02 Nov 2019
Shri Parikshit told: Swami as told by You that Datta is in our house, fragrance of lotus flowers came to Smt. Bindiya. When she told about this to my father, my father also told that he is getting the fragrance in that time.
Swami told: It is good that you have mentioned about the miracle, which is a practical proof for the existence of unimaginable God in God Datta. Jesus said that one must give witness for the miracle of God, which helps the atheists to change.
[This question by Smt. Bndiya, is part of a Mahā Satsaṅga (grand spiritual discussion) between Swami, Shri Parikshit, Smt. Bindiya and Dr. J S. R. Prasad.]
Swami replied: Mere charity done to poor people is social service, which is not much related to God. The basis of social service is one’s love towards fellow-human beings. If you love and serve humanity, without any connection to God, God will grant you a place in heaven, because charity is a meritorious action (puṇya karma). But heaven is temporary and once the merit (puṇyam) is exhausted, you have to return to Earth (Kṣīṇe puṇye martya lokaṃ viśanti—Gita). Sage Bharata was highly spiritual. But he loved a baby-deer and his entire attention was concentrated only on that deer, instead of God. As a result of this very strong worldly bond developed by him, he was born as a deer in his next birth. Social service should always be blended with devotion. Then, it will be like scented-gold. Mother Teresa was an excellent social worker. But her social service was always blended with her devotion to God Jesus. Mahatma Gandhi did a lot of social service in getting freedom for India, but he always remembered God Rāma. In fact, the grace of Rāma was the hidden reason for his success.
People doing charity always make this one blunder, which is donating to the undeserving. Donating to the deserving alone takes you to heaven, whereas donating to the underserving, takes you to hell! We are always worried about the time and place of donation. As a result, we do not bother about the deservingness of the receiver. We always donate in a hurry to any beggar we find in a holy place like Varanasi city and on an auspicious day like Śivarātri. We do not even try to find out if the receiver is a real beggar or a greedy rich man acting as a beggar. The day you identify a deserving beggar for your donation, after due analysis, is the real Śivarātri day and that place of donation is the real Varanasi city.
Krishna donated to Sudāmā, who was the most deserving beggar and the donation given by Krishna was infinite wealth! Krishna did not donate to Sudāmā on the auspicious day of Śivarātri or in the holy city of Varanasi! Hence, one should never hastily donate to any person, without assessing the deservingness of the receiver, just because it is an auspicious time and you are in a holy place. Instead, you should save all the money until you find a deserving receiver. Over a long period of time, you can accumulate money that is meant for donation. Finally, upon finding such a receiver and after taking enough time to confirm that the receiver is really deserving, you can donate the entire accumulated amount to him. By such donation, you get full merit because your entire donation was done only to a deserving receiver. Since you never donated to an undeserving person, you do not incur any sin.
The only exception is emergency donations. In the case of an emergency, when you are required to donate, there is no need to bother about the deservingness of the receiver. If a person is about to die of starvation, you must feed him and save his life, even without analyzing his deservingness. Charitable organizations and temple trusts must start beggar homes to give food, clothing, shelter and medicines to beggars. This must be the fundamental social service that must be done even by the government. Only when no beggar is seen on the streets, can the next higher level of social service be started. The next higher level of social service is serving the poor. Beggars are poorer and more helpless than the poor and so the service must begin with them.
| Shri Dattaswami | kshenane punya martyalokam vishanti Sudama
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