Is Randomly-done Charity Fruitful?

[A question by Smt. Bindiya]

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

(This question is part of a Mahā Satsaṅga or grand spiritual discussion between Swami, Shri Parikshit, Smt. Bindiya and Dr. J. S. R. Prasad.)

Swami replied:- Mere charity to poor people is social service, which is not much related to God. The basis of social service is love towards co-human beings. If you love and serve the humanity without any connection to God, heaven is granted because charity is a merit (punyam). But heaven is temporary and once the merit is exhausted, you have to return to the earth (kshenane punya martyalokam vishanti– Gita). Sage Bharata was highly spiritual. But he loved a small baby deer and all his concentration was on that deer only and not on God. Hence, his worldly bond was very strong due to which he was born as a deer in the next birth. Social service shall be always blended with devotion. Then, it will be like scented gold. Mother Teresa was excellent social worker. But, her social service was always blended with devotion to God Jesus. Mahatma Gandhi did lot of social service in getting freedom to India. He was always remembering God Rama. Infact, the grace of Rama was the background of his success. People doing charity are always doing one blunder, which is donation to undeserving. Donation to deserving alone brings the heaven whereas donation to underserving brings hell! We are always worried about time and place in doing donation without bothering about the deservingness of the receiver. We always donate in hurry to beggars in Varanasi city on the day of Shivaratri. Whether the receiver is a real beggar or a greedy rich man acting like a beggar is not analyzed by us. If you study and select a deserving beggar for your donation, that day is real Shivaratri and that place of donation is real Varanasi city. Krishna donated to Sudama, who is the most deserving beggar and the donation given by Krishna was infinite wealth! Krishna did not donate to Sudama on Shivaratri day and in Varanasi city! Hence, one shall not be hasty in doing hurried donation in view of auspicious time and auspicious place. Instead, you preserve all the money you are donating in haste without studying the deservingness of the receiver and then donate the total saved huge amount to a specific deserving receiver after studying him deeply for a long time. Then, you are getting full merit because donation to deserving is merit and donating to undeserving is sin. However, you need not bother about the deservingness of the receiver if your donation is needed in emergency. If a person is dying without food, you must feed him to save his life without analyzing his deservingness. The trusts of temples etc., must start beggar homes to give food, shelter, cloth and medicines to beggars and this must be the fundamental social service for the government also. When no beggar is seen in the streets, then only the next higher level of social service (serving the poor) shall start. Beggars are lower than poor.

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