Niyama 3 - Dana, Giving

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam;

From http://veda.wikidot.com/yama-niyama

NIYAMA 3 — Dana, Giving

"Be generous to a fault, giving liberally without thought of reward. Tithe, offering one-tenth of your gross income (dashamamsha), as God's money, to temples, ashrams and spiritual organizations. Approach the temple with offerings. Visit guru with gifts in hand. Donate religious literature. Feed and give to those in need. Bestow your time and talents without seeking praise. Treat guests as God."

I love this one. But once again, one must decide on priorities such as family dharma comes first. The irony is thus: it is so rewarding to to give without thought of reward. Of course the first 'rewarding' is an inner humble confidence and gratitude that you were in a position to give. The second 'reward' is the selfish, "What's in it for me?" I love Hundi boxes for their anonymity. You can sneak in a donation without anyone noticing. Its a beautiful niyama and it keeps the religion and society running. Some people struggle with 'Why give to an organisation?" without realising that the organisation wouldn't even be there if it weren't for someone giving. Same thing with taxes. I'm so happy to pay my taxes. I get to drive on decent roads and have clean water and police protection because of it.

Thoughts, anyone.

Aum Namasivaya

[Ramakrishna]

Namaste,

I love this one as well. For years, I would watch as my father donated to various charities. He would get letters in the mail from charities asking for donations, and he would donate to about a dozen different charities. Once I reached the legal age to make my own donations to charities, I followed suit. After the earthquake in Haiti, I made frequent food donations. Even though I was only donating a few cans of chick peas at a time, I still felt like I was making a real difference and it was still better than doing nothing. I am still in the brahmacharya ashrama and I have a limited amount of money, but once I enter the grihastha ashrama and start accumulating more money, I will be sure never to forget about this niyama.

You make a good point about giving without the thought of reward. Lord Krishna also talks about this in the Bhagavad Gita. When I first started giving to the needy, I would think of how I'm pleasing God and improving my own karma. I assume this is natural, but I no longer have those thoughts at all. It is such a great feeling to help others just because it is the right thing to do, and not thinking of any rewards. After all, it is my dharma.

Jai Sri Krishna

[atanu]

I like the following post, which fits here.

http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...light=dakshina

Om Namah Shivaya

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: We need more of this. Just think what the top 1000 people on the planet could do in terms of something like food distribution.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_...a/10499124.stm

One percent of a billion is 10 million. Not bad either.

Aum Namasivaya

[Ramakrishna]

Originally Posted by Eastern Mind

Vannakkam: We need more of this. Just think what the top 1000 people on the planet could do in terms of something like food distribution.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_...a/10499124.stm

One percent of a billion is 10 million. Not bad either.

Aum Namasivaya

Namaste Eastern Mindji,

That's a good point. One of the biggest problems I have is that there are so many athletes from different sports that make many millions of dollars, but they don't give any of it away. Now, there are some athletes who are pretty noteworthy for being charitable. But there are also just as many athletes who have gone bankrupt and completely wasted millions of dollars!

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/05/sp...a-fortune.html

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/33479632/ns/sports-nba/

They get paid hundreds of millions of dollars to shoot a basketball or hit a baseball, and then they throw it all away. What a shame.

Jai Sri Krishna

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Ramakrishna:

I think athletes as a group might be as diverse as the other rich groups such as entertainers, oilmen, bankers, lawyers, etc. The difference for them and for entertainers is that they are in the public eye. So we hear about the wanton waste. If you drive in spots in New England like Cape Cod, there are rows upon rows of òld money`houses that date back to the days of slavery. They can all remain anonymous, unlike poor athletes.

So I`m not sure if it is fair to single out athletes. i know of lots of examples of huge donations. Wayne Gretzky, Tim Duncan, Akeem Olijuwon all come to mind.

Aum Namasivaya

[Ramakrishna]

Originally Posted by Eastern Mind

Vannakkam Ramakrishna:

I think athletes as a group might be as diverse as the other rich groups such as entertainers, oilmen, bankers, lawyers, etc. The difference for them and for entertainers is that they are in the public eye. So we hear about the wanton waste. If you drive in spots in New England like Cape Cod, there are rows upon rows of òld money`houses that date back to the days of slavery. They can all remain anonymous, unlike poor athletes.

So I`m not sure if it is fair to single out athletes. i know of lots of examples of huge donations. Wayne Gretzky, Tim Duncan, Akeem Olijuwon all come to mind.

Aum Namasivaya

Namaste Eastern Mindji,

Point taken. There is a good amount of athletes who have made great charitable donations. I think certain sports leagues also require the players to spend time doing charity, like how the NBA has NBA Cares and MLB teams up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. I'm not sure if it's required, though. It wouldn't be a bad idea for the leagues to require the players to donate a certain percent of their salary to charity, either. Just five percent of each player's salary would be a huge amount.

Have you ever heard of www.freerice.com ? It's a tremendous resource. I try to spend a certain amount of time there each week.

Jai Sri Krishna

[Eastern Mind]

Originally Posted by Ramakrishna

Namaste Eastern Mindji,

Point taken. There is a good amount of athletes who have made great charitable donations. I think certain sports leagues also require the players to spend time doing charity, like how the NBA has NBA Cares and MLB teams up with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. I'm not sure if it's required, though. It wouldn't be a bad idea for the leagues to require the players to donate a certain percent of their salary to charity, either. Just five percent of each player's salary would be a huge amount.

Have you ever heard of www.freerice.com ? It's a tremendous resource. I try to spend a certain amount of time there each week.

Jai Sri Krishna

Vannakam Ramakrishna: The link didn't work.

Aum

[Ramakrishna]

Originally Posted by Eastern Mind

Vannakam Ramakrishna: The link didn't work.

Aum

Sorry about that. Here it is: http://freerice.com/

Jai Sri Krishna

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~

namasté


The Gates Foundation has an endowment of $35.5 billion it uses World wide for healthcare and other philanthropic activities. Warren Buffet ( net worth of $47 billion) has pledged to give away 99% of his holdings for philanthropic efforts .

This is in line with the recommendation found in the mahābhārata that the wealthy use their financial strength for 'gifting' and generosity.

The wealthy people I have known in my life have always been willing to give without arm-twisting. I think it's natual to share, yet this is obviously not a common behavior for all.

praṇām