Life Of Dignity – In Gita Verse 17.22 And charity performed at an impure place, at an improper time, to unworthy persons, or without proper attention and respect is said to be in the mode of ignorance.
Krishna says many people do charity for the sake of name or inner guilt and think if they have given some of their things now they are pious. But that’s not a good deed. Don’t think of it as charity but share your things with others without expecting anything and why, when the bliss of making others happy is quite satiating enough, do charity with heart, not by force or as some obligation.
So long as the man is living an unconscious life, he cannot do any virtuous act, he cannot do any charity.
Bertrand Russell has made a very important statement: “If there is no poverty, there will be no religion. Whom are you going to serve?”
But the religion and charitable trust don’t want people to live a life of dignity. If people will live a life of dignity then whom they will give to charity and to whom they will serve. If you can give dignity to someone, that is real charity.
If there is no death, all churches, all religions will become absolutely useless, invalid, out of date. They are surviving because of poverty, because of death, because of disease, because of orphans. That’s why they are all against birth control – because birth control can destroy all poverty, and all the orphans can be stopped from coming into the world. What will happen to poor Mother Teresa? Who will give her a Nobel Prize?
Orphans are absolutely needed, otherwise Mother Teresas will disappear. Poverty is needed, that’s why they go on continuously being against all birth control methods. It has nothing to do with God – they need the poor people, because their religion teaches them that if you serve the poor, if you open hospitals for the poor, if you open schools for the poor, you are earning a great bank balance in paradise.
This is not unselfishness. Who says it is unselfish? It is more selfish than anything else
you can find in the world – a motivation to exploit poor people, people who have fallen into the well, people who are dying, people who are sick, people who are orphans. You are taking great advantage.
All religions say that you will have great pleasures in heaven; beautiful women will be
available to all the saints who have done virtuous acts. Strange … Here you talk about celibacy, and in all the paradises of all the religions, celibacy is no longer applicable. Do you see the contradiction?
All religions are exploiting your tremendous greed, in the name of virtue, in the name of
unselfishness.
As a fundamental principle, I want you to remember that an unconscious man cannot act without motivation, and motivation is selfishness, whatever you do.
I want you to understand that except meditation there is no act which is unselfish, because it is only meditation which is going to dissolve yourself, which is going to dissolve you into the whole. And once you are no more, whatever you do is going to be without motivation. Virtue comes out of a person who has become one with existence.
Meditation is the door. Meditation is the only unselfish act.
But it appears that people who are engaged in meditation are just thinking of themselves, not bothering about the whole of humanity. Absolute nonsense!
The people who are engaged in meditation are the only people who will find a place where there is no self, and all selfishness disappears. Then their whole life, their whole love, their whole compassion will be unmotivated. Whatever they will do will be virtuous, because virtue can come only out of a conscious mind, an absolutely conscious mind.
In the conscious mind, totally conscious, there is not a single shadow of self. The totally conscious mind becomes qualitatively different from your unconscious mind. Hence it has been called no-mind, just to show the difference, otherwise you will get confused. Mind is what you have. No-mind is the search for meditation. And from no-mind blossom flowers of unselfishness, of love, of compassion, of sharing.
Krishna says unless you become unselfish you cannot share or do any charity. We only understand charity means money, donation and serving poor and needy people. This all is a reflection of our unconsciousness. You have a treasure of many other things than money, that is compassion. You will be overflowing with love and from your part you cannot do anything but just allow the love to flow. This will be, sharing. That from your part you don’t do anything, you will not interfere between others and the universe and through your body universal energy will be shared in many forms – money, love, dignity, etc.
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