Donation of Time–The Supreme charity - II

There is an adage saying charity begets virtue (Punya). Such a conviction is based on the assumption that “giving" is associated with emotional involvement and profound faith in the propriety of the objective, for which charity is being made. Where it is not so, and charity is preconditioned by ulterior motive, the act becomes equivalent to committal of a sin because of the reactions and environment it creates. It also brings in disrepute to both giver and receiver which is likely to be disastrous for both. Hence it is expected that the spirit of charity is also preconditioned with objective of excellence and discernment. Then only one may hope that virtuous benevolent activity associated with the charity would be totally beneficial for all related persons.

These days, the concept of charity has become shrouded with many misgivings, a reference to which has already been made in the beginning. Besides, such persons are rare who have accumulated enough wealth and are able to spare it in sufficient measure for some significant objective. Bhamashah could be called truly wealthy since he had the wealth of empathy which motivated him to donate a huge amount in cash to Ranapratap for a righteous objective. In order to be as illustrious as Harishchandra or Karna, one also needs an acute sense of discernment, farsightedness and largeheartedness. However, it is a rare person who is able to identify and make use of such opportunities. In most other cases, the earnings of fools are usurped by the cunning and in the process what the former get in return is public disgrace and creates bad consequences for all concerned.

Wealth is produced by a combination of physical endeavour and favourable circumstances. Nowadays it is not possible for most of the persons to create such an environment. In the existing milieu someone who is desirous of performing some virtuous acts of benevolence and is not wealthy, has to focus attention on that natural wealth which the creator has liberally provided to each living being. This natural wealth is Time. The chain of life is made up of links of time. A generous utilization of time becomes possible only for those active persons, who become seriously interested in some specific benevolent work. Whatever be the merits of any project, disinterest in it does not produce any desire for participation. Where there is apathy, and disinterest in any work it is either not initiated or is left incomplete and ill-finished. In the plethora of natural resources, Time has many unique characteristics.

Amongst the various types of charities, Time is ranked next to money. It is easily available to everyone irrespective of status and opportunities, since proper utilization of time is possible even by persons with below - average intelligence. Guidance for appropriate utilization of time can easily be sought from experienced and wise persons. Time is one such valuable resource which cannot be exploited by others for long. One's drops of sweat generated by hard work are comparable to beads of pearls, which alone have been the basis of great achievements of supermen. The donation of time must be associated with profound faith in the objective for which it is being used. Otherwise, any request for donation of time, gets a negative response and people make many excuses like preoccupation with other engagements.

The sadhna of great saints of the past became possible only by the difficult process of structuring and properly harnessing their time. All those schemes which these super persons had planned, programmed and implemented became successful only because of their meticulous utilization of time. Had scientists and inventors not focused their mental faculties and time on a predetermined objective on priority, there would not have been any hope for success? Social reformers have had performed stupendous tasks by donating their time only. The fable about Farhaad tells that in spite of his abject poverty, he was able to dig a fifty kilometre long canal with the exclusive resource of determination for utilizing time available to him. Looking back at the dignified status of ancient India amongst nations of the world, one finds an exclusive factor which contributed to its glory of excellence. The class of ascetics (Brahmans) and middle-aged priests were using bare minimum resources and time for their own sustenance and the remaining time was being utilized by them, with total involvement, for fulfilment of contemporary benevolent requirements of public welfare. Their dedication and spirit of service created a favourable impression on all and sundry, as a consequence d which, their counsel was heeded by all and ideals advocated by them were faithfully incorporated in day to day living by every citizen in every possible manner. This is how the dormant talents of people found expression as dedication to fruitful activities, which created an environment conducive to an all-round progress in society. This was the main reason for the prosperity of mankind during the golden era of Satyug.

There could be deterrents of administrative system for controlling lawlessness, but promotion of goodwill amongst people becomes feasible only by emotive stimuli created by the institution of religion, which constitutes an unavoidable medium for establishment of peace and prosperity in society. Religion also forms the basis for the development of communities. History has been a witness to the arduous journeys undertaken by the cultural ambassadors of India to remote corners of the world, where they succeeded in bringing in miraculous changes in environment of many communities by properly managing locally available multifarious resources, for removal of poverty and backwardness in alien lands. Stability of ideals throughout the length and breadth of the country and dedication to growth of excellence of its masses has been possible only because of persistent, tireless endeavours of the above class of Brahmans and Saints. Evaluation and confirmation of indispensability of such persons for the society and elevated status of their character has rightly ranked them as "Angels" or "Divine Persons" on this earth.

