Tuesday, June 13, 2006
The Art of Giving
Today let me write about ‘art of giving’.
I don’t know how many of you are aware that the statue of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala temple of Tirupati has one of his palms extended as if asking to give; in variance to all other statues of Lord Vishnu whereas the palm is extended up as to give his blessings. And you see there is a tradition among the pilgrims of giving to the Hundi at Venkateswara temple. It is a must to give something in the Hundi. The Hundi collection at Tirumala is the highest collection in any temple I am aware of. Recently I read that Amitabh Bacchan is giving some diamond palm or something costing a few crores.
Well I am not commenting on the merits or demerits of this tradition. I am talking about art of giving.
We do give something all the time in our life, at least most of us. We give to our near and dear, we give to the needy, we give to the beggar, we give to the neighborhood bullies. We give, sometime willingly, sometime grudgingly.
Then what is there to talk about it? Yes I feel there is lot to talk about it. The tradition of giving actually made this nation a nation of beggars. Actually I have formed a belief that by our habit of giving, we have made this nation spineless. But I will talk about that on some other occasion.
But giving is a trait, which gives lots of satisfaction. We need to give to the deserving people. We should be very careful in giving. By giving to beggar we only make him/her beg. But if we can rehabilitate him/her somehow that will be the real giving (Easier said than done. For the uninitiated – one of the toughest job I handle as part of my social service activities is to rehabilitate street children) Our giving should make someone stand on his/her own rather than make him/her dependant.
And giving does not limited to materials only. You can give your time – spend a few hours in a month with the inmates of old age home; I can assure that the satisfaction you will get can not be compared with anything you achieved. Spend a few hours in an orphanage – you will find a new awakening in your life. Spend a few hours with the AIDS affected children (the children who lost their parents of AIDS and maybe themselves infected and awaiting to die). Spend a few hours with an AIDS infected young widow who lost everything for none of her fault.
You can give your voice. By talking about giving, you can motivate others to give judiciously. Whenever you do something courageous, you spread the message, which will motivate others. Whenever you find some issues disturb you, raise your voice, which will mobilize others who think in similar line.
Every one of us can give something to someone, and by judicial giving we will not loose anything but will gain immensely.
That’s why I am talking it ‘the art of giving’.
I don’t know how many of you are aware that the statue of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala temple of Tirupati has one of his palms extended as if asking to give; in variance to all other statues of Lord Vishnu whereas the palm is extended up as to give his blessings. And you see there is a tradition among the pilgrims of giving to the Hundi at Venkateswara temple. It is a must to give something in the Hundi. The Hundi collection at Tirumala is the highest collection in any temple I am aware of. Recently I read that Amitabh Bacchan is giving some diamond palm or something costing a few crores.
Well I am not commenting on the merits or demerits of this tradition. I am talking about art of giving.
We do give something all the time in our life, at least most of us. We give to our near and dear, we give to the needy, we give to the beggar, we give to the neighborhood bullies. We give, sometime willingly, sometime grudgingly.
Then what is there to talk about it? Yes I feel there is lot to talk about it. The tradition of giving actually made this nation a nation of beggars. Actually I have formed a belief that by our habit of giving, we have made this nation spineless. But I will talk about that on some other occasion.
But giving is a trait, which gives lots of satisfaction. We need to give to the deserving people. We should be very careful in giving. By giving to beggar we only make him/her beg. But if we can rehabilitate him/her somehow that will be the real giving (Easier said than done. For the uninitiated – one of the toughest job I handle as part of my social service activities is to rehabilitate street children) Our giving should make someone stand on his/her own rather than make him/her dependant.
And giving does not limited to materials only. You can give your time – spend a few hours in a month with the inmates of old age home; I can assure that the satisfaction you will get can not be compared with anything you achieved. Spend a few hours in an orphanage – you will find a new awakening in your life. Spend a few hours with the AIDS affected children (the children who lost their parents of AIDS and maybe themselves infected and awaiting to die). Spend a few hours with an AIDS infected young widow who lost everything for none of her fault.
You can give your voice. By talking about giving, you can motivate others to give judiciously. Whenever you do something courageous, you spread the message, which will motivate others. Whenever you find some issues disturb you, raise your voice, which will mobilize others who think in similar line.
Every one of us can give something to someone, and by judicial giving we will not loose anything but will gain immensely.
That’s why I am talking it ‘the art of giving’.
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