5. Sharing - Daan
Sharing your assets in the spirit of
humility.
To become happy we have to learn to eliminate factors which put
tension on the mind. Practice of Agnihotra reduces tension, and thus
anger and greed are reduced. Agnihotra and Daan are two material
aids for happy living.
What is Daan? Daan is sharing your assets in a spirit of humility.
Learn to share a part of your income and your possessions with
others. This is Daan. Daan is not merely giving cash or material
possessions. It involves several disciplines. If the disciplines are
not observed, Daan becomes mere donation. We practice Daan to reduce
our attachment to worldly possessions. Such attachment puts great
tension on the mind and makes it difficult for us to become happy. A
rich man has many things and he is attached to them while a poor man
has nothing but he is hankering after things which he does not have.
Both of them tend to put a premium on unhappiness because of
attachment.
Practice of Daan helps to remove the tension which comes due to
attachment. Daan has the following disciplines:
1. You give Daan because it is your duty to do so. This means you
are not obliging the person to whom you give. You should consider
yourself obliged by the person who accepts your gift. He is the
instrumental cause to enable you to transform your mind and, hence,
he is obliging you.
2. Do not give Daan for name or fame. If you give cash or material
possessions for name or fame it is not Daan. Daan has to be done in
secrecy. “Let your left hand not know what your right hand does.” If
you
talk about it to others it is likely to nourish your pride and our
aim of removing tension on the mind will not be achieved.
3. Everyone wants to be happy and, hence, everyone has to share his
assets in a spirit of humility. A rich man has to give and a poor
man has to give. A rich man can receive and a poor man can receive
Daan.
4. Daan needs to be made out of ones own earnings.
5. The person to whom you give needs to be a proper person.
A hungry man is a proper person to receive food. A person in need of
necessities of life is a proper person to receive them in kind or
cash. In all other cases Daan should be given to a person who is
normally given to what, according to you, are good habits. If you
give Daan to somebody whom you think is likely to spend it on wrong
purposes, then it is not Daan. Not only have you not done a good act
but you involve yourself in a bad act as you become instrumental in
pushing him into wrong things and you become a partner in his guilt.
If Daan is given to a rich person he is likely to spend the amount
again in Daan by adding his own to it. If Daan is given to a poor
person he is likely to spend it on good works.
If Daan is given to a holy person you are always safe as he would
certainly spend it for the benefit of society. Use your discretion
in such matters. Money in English is also called “currency”. The
word is not “stagnancy”. It means, like the current of a river, it
has to be kept moving in Daan.
If you practice Daan with all the discipline involved, what happens?
You part with one hundred dollars and within a short time you get
back a little over a hundred dollars in cash or some material
benefit. This is a superphysical law of nature and hence inviolable.
Daan is therefore called a material aid to happy living. You will
also notice that in times of your need things come to you without
asking for them. More importantly, you do not feel the tension when
things go bad materially, as you get into the habit of
non-attachment to worldly possessions. Agnihotra and Daan, the first
two aspects of the Fivefold Path, give a push to the mind in the
right direction and your ability to choose between right and wrong
improves. Your will to act according to the judgment given by your
power of discrimination is strengthened and you are aided to get out
of a vicious circle into a virtuous cycle. The biggest push in this
direction comes from Agnihotra as it totally changes the coloration
of the mind and your journey on the next three aspects of the
Fivefold Path becomes facile.
Om Tat Sat!