Feel the elation
Did you know that, there exists an alternative way to doing charity? There are various ways in which we do charity, cash, and kind or man hours. Most of us have seen our elders and peers contributing to charity in a prescribed manner. An appeal in a newspaper or magazine is heeded or a neighbor’s philanthropic cause is seconded. We are also quick to donate our lot to various religious organizations and NGO’s doing charity work.
Be it in kind or cash we empathize with the hapless and trust that our offerings reach the intended while burying the guilt of our relative prosperity in such acts of charity that lead to some succor. In all the above cases we are rarely face to face with the intended receiver. It is only in our inner being that we relish the work that we have done. Not even for a moment do we stop and think of the alternative mode of giving as charity.
Look at these alternative ways of giving besides the oft repeated mode described above. Try not bargaining with the rickshaw puller, the old tailor who does repair work, the authorickshaw driver who is reluctant to part with the change, the cab driver who does not have change, the maid who would love to receive her wages rounded off to the next hundred.
The delivery boy when he delivers at your doorstep. The dhobi when he comes up with a bill at the end of it all. The roadside fruit seller with whom you bargain for every gram of produce. Or the vegetable seller who pushes his cart throughout the day, the lad below the age for legal employment who cleans the car and the dazed looking sanitation worker who clears our clogged smelly sewers.
The old man with a thin yellowing white linen covering his body who sells precious nothing but can be found at his perch every day. The various manual labourers who go about their routine amidst the fury of the Sun God, the traffic cop who is standing in the hot sun merrily oblivious to his perspiration having drawn funny contours on his uniform, the one who has just been fired walking back with a dazed look, the unseen expression of every emotion portrayed on the face of mankind.
Consider letting go of that little change that is due to you, try offering money rounded off to the nearest fifty or hundred. Stop bargaining with the vegetable seller even when fully aware that his prices are loaded. Try noticing the glow of appreciation on the face of the maid when you absently round off her wages to the next hundred. Smile when the tailor who just repaired your clothes tries to extract a little more. Try putting a Rupee 100 currency in the begging bowl of a deserving beggar and step back to receive his blessings. Help folks who are out and lost with your knowledge, network and connection.
All these acts of knowingly letting be, of being fleeced or taken for a ride are small acts of charity but the difference is that you can see instantly the acknowledgment of faith, trust, sincerity, reciprocity, tears, joy, elation, gladness, sheer bliss all transfixed on the face of mankind. This will give us far better joy that the acts of magnanimity that we often profess while indulging in charity to the unknown.
5th September 2017