02 Jun 2012
Whenever you want to do some donation, there are two important aspects, which should be well understood so that you can get good fruit for your good sacrifice. The first aspect is to detect the most deserving receiver and the second aspect is about the nature of your donation. What should be donated and to whom it should be donated are the two important enquiries. The Veda gives answers for these two enquiries. The Veda says that the most deserving person should be the scholar of divine knowledge, who shall not aspire anything from you (shrotriyasyachaakaama hatasya…). The concept behind this is that the scholar of the divine knowledge will have full faith in God and hence, does not aspire anything from any human being. The only ultimate donor is God and all the human beings here are His beggars only. A beggar need not aspire anything from another beggar. He can beg directly the ultimate donor from whom all the other beggars are benefited. Such a person is a real devotee and the most deserving for your donation. Kuchela did not beg and always remembered God only. Hence, Kuchela was the most deserving person for donation. Hence, Krishna donated the maximum to Kuchela. Krishna felt that the only real donation done by Him in His entire life was that only. Such a deserving person is very rare.
Today, the priests are fixing the rates of the donation in the beginning itself! Hence, they are the most undeserving for the donation. When you want to perform a ritual, the priest should come without aspiring anything from you. After all, the ritual is the worship of God only. This can be understood if you examine the meanings of the Vedic prayers recited in the ritual. The priest himself does not know the meaning of the prayers recited by him in the ritual! The priest should thank you for inviting him to the ritual because it is an opportunity created by you to participate in the worship of God. If the priests know the meanings of the Vedic prayers, the priest will have full faith in God that God will take care of all his needs. Therefore, the priest should not beg another beggar. He should accept whatever you donate. Certainly, you will donate your maximum for such deserving priest. If you donate to undeserving person, it will bring punishment to you since it is a sin. The present Hindu system should be totally transformed in the light of this truth.
Regarding the nature of the donation, it should be always money and not any other material you desire. Donation should be based on the need of the receiver and not your desire. Money is the source of all materials. Hence, money will serve all the present and future needs of the priest and you will get the good fruit since you are helping the priest in providing the needs. You have given food to a deserving priest. You have purchased some clothes or some other material by spending say hundred rupees and you are donating the clothes to the priest after his meals. The priest may be having sufficient number of clothes in his house. Tomorrow, he may be in need of some food or some medicine etc. Now, he sells the clothes donated by you for half rate to a local businessman. Your donation to the priest is only fifty rupees and not hundred rupees. You are getting half of the good fruit only though your donation is full. Therefore, it is better to donate hundred rupees to the priest instead of the clothes. Hence, the Veda says that the nature of the donation should be money (dhanena tyagenaikena…). Shirdi Saibaba used to collect money only and used to donate that money to the devotees.
The Guru Dakshina means the donation in the form of money to be offered to your divine preacher. In every sacrifice (yajna), dakshina is the essence. Dakshina means the donation in the form of money. When Koutsa pressed his preacher for [accepting] the donation, his preacher, the sage called Varatantu, asked dakshina in the form of money only as fourteen crores for the fourteen subjects preached by him. If the receiver is a scholar, he will not misuse the money given by you. The ignorant person may misuse the money for some bad habits and hence, in such case, it is better to donate useful material to him. If you give money to a beggar, he may misuse it for some bad habits. Donate food to him and force him to eat it in your presence. The reason is that, even the food is sold. While donating the food to a hungry person, do not apply the above logic that he is aspiring [money] from you. It is an exceptional context since you are saving the life of a hungry person and it is the situation of emergency.
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