I was walking on the footpath and there was a lady donating some blankets. With every blanket, she was asking someone to take her picture. One old man turned his face away saying he did not need that. She asked him, why was he not accepting. He simply said why are you giving? She looked at his face and said because..because? She did not have an answer. He shouted and said so that you can show it to others. You will post your picture everywhere. people will applaud you and what about us? They will think, we are so poor that we had to accept and beg. Yes, I am a beggar and it hurts me. At this age, my children kicked me out and I could not do any work. I tried. So I had to resort to begging. But why should I tell the whole world that I am begging? Let us manage our lives lady.
In Bhagwad Gita Krishna said that there are three types of donations. Satvik, Tamsik, rajsik. The lowest is the one, done for ego and name. Satvik is done when it is done with the purest intentions to help someone. And in that, we do it with kindness. No one is giving and no one is receiving. Even we have received everything from him. He is the one, who has been giving to everyone. Does he come and express himself? When we pluck a fruit from a tree, does the tree say, I have given you fruits? In fact, we pull down the branch further so that our hands can reach out and then we pluck. Yes, this is how we shall be giving. We should bend in gratitude to give.
Give with kindness, not with ego. Give because the other person needed it not because you wanted to satisfy your ego.
