A beggar was on the road when, suddenly a celestial golden chariot descended in front of him. He felt extremely exalted, and exclaimed, “Oh my God. Here is a celestial chariot and a golden one at that.” He immediately stuck out his hand, begging. To his utter dismay, a king who descended from the flying chariot begged him. The beggar reflected, “What is this? What a sorry plight. Today is perhaps the worst day of my life. A king does not give, but instead begs me.”
The beggar should have felt happy given the reversal of positions. He, however, felt miserable and groped for something in his gunny bag. He picked up a single grain of rice and handed it to the king. The king, having taken it as alms, flew away in the chariot.
The perplexed beggar went about worrying the whole day. In the evening, sitting in his hut, he took out his gunny bag to take stock of his day’s collections. To his utter surprise, he found a golden grain. He realised, “I had given a grain of rice to the king and in return, I got a golden grain.”
Then he started to worry all over again. “Oh, I am such a fool. I should have given him all the rice in my bag. Had I done that, I would have been rich by now.”
You just do not give for the very joy of giving; you give only if you get something better in return. Only when you give for the sheer joy of giving, giving itself is the result. Giving is not like currency, which helps you to get something in return.
Lord Krishna says, “Aham agnihi (I am fire).” Fire is one of the panchabhutas or five elements. Hindu monks wear fire-coloured dress, just as Christian priests wear white, which stands for purity. Fire dispels darkness; more than the mere words that we utter, our presence should dispel darkness. The second aspect of fire is detachment. If you do not develop detachment, you will suffer in life. You may ask, “Why?” When alive, you work hard. You trade your soul for so many things in life. You sell your soul for money. And, what happens in the end? When you die, you carry none of the attachments you acquired in exchange for your soul.
We all finally end up as photographs. Some day after you are gone, your daughter-in-law comes to the house and sees there are too many photographs gathering dust. She then consigns the frames to the basement. When grandchildren ask for their grandparents’ photos, they will be taken out, duly dusted and shown to them. Ultimately, you and I will end up as photographs.
Just as fire stands for detachment, when you acquire this quality of detachment, you can be very objective. This is why a surgeon would find it difficult to perform surgery on his own child. He may be brilliant, but because of his attachment, the task becomes difficult. Do love your children whole-heartedly, but do not be attached. Free your love from attachment, and you will be objective.
Swami Sukhabodhananda is an international management, spiritual & corporate guru Join him for an online workshop on Gita Jayanti, from December 9-21. Email: support@prasannatrust.com