We as human beings are normally used to working for our own benefit or commercial gain but at the same time charity, donation or giving for the sake of others, just for the sake of humanity is considered a noble deed. Today we will compare the concept of charity with that of “daan” and see whether they meant he same thing.
Daan, Punya and Law of Karma: The Interconnection
The concept of daan in Hinduism basically means giving something in order to help others and also they are done in order to improve one’s own life. The basically theory working behind this is the simple yet all powerful law of karma which says that to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (science students could understand is something similar to Newton’s theory).
Charity Or Daan
How it works at subtle level?
You might wonder how giving something or helping others can help to improve your own life. From the metaphysical point of view, the universal life force pervades all creation and that is called by different names or terms including but not limited to God, Nature, Almighty, Ultimate Truth to name a few.
The individual units, as we know and perceive as different forms of life (and even non-animate objects) are thus having a connection. From the perspective of science this is true as well as the basic building block of all living and non-living things are atoms and currently they are looking at God’s Particle.
The Law of Karma
The law of karma acts at a much more subtle level than the Newton’s law of action and reaction at the material plane. Sometimes actions and their results may not be seemingly as desired because at the metaphysical level, the intention behind the actions matters as much as the action itself. So in case you are doing some daan with the intention that your bad phase or period gets transferred to someone else, you are surely inviting trouble in the long run.
The Social Aspect: Poverty, Daan and Society
Sometimes in the relatively lesser developed parts of the world where poverty is still rife, there have been objections whether daan is a good thing or it just helps to generate a class of people who just develop a habit of surviving on alms such as beggars. There is certainly a grave social issue as it is becoming a menace in such places.
Basically the author would like to say that in the laws of most countries there is a provision that benefit of doubt should be given to any person and no innocent person should be punished even if a few guilty might benefit from it. Basically what I want to say is that if you see any helpless person having shortage of food, clothing or the basic amenities you can always think of helping him or her without going too much into the background as to what led to the person in that condition.
So basically don’t try to be judgmental but just do your own karma. You do not have the power to change anyone expect yourself in the true sense of the word. So if you genuinely do daan you will certainly get the benefits.
What Benefits Can I Get By Doing Daan?
People usually ask me that if we do daan for the sake of benefits, is it not any different from say any business deal or a selfish act. I can only say that what we define as selfless act is basically also done in order to have peace of mind or feel happy so in that way nothing is truly selfless, for in the selfless state of Samadhi (The final step of Yoga or union with self) action, good, bad, selfishness, unselfishness all just vanish or mingle into one.
As long as you are living you need a motive to do something, and even the highest of motives no matter how lofty have some selfishness at the base. So do not go into such thoughts and stop performing good deeds.
Best way to do daan
The best way of doing daan is not to give money to someone but to help in the manner desired and also to see if the help can become a long term help. For example if you give food to a hungry orphan child it is a great deed, but if you can give education that might help the child to stand on his/her own feet and earn food for herself or himself that is the greatest daan.
Similarly if you suspect someone is going to misuse money like say beggar on the street for drugs etc, you can simply give eatable items like fresh fruits, packed lunch/dinner etc.
You can give some clothing according to the weather conditions for example in winters hundreds of people are found on streets without shelter, giving blankets to them is a great thing
Specific Daan for Specific Upayas
Many astrologers suggest daan as the means to overcome bad period in life and there is certainly nothing wrong in trying to take help of astrology during bad phases in life. Yet sometimes you should apply your own common sense to it.
For example if you are asked to feed dogs with biscuits to get rid of some planetary effects, the animal might get rashes by eating too much sweet, so you can as well give some pet food instead because at the subtle level it is not the object which will help but back action of the karma which is going to improve your karma
Similarly instead of distributing sweets to beggars who might be diabetic you can offer fruits like apples or bananas which can be healthy also
Remember the law of karma is much above the law of daan, so if you give something in the hope that your own life will improve but it can or could possibly harm the receive, you will never benefit from it. So there is no harm in doing daan but do it in the right way.
A Real Life Example:
There are many perspectives of daan punya and while most of us do it at individual level giving food to the poor, there are people who give away literally unlimited amounts of wealth and efforts for the betterment of the entire world. This takes daan punya to a new level. Of course there are numerous examples in ancient history where kings gave their kingdoms for charity but we have such people even today.
Given below is a video which shows the work of Manoj who gave away billions of dollars for inventing stuff that changes everyday life of people across the globe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY7f1t9y9a0