20 Dec 2020
[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on November 28, 2020, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]
[Śrī Surya asked: What exactly is karma phala tyāga? To whom and to what extent should it be done? Also explain about the complete sacrifice of all the fruit of one’s work as mentioned in the Gītā (Sarva-karma-phala-tyāgam, tataḥ kuru yatātmavān; sarva-karma-phala-tyāgaṃ, prāhus tyāgaṃ vicakṣaṇāḥ). In the list of recipients to whom one can donate, can we also include bhūta yajña, which is the sacrifice or donation of food to animals, after the donation of food to beggars?]
Swāmi replied: The deserving receivers can be classified into two types: (1) Sadguru, Guru and poor devotees and (2) beggars and poor people.
Sadguru establishes the concepts which is like laying the railway track, whereas the Guru follows the same track like a train. The Guru can elaborate upon the same concepts originally given by the Sadguru with more examples, but he shall not deviate from the concepts established by the Sadguru. In this first type of deserving receivers, you shall donate money and not materials. The reason is that the receivers of this first type have spiritual knowledge and so, they will not waste your donated money on vices. If you give them some materials, those materials might already be existing with them in plenty and they might require some other items, which need to be purchased by paying money. If the materials given by you are already there with them, they will have to sell your materials for a reduced rate and purchase the materials actually required by them. In such a transaction, they will undergo a loss. The loss they incur will be gained by the businessman who purchased the materials from them. In that case, the amount that you actually donated to the deserving receiver gets reduced. Only a part of your donation goes to the deserving receiver. The rest goes to the businessman purchasing the materials for the reduced rate. That businessman is undeserving and so, you will also incur the sin of donating to an undeserving receiver.
In the second type of receivers, which is ordinary beggars and poor people, spiritual knowledge is almost absent. They are generally turned towards vices. If you give them essential materials like food, clothing, medicines etc., they will use them directly. If you give them money as a donation, these people infected by vices will misuse the money, due to which, you will incur sin for your donation. In this second category, even hungry animals and birds are included. Feeding hungry birds and animals is called bhūta yajña. Pacifying hunger is the most important aim in donating to this type of receivers. Even atheists come under this category. Since saving their lives and preventing them from dying of hunger is the main aim, we cannot look into the deservingness or non-deservingness of the receivers. Even the life of an atheist must be saved. Only then can you even try to convert him into a theist.
Regarding the extent of sacrifice, two factors play a role namely, the donor’s capacity (yathāśakti) and the donor’s devotion (yathā bhakti). If you, the donor, are impressed by the merits of the receiver and want to give him Rs. 100, but your capacity is only Rs. 10, you should only donate Rs. 10 since it is the lesser of the two. If you are not very impressed by the merits of the receiver and want to donate only Rs. 10, even though your capacity is Rs. 100, you should donate only Rs. 10. Your practical donation should thus, be as per your capacity and devotion (śakti and bhakti), whichever is lower.
Sarva-karma-phala-tyāga means sacrificing everything possessed by you, without even caring for yourself. This is the extreme case and such people are countable on the fingers. Śaktuprastha donated all his food to the guest, who was God-in-disguise, even though Śaktuprastha and his family were starving for several days. This is sarva-karma-phala-tyāga. The Gītā also mentions that you should take care of yourself (Śarīrayātrā'pi ca te…), which is said with reference to a common man. If you take the case of Sudāma, his sacrifice even exceeded sarva-karma-phala-tyāga, in which the devotee sacrifices everything possessed by the devotee. Sudāma went a step further by borrowing a few handfuls of flattened rice to sacrifice it to God Kṛṣṇa, since he had nothing left in his house! This means that his sacrifice was even beyond the limits of sarva-karma-phala-tyāga. This is the reason why God Kṛṣṇa was ready to sacrifice all His wealth to Sudāma and become poor like Sudāma! These exceptional cases can be kept as goals, so that we can at least sacrifice to a certain extent.
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