HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE AWAY?

Your car does not start. You look around and find a man pushing a hand cart or a paddle rikshawala. You ask for help. He pushes your car and you move on.

Have you ever stopped your car to help a hand cartwala to help him if he is not able to negotiate a steep incline?

Most of us who easily get two meals a day and a roof over them do not start giving away till they start living in abundance. No doubt, we do give even when we live in shortages but that we do to please God so that His help is available in overcoming our shortages. Is it not selfish? In fact, when we start giving away in charity after ensuring a much secured living for ourselves we do not become selfless overnight. There exists a desire; even then, that in return God’s kindness shall be available to us.

When God granted us a body with intelligence and mind he made us fully capable of giving away. I am sure that human race survives due to charitable contributions by those who have nothing to give in charity except what was granted to them by the God, that is, their bodies with an intelligence that asks them to give away. All living beings have that intelligence, including the most ‘inferior’ ones viz. plants and tree. The contribution of those who are wealthy is negligible.

It is because of our insatiable desire that we do not qualify as ‘natural’ givers. One important way that we can adopt in making advancement in our spiritual journey is, giving away our physical labour for the benefit of others. Depending on our abilities and circumstances, at least some of our physical efforts must be deployed for selfless service. By doing so, we get immediate reward by becoming more humble. Humility is what most of us are very short of. Giving away of material objects is likely to make us arrogant but giving away of physical labour invariably makes us humble.

Another valuable contribution is giving away of true knowledge. But how many of us possess true knowledge? Moreover true knowledge cannot be achieved without qualifying as ‘natural giver’.