[t'vengadam] The Art of Giving

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--- sadagopaniyengar <sadagopaniyengar wrote:

>

> The Art of Giving

> "BhiyA dEyam"

 

If the act of charity is not done in the

> prescribed fashion, and is contaminated by either insincerity,

> pride or highhandedness, then it is likely to prove

> counter-productive. A healthy apprehension of counter-productivity

> due to incorrect attitude or procedure, should characterize an act

> of charity, so that the giver would always be on guard against

> attitudes incompatible with giving. Hence the Upanishad says, "Give

> with fear".

 

 

Dear friends,

 

This is a clear example of the great wisdom of the Upanishad. I

recall a little fable the late U.Ve.Mukkur Lakshminarasimhachariar

used to narrate to underscore the 'taittiriyam' exhortation of "BhiyA

dEyam". I recount it below to the best of my memory:

 

Once there lived a rich man who charity earned him fame far and wide.

People flocked daily to his house to receive his benefaction.

 

One day seeing a beggar at his doorstep, the rich man resolved to

donate him a handsome gift. He went to his personal stable, picked

the largest and most magnificent animal in it -- a great elephant! --

and gifted the big tusker away to the beggar. The onlookers who

watched felt nothing but scorn and ridicule for the rich man's whim

but, since they were themselves expecting to benefit from his

generosity, they roundly applauded the rich man's munificence with

effusive "ooh-s" and "a-haa-s".

 

The rich man began to gloat and bask but the beggar himself, poor

man, was reduced to a trembling wreck at the very sight of the

gargantuan gift... "Here I'm scrounging around to feed myself! How

shall I feed another mouth? And an elephant's mouth, to boot? It's

not generosity this rich man is offering; it is insult heaped on a

beggar with everyone around watching!".

 

The elephant wasn't too pleased either. "This rich man is giving me

away to a beggar who is himself unsure where his next meal will come

from", the pachyderm thought to itself, "All these years I have been

fed well at the rich man's house. Now I'm being thrown to the beggars

and shall starve to death like them... and for no fault of mine".

 

All that charity thus earned for the rich man was nothing but

ill-will from both the recipient and the object of charity, not to

mention the secret ridicule of everyone witnessing.

 

The moral of the story therefore:

 

(a) Charity must behove both the giver and the receiver.

 

(b) Give wisely, even if not too well.

 

******* ******* ********

 

Mukkur Swamy used to explain the Upanishad 'vAkya' of "bhIyA dEyam"

with great 'svArasyam' which adiyane can hardly reproduce here with

the same telling effect!

 

Regards,

dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

 

 

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