Charity Without Selflessness Is Useless

Charity Without Selflessness Is Useless

Human requirements are many .
Wanting much more than what you require is called greed. Further, greed begets greed. If all this has to be satisfied, even unlimited time will be inadequate. Given that we have limited time and resources the biggest challenge is, how we lay our focus on what life is after all meant for. Is salvation to be attained only through satiety?

Ramakrishna suggested the path of nibritti. This does not mean denial of every little harmless desire. He rather reinforces Buddha's middle path. Desires such as consuming a special type of sweet may immediately be satisfied and then the individual may resume his search for the ultimate. If the desire remains in the mind for long it will obviously distract the mind. At the same time unending desires cannot be satisfied in full. Moreover there are desires which take us away from the main path of seeking, for a considerably long period of time. So rationality is important. In Ramakrishna's counsel it is called vichar.

Navigating Choices : Knowledge helps us do the vichar: what is intoxicating and what is not, what is distracting and what is not. Similarly , with regard to certain desires one may rationalise by asking oneself, what is that which will receive satisfaction, what is that which I am presuming will give me satisfaction. When it comes to bodily pleasure one may look at it clinically: `a bunch of bones, flesh and blood and that is what I am looking for'! People talk about money . But how far can it take us? We need food, clothing, shelter for our survival. But once that is done why can't we think of distributing the surplus among those who have practically nothing?

The mind always says to itself, “Let me acquire this and then I will turn to what life is meant for.“ But that stage never comes.

If butter has been extracted from the milk and it is placed in water, there is no fear of having it mixed up. But if milk is directly added to water there will remain no distinction between the two, and it may get impossible to separate the milk from the water.

What You Attain : The spiritual attainment is of so much importance that without it selfless action is not possible. One may remain engrossed in charitable activities but ultimately the desire for fame can be seen as the driving force. And if that is the case, the action is certainly not selfless. Spiritual attainment helps one free his mind from the desire for fame and then what he pursues is divine and beneficial for the world.

Karma that does not have the backing of knowledge and bhakti can be beneficial neither for the doer nor for whom it is done. Even parental duties, which are said to be pure in relative sense in the realm of worldly affairs, at times involve gross expectations and thus, end up in outcomes that hurt both the parties.

Aim For Purity: After attainment what one does or says becomes absolutely pure because it is selfless in the absolute sense. The doors and windows of a chamber are kept wide open for the fresh air and light to enter. How can then remain an iota of darkness or delusion? What one pursues then becomes beneficial for all.

Om Namah Shivay