GIVING IS GETTING

GIVING IS GETTING

To be loving is the only way to be lovable – only a tender heart can understand the joy of giving. There’s a world’s difference between a demander and a giver – a selfish man is ever a demander and therefore ever a beggar, whereas a kind and loving heart alone experiences the blessedness of giving – for he understands that giving is getting – and that whatever is not given also becomes unworthy of keeping – by “saving” it, one loses it – the vital human touch. A no-giver is always a beggar at heart – the richest man of the world might be a very poor person at heart if he lacks the inner riches.

God’s Grace Falls on Us All

An enlightened person never distinguishes between pain and pleasure. For him, every phase of life is a part of the Divine Plan. A truly religious person is a firm believer in God’s grace. The Sun is abroad and everywhere – we cannot create the Sun – we can only enable someone to open the doors and windows of his room that he may be able to bask. Similarly, God’s grace is flowing and permeating in all objects, all creatures – we have only to open the doors of our heart and the windows of our mind and experience the joy and blessedness of God’s grace. Who is the giver and who is the taker? It is His wealth, His riches that come to us and we can only feel fortunate that we are in a position to help someone.

Without His grace man is graceless – all of our worthiness flows from His grace – His is the world – His is the creation – we are only instruments of His will – Ego taints our approach towards life. Ego is the ugly veil that hides the glory of God from us  – “Egofulness” is a reflection of our imperfect knowledge while egolessness is the fruit of our perfect wisdom.

We are Not Eternal Beggars at His Door

 The only way to overcome our imperfections is by making our will perfect  in His will. As Sri Aurobindo says, “Let thyself drive in the breath of God and be as a leaf in the tempest.” The supreme wisdom lies in the attitude of “surrender” As Lord Krishna says to Arjuna in Bhavad-gita “Sarva Dharmani Prityajaya Mamekam Sharnam Vrajeh” [Leave all pursuits and come to my care]. But we must distinguish between ‘blind surrender’ and ‘intelligent surrender’ – one backed by our simple innocent faith and the other arising out of our full awareness and consciousness.

Just as asceticism is of two kinds – one of a cowardly or ignorant escapism from the demands and drudgery of life and the other arising out of enlightened awareness of the relative immateriality of the material things, the evanescence of the physical – the supreme example of which are – Buddha and Mahavira. Is not the Bhikshu attitude the only sane attitude in life? Whatever power or authority we may arrogate to ourselves, are we not eternal beggars at His door? And, in a more sublime sense isn’t the celebration of this beggary one of the joyest ways to live? Can any human being give even one extra breath to anybody or even to himself?

Any moment can signal our exit. But for an enlightened bhikshu every moment is sacred as it is sanctified by the touch of His will – A simple man’s faith like Dhanna Bhagat’s is total but it is total in its simplicity and ‘ignorant-knowledge’, whereas the faith of Janak, Ved Vyasa, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Sarda Devi, Rumi and Khalil Gibran, Swami Vivekananda. Swami Ram Tirath and Raman Maharshi, is the faith of the fully illumined self.

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