Joy of Giving Week 2010

From September 27 to October 3, the world will celebrate Joy of Giving. The motive is to help the less fortunate in the society. Swami Vivekananda had said:

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“Do not stand on a high pedestal and take 5 cents in your hand and say, ‘here, my poor man, but be grateful that the poor man is there, so by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed but it is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world and thus become pure and perfect.”

Giving, in fact is most simple thing but difficult to practice. All through our life we go on accumulating things we hardly use for the rest of our life. But parting with our possessions is quite painful experience. The reason for distress in parting with our belongings is our attachment with them. The phenomenon of attachment starts from the childhood. The child loves his toys more than anything else and when he grows up his attachment shifts to his friends. In his youth he gets attracted to the opposite sex and is ‘hooked’ to his/her girlfriend/ boyfriend. When he grows further he cares about his carrier and becomes an achiever of position, power, money, name and fame. His transition from the stage of achiever to the stage of giver is only possible through the higher level of consciousness. Most people remain achiever all through their life because they are driven by greed. The more is always less for them. And those who transcend the stage of an achiever are the blessed ones. They are enlightened souls. Such people establish charitable trusts, charitable schools and hospitals for the benefit of the society. They feel it is payback time for them to serve the society which has given them so much in life.

It is not that only those who have wealth can give. According to an Arabic proverb ‘If you have much, give your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart’. A beautiful poem by Carmmen Henesy extols the virtues of giving.

To give does not require wealth

Share from deep within your heart

And if you’ve never done so yet,

Now is the time to start

One may need a home cooked meal,

Or clothes to keep them warm,

They often need encouraging

To survive another storm

Teach your children by example

So they will learn to share

By giving to their fellow man,

They will learn to care

Giving has its own rewards,

In the joy you feel inside

Don’t say you cannot do it

If you haven’t even tried

In the words of Mother Teresa “if you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one”. What we give we receive back manifolds, not necessarily in the material form, but in the form of inner joy and contentment. We can make a beginning in the ‘Joy of Giving Week’. Even a gift of smile on the face of an unhappy person would be a step towards ‘Art of Giving’.