This anomaly in our worldly situation, is due to our reliance on assets. All assets, in the long run, turn out to be liabilities. We are bound by the very grasp and hold we have on them. Dependence is mutual. We rely on them so much that they demand from us the highest sacrifice.

But is there a freedom that is free from assets? The Buddha says: "YES". He described Nibbana as the ‘Assetless’ (Nirupadhi). It is the supramundane freedom from all assets. The five Groups of Grasping - form, feeling, perception, preparations and consciousness are looked upon as assets by the worldling. He relies on them for his self - identity. Sansaric existence is an endless process of amassing these assets. The tragedy however, is that one can have no mastery over them. In fact, an abject slavery is prided on by the world as a petty mastery.

This petty mastery carries with it, its share of responsibilities. One is morally responsible for the actions issuing out of one’s three doors of action - body, speech and mind. The karmic entanglement involved in it goes a long way, breeding birth, decay, disease, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, despair and all the rest of suffering implied by the Noble Truth of Suffering.

The way to freedom from this manifold suffering lies through the understanding that there is only a conceit of mastery over the five groups = the ‘assets’. This understanding gives rise to disenchantment and dispassion leading to the relinquishment of all assets. That way one resigns this petty mastery and wins to the Highest Freedom that is ‘Assetless’.