Divine deeds

"My Master, Sadhu Vaswani, taught me to give, give and give, until it hurts to give," Dada J P Vaswani says. Dada's 'give-mantra' may seem revolutionary in a world choked with greed. But in reality, Dada and his Master are harking back to a well-established Indian tradition.

Charity, for example, is extolled as one of the 'divine' virtues in the Bhagvad Gita. "Transcendental qualities like charity," Sri Krishna tells Arjuna in his 16th discourse, "are conducive to liberation, while their opposite, demonic qualities, make for bondage."

Psychologists have validated that age-old insight in modern times: their studies show that it is often the giver, rather than the recipient, who reaps the biggest psychological/spiritual gains from a gift.

Conversely, a gift can also become a burden, when the recipient feels overwhelmed or embarrassed by its value. A celebrated case of recipient's discomfort is reported in The Divyavadana or 'Heavenly Deeds', an anthology of 38 tales that was the first Buddhist text to be written down from oral tradition: King Rudrayana gifts a fabulous jewelled robe to King Bimbisara of Magadha. King Bimbisara becomes worried as he does not have anything comparable to give back as a gift.

King Bimbisara goes to the Buddha for advice.The Buddha tells the King to have the first drawing of the Bhavachakra (Samsara and perils) to be made and sent to Rudrayana.

Of course the gift ordained by the Buddha has the most desirable impact: it's said that King Rudrayana attained realisation through studying this drawing!