force, pride, desire and anger, and then calls the person nirmama, “without the sense of mine”, and peaceful. The word nirmama names the opposite of parigraha.

Common misreading: assuming the verses simply condemn owning things, or demand a life of having nothing.

Better sense: what is let go is the clutching and the identification with possessions. A person can use many things without being held by them, and another can own little and still cling.

To read further, see the topic Karma and Akarma.