13 Dec 2010
Earning the wealth is a great act. Saving the earned wealth by controlling unnecessary expenditure is greater act. Proper utilization of the saved wealth is greatest act. You can get the grace of God through proper utilization of the saved wealth in His name. When you spend your money in the name of God, God is pleased. But, you should spend it properly with sharp analysis. If the wealth is wasted or spent for undeserving persons, God becomes furious. Therefore, expenditure or donation of money can bring the grace or anger of God and it is like a double edged knife. Therefore, controlling the expenditure in unnecessary ways and also resisting the expenditure on undeserving persons results in pacifying the anger of God. The unnecessary expenditure and expenditure on undeserving persons result in sin and you will be punished in the hell. Therefore, your expenditure should be based on sharp analysis since your expenditure may result in the pleasure of God as well as in the anger of God. The Veda says the same (Samvidaa deyam), which means that you should donate after analyzing through proper knowledge. You think that wasting money yields neither sin nor good fruit and the result is only zero. This is totally wrong. Your expenditure will never yield zero and it either yields good fruit or sin. Hence, you should be very careful in the expenditure or donation. A farmer gave milk to a serpent, which is shivering in snow. After gaining sufficient heat from the nearby fire created by the farmer and after gaining sufficient energy through the milk, the serpent bit the farmer and went away. The serpent killed some more people outside also due to the gained energy. For that act, the farmer was punished in the hell also. The farmer was not only punished on the earth, but was also punished in the upper world after death. Such is the severe result of donation to undeserving people.
The human race is the blessed category of the creation since the human being alone has the faculty of devotion to God. You must save the life of every human being if it is in need. Even if the human being is an atheist, you must save the life since the atheist has a chance of becoming a devotee in future. Therefore, donation of food is said to be greatest since it is the basis of life. But, you should donate it to the deserving people only. 'Deserving' means any human being suffering for food. The human being must work and earn the food without begging as far as possible. Otherwise, people become lazy without doing work. Hence, while donating the food to a person capable of doing work, you should analyze the background carefully. Generally, poor children, poor old persons, poor disabled and poor patients can be accepted as deserving receivers of your donated food. A rich person should be always avoided as far as possible leaving rare emergent occasions. Do not have any analysis in the occasions of emergency demanding immediate service. Such donation is called as 'Apat-dharma'.
Real Interpretation of Yajna
You either waste most of your wealth or donate it to the undeserving people. You are under the illusion that you are pleasing God. You do not know that God is becoming more and more furious with you. You waste ghee and other materials by burning them in fire during rituals. The word 'fire' is misunderstood as the physical fire created by burning the wood. Such physical fire is only called as 'Yajnasadhanam', which means that it is the instrumental item used in the sacrifice since it is used in cooking the food. The hunger of a deserving person is the divine fire called as 'Vaishwanara agni', which is to be worshipped by supplying the food associated with ghee (Aham vaishwanaro bhutvaa... Gita). The hunger of a deserving person is the deity-fire, which is divine since it should be worshipped by surrendering food to eat. Feeding a hungry deserving person is the worship of fire-deity. The fire is in three forms:
While cooking the food, the first and second forms must be used and while worshipping, the third form should be selected. You should select the form of fire as per the context and then only you are the scholar of the Veda. The Veda means knowledge. You should do every step of the ritual with analytical knowledge (Jnaatvaa kurvita... Gita). Sage Yaska says that if you do the ritual without the knowledge, you will not get the fruit and it will be like cooking the food without fire (Anagnauviva...). The fire given in the simile by Yaska itself is misunderstood! The first hymn of the first Veda says that the fire is the deserving priest and not the physical fire (Agnimele purohitam). Kapila in the Bhagavatam says that fools only burn ghee and food in the fire. The word ghee indicates the best food prepared with ghee and not mere ghee. You have to understand this meaning through the concept of 'lakshana'. When you call the seller of apples by calling "Oh apples! Come", by 'lakshana', you mean the possessor of apples to come along with the apples and not mere apples. Similarly, the word 'ghee' means the food associated with the ghee. Both the words 'agni' and 'ghee' are totally misunderstood by the foolish ignorant priests, who burn the ghee in physical fire. They mislead the devotees by saying that the angels eat the food through the fire (Agnimukhaah... Veda). Here, the Vedic statement means that the angels eat the food through the hungry deserving priests. The Veda says that all the angels reside in the body of the priest, who is the scholar of the correct Vedic knowledge (Yaavatirvai...). The priests exploit the weakness of the devotees, which is the desire to fulfill their ambitions through rituals. The ignorant priest does all this foolish act to earn some money from the devotees. The devotee, instead of getting the good fruit, is punished in the hell for burning the ghee and other materials in the physical fire. The priest is also severely punished in the hell and since he is the initiator of this sin, he is punished with poverty also in this life itself. The essence of all the Vedic rituals is only to save the life of humanity suffering with hunger. The entire aim is misinterpreted and is mislead leading the devotees to hell. Lord Krishna asked the wives of sages to give food to His friends suffering with hunger even before the ritual, thereby establishing the actual aim of the ritual, which is only to feed the hungry people.
