There is good in us all, despite ourselves, as tales about the nature of God-love inform us. For one, there is no dearth of stories with immense spiritual and social value in the Bible. I particularly like the episode in the New Testament, Matthew 22:35-40, in which a lawyer asks Jesus, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Jesus tells him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” These statements, the first of which echoes the Old Testament, are known as two great commandments of Christianity.
They were uttered during Jesus’s third visit to the Jewish temple, Jesus himself being a Jew. This episode also contains other important points that Jesus made, such as paying taxes ungrudgingly to the state: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” as also the touching instance of the poor widow who offered God all he had out of love. This is described in the New Testament in Mark 12: 41–44. Jesus was at the temple with his disciples. He sat across from the temple treasury and watched many rich people put in large sums. Then he saw something he used to teach the disciples about giving.
A poor widow came and put in two copper coins. Jesus taught that she gave more than the rich, for she gave all that she had, whereas the rich had a lot of money to spare and their donations did not pinch.
I am also very fond of this Indian parable that upholds the sentiment of being focused on God with everything you’ve got. The story goes that a thief in South India happened to pass by a temple where a crowd had gathered to hear a spiritual discourse by a well-known pauranikar or teller of religious stories.
Seeing all those festively turned-out people, the thief hoped to steal something and quietly found himself a place in the throng. As he waited, he heard the pauranikar lovingly describe Sri Krishna’s earrings, armbands and necklace of precious gems. The thief, who had grown up neglected and never gone to a temple, was awestruck. He thought Krishna was a person nearby and yearned to steal his jewellery.
He asked people, “Where does Krishna live?” They told him to ask the pauranikar. The thief waited until the discourse ended and the pauranikar emerged.
“Where does Krishna live?” asked the thief. “You can’t see him,” laughed the pauranikar. “You’d better tell me!” said the thief menacingly. “Go north to a place called Vrindavan, you’ll find him there,” said the pauranikar, looking to escape.
The thief made his way with great difficulty, obsessed with finding Krishna. He thought of Krishna every step of the way to Vrindavan, where they nodded understandingly and sent him to the woods. And suddenly, he encountered Krishna looking just as the pauranikar had described.
Krishna spoke kindly to him and even gave him some jewellery. The delighted thief made his way back and sought out the pauranikar to tell him of his success.
He was shocked. “Lord, I’ve spent my life speaking about you,” he wept. “Why have you never favoured me with a glimpse?”
But he knew why. The thief, though intent on thieving, had thought of nothing but God, which had cleansed his heart.
How may we apply this God-focus in our daily lives? Giving as an essential of the spiritual life code is affirmed in the famous hymn ‘Bhaja Govindam’ by Adi Shankara, which says: Geyam gita nama sahasram dheyam sripati rupamajasram /neyam sajjana sange chittam deyam deena jananya cha vittam (Recite the Bhagavad Gita, chant the Vishnu Sahasranamam, meditate on Vishnu in your heart and mind/Seek delight in the company of the good, share your wealth with the poor).
In fact, Shankara urges us to give all our money to the poor, which possibly made him the original ‘left’ philosopher long before a certain old man with a beard came to be in 19th-century Germany.
And there you have the tripod meant to support the human experience: faith, love and charity. The bit about charity is the strongest spiritual leitmotif across stories. However, in today’s world, ‘charity’ has come to have patronising overtones. ‘Charity’ may confer some material ease but may simultaneously diminish the receiver’s human dignity. What could be the solution? As the English metaphysical poet John Donne said: ‘I have done one braver thing/Than all the Worthies did/And yet a braver thence doth spring/Which is, to keep that hid.’ I daresay this approach contravenes the purpose of CSR initiatives. But while companies may toot their horns at the taxman, we as individuals can easily practise silent charity.
Besides being liberal at festival times, often in the hope of piling up bonus karma, we could give gracefully on other occasions. That means giving in a manner that is humble, not boastful or arrogant. Give as if making an offering to God, literally; hold our hands low and outstretched, as we would before an altar. I have seen people do this. This poignant interaction happens so quietly that it’s over in a blink. It lights up faces and elicits a heartfelt smile and a real dua or prayerful blessing. One must never undervalue the power of dua in a tight karmic situation. This point seems to be the core teaching of all religions, and any time is a good time to remember it.
Renuka Narayanan
(Views are personal)
(shebaba09@gmail.com)