Thoughts of PR Sarkar on charitable givings and charitable intentions, especially in relation to capitalist …

 Thoughts of PR Sarkar on charitable givings and charitable intentions, especially in relation to capitalist … 

 Human beings desire to acquire things from others knows no bounds. Their hopes are never quenched, but their spirit of giving to others is very meagre. Generally when people do give something to others, the intention of charity or service is absolutely secondary; their predominant feeling is to receive something in exchange. In other words, they have extreme greed to garner fame by one hand and give charity by the other. A spiritualist will have to adopt the opposite course to get rid of the burning flames of greed, he/she will have to develop an infinite desire to give to others with no intention at all of obtaining anything from them. … capitalist, first of all because … are somewhat lacking in conscience. And secondly, if any of them do have a bit more conscience, they will satisfy it by making donations according to their convenience, priorities or inclination, but they will never stop accumulating objects of enjoyment. A capitalist with a conscience may donate a hundred thousand dollars at a moment’s notice, but while buying and selling s/he will not easily let go of even a cent. But it takes a long time for downtrodden people to understand that the capitalists are the parasites of society. Hence thorough preparation is required to end the Capitalist Age. By capitalists I mean here the low type of capitalists. However, I am not prepared to call those who are not low capitalists, ‘high’ capitalists; because while it is true that they give donations as well as exploit, and that society may be benefited by their donations, that will not bring the people who have died from their exploitation back to life! The capitalists are like a deadly parasite on the tree of society which tries to kill the tree by sucking dry all its vital sap. But if the tree dies, the parasite will also die. The capitalist parasites understand this and therefore try to ensure the survival of society by making some donations; they build temples, mosques, churches and pilgrims’ inns, give little bonuses, feed the poor; etc. Calamity only comes when they lose their common sense out of excessive greed and try to suck society completely dry. … as the capitalists know full well, most of their donations are not genuine, but exist on paper only – and whenever they make genuine donations, they realize double the amount as profits in some other way. The occasional charity works that the capitalists undertake are only a trick to maintain their exploitation. Most of their charitable activities are not inspired by humanism; their sole purpose is to keep the machinery of exploitation, that is, the intellectuals and the workers, functioning. If the intellectuals and the workers die, who will there be to exploit? The cunning capitalists consider such charitable activities as investments. Whatever their motive may be, the capitalists do sometimes spend generously on social service and charitable activities, but by the end of the Capitalist Age they lose even the last vestiges of social consciousness, and as a result of their foolhardiness proletariat revolution occurs. -- Suppose someone donates a large sum of money and thinks that s/he has done a very good thing. All right, s/he has done some charity, quite a bit in fact, but s/he can hardly sleep that night. The next morning while taking tea, s/he looks for their name in the newspaper that Mr/s So-and-So, the great benefactor, has donated such a vast sum. S/He is restless until they see this in print. It means the propensity of greed is further increased by such acts of charity, which were done in order to earn virtue. The very next day, s/he has a desire to see in the newspaper how much they have donated. One who is doing philanthropic work today, tries to find out tomorrow whether or not their name appeared in the newspaper. They have no desire to read the other news. They read the news that relates to themselves twenty times but do not go through the other news with much enthusiasm. If someone asks they might say that today there was only one important piece of news, nothing else. That is how a person comes under the sway of a propensity … [such] charitable activities … are all meaningless. … do not deserve to be called anything less than ostentatious public displays … Human beings alone have the speciality of service. At the time of doing service, the motive must be that I shall give but not take. Service is one-sided. When human beings donate something, they do not expect anything in return. For example, if you give something to a beggar, you do not expect anything in return. Furthermore, once you have donated something, you forget about it. This is the speciality of human beings. However, some people make donations for other reasons. For instance, suppose a man donates a hundred thousand rupees to a charity. At night he will not be able to sleep because he is continuously thinking that in the morning he will get up and read in the newspaper that he, Chatumal Dakuram Batpari, donated a large amount of money for the public welfare. You should not behave like this. Once you