You donate money to the temple after getting some benefit from God through a business-contract. The devotee says that if he gets 1 lakh rupees, he will donate 10 percent to God. Such business-contract is the worst way of love to God. You give your wealth to your children without such business-contract. God does not have even the value of your children! However, when you donate something to the temple, they give the food to all the devotees as the remains of offering to God (Prasadam). Even the rich devotees, who are not in need of food, also are forced to eat it due to fear. Therefore, your donation is not properly utilized. Let the capable rich devotees make their own arrangements for their food. The management of the temple should give food to beggars and poor deserving persons only. If there is extra money, let it be used in serving the poor people and beggars in other ways. It is also good to spend the money in propagation of devotion through several programs. Thus, there is no proper utilization of your donation. The government grabs some of the funds of the temple for social service. Everybody knows the misuse of funds in every social work. Let the government spend the taxes and other revenues only in such social works. The temple funds must be spent by the wise management of temple only in proper ways mentioned as above.
Who is the really deserving person? The Veda says that the person, not expecting anything from anybody, is the most deserving receiver of your donation (Akaamahatasya). The deserving person must have full faith in God and should believe that God will give him all the required needs of the life. He should work and earn and if something is needed beyond the scope of the work, God is going to help him in the correct moment. He need not beg other human beings, who are beggars themselves, praying God to fulfill their desires. A beggar should not beg another beggar and should instead go to the house, which donated food to the other beggar. Similarly, you should approach God and not the other human beings for your needs, which are not covered by your work. In fact, a true devotee should not beg even God because God is omniscient and will act at the right time. Therefore, if one expects something from you, he is not a deserving person since his faith in God is not complete. If you take the example of Kuchela (Sudama), he never begged any person and did not beg even God. He was forced by his wife to beg Lord Krishna. He went to Lord Krishna but did not ask anything since he knows that Lord is omniscient. He stayed in the house of Krishna for a few days and returned back to his home. Krishna did not give a single rupee even though He observed the extreme condition of poverty of Kuchela. If you are in the place of Kuchela, you will certainly scold Krishna at least in your mind during your return journey. Kuchela did not entertain even a trace of such idea in his mind at anytime. The omniscient Lord Krishna was constantly observing the mind of Kuchela during his return journey. The Lord was extremely pleased since no such idea could enter the mind of Kuchela. Therefore, the Lord gave immense wealth to Kuchela. The only donation done by Krishna in His entire life was this only. The Lord waited for such a deserving person. You compare yourself with Krishna. You do donations in a hasty way without patience to catch a deserving receiver. You go to Varanasi on the day of Maha Shivaratri and you are in hurry to return by next day. You think that your donation in a particular place at a particular time only becomes fruitful. You are captured by such false illusion and donate to an undeserving person in that place on that day. The place (desha) and the time (kaala) can never influence your donation. Only the deservingness of the receiver decides the fruit of your donation. Krishna did not donate wealth to Kuchela at Varanasi on Maha Shivaratri. When the most deserving Kuchela was found, that place is Varanasi and that day is Maha Shivaratri. Krishna spent almost the entire life to search for a deserving receiver. You do not have patience to search a deserving receiver for your petty donation. Instead of purchasing sin by your petty donations on such foolish occasions, you better accumulate all those petty donations and donate the entire accumulated wealth when you find a real deserving receiver. You will get very high fruit for such accumulated donation. Instead of this, you purchase the sin in bits only through your petty donations on such foolish occasions in specified places. The deservingness of receiver (paatra) alone decides the result of your donation and there is no trace of influence of place (desha) and time (kaala) on the result. You must not do donation with emotion. Several beggars exploit you by kindling your emotion through false appearance by creating sympathy in your heart. You can find a beggar limping during the process of donation in the railway compartment. As soon as he gets down from that compartment, he walks straight and faster than you! He gets into the next compartment and again starts limping! Therefore, you should have patience and analysis to study the deservingness of a receiver and you should not be fooled at any cost.
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