True charity emanates from sound judgment of the intellect rather than a weak emotion of the mind. In its purest form, charity has the distinction of benefiting the receiver as well as the donor.
Victor Hugo in his novel ‘Les Miserables’ highlights the benefaction that charity brings to the receiver. A convict had escaped from prison and sought shelter for the night. The priest obliged, gave him supper and a bed to sleep. In the middle of the night he decamped with the silver plates of the house. The next morning the police who had caught him brought him in. The priest feigned surprise and asked the policeman: “Why did you harass him? I gifted the plates to him last night.” The policeman apologised and left. The convict was astounded. To crown it all, the priest picked up two solid silver candlestick stands from his desk and gave them to the convict with these words: Remember, life is to give, not to take. The convict took them and departed. Thence, he was transformed. Living a life of service and sacrifice. Such would be the outcome of true charity.
Likewise, the donor is blessed with the effect of charity. Charity is a synonym for prosperity. So is sacrifice for success. Swami Rama Tirtha proclaims: The way to gain anything is to lose it. The more you run after wealth, the more it recedes. You crave for it, and it eludes you. Leave it alone, and it follows you. Work earnestly, dispassionately; the reward of work shall court you.
The phenomenon of colours illustrates this law of life. Light is constituted of seven colours. When an object is bathed in light the seven colours impinge upon it. An object appears blue when it actually gives away blue and takes in the other six. It appears in the colour it parts with. An object gains the colour it gives away! You gain what you give away, what you sacrifice. Not what you take. Develop the spirit of dispassion, renunciation in life. You turn pure, divine. And when you amass wealth you turn impure, demonic. Oliver Goldsmith wrote: Where wealth accumulates, men decay.
Social service is indeed a noble trait. But these scattered units can in no way solve the problem of poverty and misery in the world. Hence the world needs not just bouts of social service but education and dissemination of social consciousness among people. That one should empathise, share and live in harmony with fellow beings. The idea of social consciousness needs to be introduced at the level of primary schools for children to grow with that concept. And gradually inculcated in families at home. With the dawn of social consciousness the mist of social service disappears. Every individual becomes a social worker.
Just imagine a country devoid of literacy barring a group of literates. The residual literates have to choose one of two options: Each of them starts teaching people individually. Or start schools for teachers’ training. And these teachers in turn produce more teachers.
The former method can provide only a limited satisfaction for educating a few pockets in the country while the latter can gradually cover the entire country and solve the problem of illiteracy.
Similarly, social workers and their social work can only create pockets of relief while the perennial problem of poverty and misery persists. The problem can be solved only through mass education and dissemination of social consciousness. Vedanta, the ancient philosophy of India, educates and inculcates this spirit of social consciousness in human beings.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The Way To Gain Anything Is To Try And Lose It!
Two important verses from Bhagavad Gita explained
The reason for all the chaos is not the outcome of doings of unintelligent or unemotional people. The real hindrance to happiness is that we have forgotten how to live content with what we have.
Contentment is like a precious pearl. Whoever procures it at the expense of 10,000 desires makes a wise and happy purchase. In the Kathopanishad Yama tells Nachiketa that both the preferable and the pleasurable approach man. The intelligent one examines both and separates them and prefers the preferable to the pleasurable, whereas the ignorant selects the pleasurable that chains him to unlimited desires.
Gautama Buddha in his four noble truths declares that there is suffering and misery in life and the direct cause of it is desire or craving. Desire works in one of two ways. Once a particular desire is born there are only two possibilities: either desire is not fulfilled or it is fulfilled.
If our kama or desire is not fulfilled, we’re angry. When anger or krodha takes over, frustration comes and then we feel frustrated. Matsarya or jealousy makes us feel terrible when, for instance, someone known to us has something that we don’t have. If our kama is fulfilled, then there is the emotion of pride or mada for having what others do not have. This pride makes us feel that we are unique and all that we have is ours. It makes us forget that all the things of the world belong to Providence. When we attain what we seek, we develop an attachment for them. This is called moha.
Moha or attachment makes us greedy and this is called lobha. In an effort to fulfil greed one often tends to take refuge in untruth and unlawfulness. People with passionate qualities are never satisfied with their position or possessions — they always seek to accumulate more and more and enjoy flaunting what they have. In this way they lose the power of thought and power of emotion which are the two important parts for the integral way of living.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna what impels a person to commit sin against his will. Krishna replies that desire and anger, born of passionate quality, are enemies that eat our atman. They obfuscate wisdom like smoke covers fire. They have their presence in the sense, mind and intelligence. By covering our wisdom they delude the soul, hence one should control them from the beginning. They are destroyers of wisdom.
The Self is greater than intelligence, which in turn is greater than mind. The mind is greater than senses which are greater than material objects. Krishna tells Arjuna that by knowing the One beyond intelligence, that is, the Self, desire is killed and so anger vanishes.
Aristotle says, “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.” Desire is unquenchable. Once desire is born, it knows not how to die. Desire, when transformed into aspiration, helps life soar into the highest liberation, and supreme salvation does not seem so out of reach, after all.
All people desire what they believe will make them happy. If a person is fully content with Self, we can only conclude that he is engaged with another, more eternal state of happiness that is called Bliss.
Contentment is like a precious pearl. Whoever procures it at the expense of 10,000 desires makes a wise and happy purchase. In the Kathopanishad Yama tells Nachiketa that both the preferable and the pleasurable approach man. The intelligent one examines both and separates them and prefers the preferable to the pleasurable, whereas the ignorant selects the pleasurable that chains him to unlimited desires.
Gautama Buddha in his four noble truths declares that there is suffering and misery in life and the direct cause of it is desire or craving. Desire works in one of two ways. Once a particular desire is born there are only two possibilities: either desire is not fulfilled or it is fulfilled.
If our kama or desire is not fulfilled, we’re angry. When anger or krodha takes over, frustration comes and then we feel frustrated. Matsarya or jealousy makes us feel terrible when, for instance, someone known to us has something that we don’t have. If our kama is fulfilled, then there is the emotion of pride or mada for having what others do not have. This pride makes us feel that we are unique and all that we have is ours. It makes us forget that all the things of the world belong to Providence. When we attain what we seek, we develop an attachment for them. This is called moha.
Moha or attachment makes us greedy and this is called lobha. In an effort to fulfil greed one often tends to take refuge in untruth and unlawfulness. People with passionate qualities are never satisfied with their position or possessions — they always seek to accumulate more and more and enjoy flaunting what they have. In this way they lose the power of thought and power of emotion which are the two important parts for the integral way of living.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Krishna what impels a person to commit sin against his will. Krishna replies that desire and anger, born of passionate quality, are enemies that eat our atman. They obfuscate wisdom like smoke covers fire. They have their presence in the sense, mind and intelligence. By covering our wisdom they delude the soul, hence one should control them from the beginning. They are destroyers of wisdom.
The Self is greater than intelligence, which in turn is greater than mind. The mind is greater than senses which are greater than material objects. Krishna tells Arjuna that by knowing the One beyond intelligence, that is, the Self, desire is killed and so anger vanishes.
Aristotle says, “I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.” Desire is unquenchable. Once desire is born, it knows not how to die. Desire, when transformed into aspiration, helps life soar into the highest liberation, and supreme salvation does not seem so out of reach, after all.
All people desire what they believe will make them happy. If a person is fully content with Self, we can only conclude that he is engaged with another, more eternal state of happiness that is called Bliss.
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