The ancient time-tested system of four-fold classification of average human life-span of hundred years which is based on socio-religious requirements of community life, lays great emphasis on the Vanprastha stage of middle age, which is considered an absolute necessity for each human being. According to the above system, having spent the initial half of life in endeavours pertaining to worldly affairs, it was considered essential for a person to devote the remaining part of his life for the welfare of the society. In order to make it feasible the family burden was reduced to a minimum. The wise persons never thought of rearing such large families, looking after which exhausted all of their time and energy. Those who preferred a family-life, had minimum offspring's and that too in the initial stages of married life, which enabled them to have freedom from family responsibilities by the time they attained the middle age. The guardians in those days considered it their bounden duty to provide guidance to the younger generation for self-dependence and cultural excellence. In the culturally evolved society of the bygone days, no one ever thought of leaving wealth or property as inheritance. Earning members made co-operative endeavours to look after the dependent members of the family. One member from each family voluntarily offered to devote all time for activities of social welfare and it was considered a matter of pride for the family. Amongst the Sikhs, one person from family chose to work for the Gum, and the remaining members shared the social responsibilities of that person. Such was the great tradition, which had made this land "Swargadapi Gareeyasi" (Better than heaven) and its people became renowned throughout the world as Dev Manav (Divine persons or Angels). Sadhana performed by those Deer Manavas earned this country such titles as Jagadguru (the Guru or guide of mankind) in the field of knowledge; Chakravarti in the realm of science and culture and had brought this country fabulous riches on account of excellence of managerial skill. If an effort is made to resurrect these ancient traditions, there would not remain any doubt about the return of the golden age of peace and prosperity (Satyug). In this way, mankind suffering in the inferno of confusion and turmoil can look forward to pleasant possibility of a new congenial environment of a golden future.

Man has become so much conceited today that he has developed an unusual expertise in counterfeiting dummy of almost everything. This tendency has invaded even the field of spirituality. The choice between the genuine and counterfeit is not easy. In search of peace and happiness one comes across umpteen avenues. The wise know the difference between the authentic and the fake. A child may derive pleasure by purchasing a toy elephant, but does it serve the purpose of a real one? The same holds true about the small class of super persons of the world who silently work for peace and prosperity of mankind, whereas the majority consists of imposters in the field. A rough estimate of the number of preachers in this country would put their number to about six million. Beside, there is a fairly large number of persons who, on one pretext or the other of promoting religion, are collecting donations and earning goodwill for themselves. With such a multitude of servants of humanity, one would have expected a high level of cultural status of this country if not of the entire world. But what appears is just the opposite. The class of persons, who are supposed to look after the problems of countrymen and humanity throughout the world, has itself become a burden for the society.

Here the topic under discussion is the relevance of donation in religion and in this context significance of TIME DONATION which is easy for all and sundry. Each member of human race, therefore, becomes eligible and is invited to make this contribution. With the help of this ancient tradition if we are going to explore the possibility of human welfare we must find out the means by which the present generation can be revitalized and motivated to adopt this great heritage, which is capable of playing a decisive role in structuring of a bright future for mankind.

The task, however, is not easy. Strictly speaking, one feels an urge for giving his time for benevolent activities only when there is a strong impulse and restlessness to contribute for promotion of ideals. Where such a high level of motivation exists, man moves relentlessly and zealously towards the chosen goal as though the very existence of the person was dependent on it. Not that in the process one does not come across tempting deviations and hurdles. Nevertheless, by cultivating a habit d indifference towards them one is able to resist the counter pressures. Such obstacles are like stings of a mosquito, which though creates a momentary distraction, but does not make a person change the course of action. Distractions and impediments influence only such persons who lack determination and conviction. Ingrained evil traits (Kusanskar), of our past life cycles, influence of prevalent practices and beliefs and advice of the so-called well wishers taken together, misguide a person who under their influence begins to believe that the only way to happiness consists of accumulating maximum possible resources for physical comfort and their unrestrained utilization for self. With such a philosophy of life man becomes self-centred and inconveniences caused to others look trivial where one's own interests are involved. Such is the course adopted by an average man today who takes pride in this dubious cleverness and tries to derive some superficial benefits out of it.

The pleasure from such endeavours is, however, momentary like that which one derives on witnessing a comic stage show. However, sooner or later this thin veil of happiness is lifted and the self- befooling individual is looked down upon contemptuously by the intelligent and wise men of the world. Such a facade of happiness appears appealing to only immature persons, who come under the influence of this class of happy-go-lucky persons impulsively, because of ignorance and become their camp followers. Besides, in modern times, when everything is available for a price, anyone can be made to speak, do or write anything to project someone's image. These machinations, however, do not last long. Castles of name, fame and happiness built with sands of hypocrisy have a very short life. Now and then one comes across many such illusive phenomena, but do they produce any reaction other than curiosity and amusement? Ultimately persons adopting such a way of life become objects of contempt and on knowing facts, all their kith, kin and associates part company. Someone has rightly said, "None is more unfortunate than a hypocrite since in days of adversity such a person is not helped by anyone."

Here the objective is to show the relevance of such activities of human welfare in life, which are from every angle significant, selfless, utilitarian and inspiratory. Participation in such activities becomes possible only for those whose dedication to ideals is of such a high order, that on every moment of life they feel an irresistible urge to donate their time, expertise and resources for promotion of excellence and have a sense of pride and dignity in doing so. All major events in history of man bring out one stark reality. Only such individuals had succeeded in spearheading movements for establishing ideals, who imbibed excellence as an essential ingredient in their own life and made total surrender of all their resources for them. These are the ' Time Donors’. Their endeavour is always perseverant. They never deviate nor do they stagger. Credit and honour woos only such persons. They are the truly great philanthropists. On the other hand there is that multitude of persons in a variety of garbs, paying symbolic tokens of alms here and there as a matter of routine. One comes across this latter class of people in every nook and corner of the world, but are they in anyway useful for the society?