donate something, you should forget about it immediately. A donation is one-way. Ordinarily people perform actions with certain objective in view, but still there are many who perform actions not with a view to the result, but only for the sake of self-satisfaction or to feel elevated with vanity because they have done their duty. Suppose a particular person has donated one million rupees to a certain institution. However their mind is not at peace until they find the news of the donation published in the newspapers the following morning. All through the night he or she restlessly waits for the morning and then feels gratified to find the news of the donation in the newspapers. Whether one be a philanthropist … one desires to see what is written about them in the newspaper. This means that in trying to do some good work, what are they really doing? They are falling under the sway of one propensity, the propensity of greed. Now if this act is encouraged by the society, that is, if the newspapers [media] dedicate a lot of attention to such news, or if people in general say, “Sir, whatever you are doing is unparalleled in history. Sir, we are not eulogizing you. We are simply telling the truth” – if they praise such a person in this way and then try to extract some money from them (there are such intelligent people around) – then what does it amount to indirectly? The propensity of greed increases. Suppose a certain person donates one thousand rupees to a particular institution. The next day he looks anxiously for his name in the newspaper. If his name does not appear in the paper, then with an air of conceit he brags amongst his kith and kin. “I have donated a thousand rupees, but I do not desire recognition and therefore I have not published my name in the paper.” The desire for fame exists in a concealed form in that mans mind. Clearly, he did not make the donation with the spirit of service.’ -- Those who are very greedy for money should form the habit of charity, and they can serve humanity through such a practice. …. only selfless service to humanity and the efforts to look upon the world with a Cosmic [wholistic] outlook alone can lead to establishment in mental cleanliness. The methods for mental purity are kindliness towards all creatures, charity, working for the welfare of others and being dutiful. Mental purity is attained by benevolent deeds, charity, or other dutiful acts. You cannot call a beggar a miser, for the beggar has no money to donate. If a moneyed person, on the other hand, hesitates to donate, that person is presumably a miser. Win the miser by charity … You can definitely influence a miser by your charity, and there is nothing bad in this; but it is not what is understood by … shouldering sorrows and miseries of others for their welfare, to free them from grief and to give them comforts. Every human being gets more or less opportunity for rendering services. If a poor man thinks that he cannot render economic type of service because he is devoid of money he is wrong. The charity of a few cents of the poor has the same value as a thousand dollars from a millionaire. Indeed the charity of these few cents is greater. Neither should one be jealous of a person who performs many virtuous deeds and charitable actions. Rather one should think well of the person since he or she is doing good work. “Let his intellect continue to inspire him to perform such virtuous actions. I fully support him.” A destitute individual should not be blamed for not donating to charity but if a wealthy person does not donate a cent for a good cause it is highly reproachable, for he or she is being miserly. To fight against a miser, you will have to become more charitable. These mental tendencies, that is, anger, dishonesty, miserliness, etc., are the expressions of mental disease. If you want to struggle against a miser, start by doing charity to others, and that miser will surely be defeated. -- … referring to those who thought that it was virtuous to plunder the wealth of the capitalists and distribute it among those in need. The Robin Hoods of the medieval period perhaps thought that this was the best way to eradicate social disparity. But this does not work, so it did not work. In nearly every country of the world such Robin Hoods have emerged, but they have not been able to solve the problem of social injustice. The main reason is no one can survive on charity. Such an approach only creates a society of beggars. This type of greedy, indolent and inactive society promises even greater poverty in the future. Moreover, plundering the wealth of the rich does not destroy capitalism, because although robbery may reduce the assets of the capitalists, it does not destroy the seed of capitalism. -- Suppose someone builds a hospital for the treatment of the sick. That will be a direct virtuous action. But suppose the person donates some money for the development of society; that may be either a direct or an indirect virtuous action. If people benefit immediately from such a donation, it will be a [direct] virtuous action, and if the benefits are delayed, it will be an indirect virtuous action. But the advantage of an indirect virtuous action is that while the results may be delayed, they will continue for a very long time.