Verses 17.20–17.22🔗

Kṛṣṇa speaks about the concept of dāna, enriching charity, which I explained earlier. Dāna, charity is sharing out of the space of enriching. It is not done with the attitude of giving. It is done with the attitude of sharing and not expecting good results because of it or some easy route into heaven because of it. Charity is done out of love and gratitude. ‘O God, you have given me so much, now let me share a little bit with society and with the world.’ Charity is the attitude of sharing and enriching. Charity that is done out of the responsibility to enrich others, without any expectation means feeling complete and committed to the Whole, to God, and with that feeling giving as a natural commitment.

It is given with the enriching attitude that it is my quality and I have to do it. Only then it becomes real dāna. Sharing at the proper time and place and with a worthy person is charity in the mode of goodness, satva. There are three kinds of dāna. Understand, annadāna means giving to enrich with food, clothes and ŚraddhatrayaVibhāgaYogaḥ Authenticity:StraightwayTo Liberation 1229 whatever is related to someone’s physical needs. Next is vidyādāna. This means giving to enrich with education and also whatever someone needs for mental growth. For example, when somebody is depressed, if you enrich him with some consoling ideas, this is vidyādāna. If somebody does not know how to clean a room and you teach him, this is vidyādāna.

If somebody does not know how to cut grass and you teach him, this is vidyādāna. And the third kind is jñānadāna, giving to enrich with spiritual knowledge. If we give annadāna, we satisfy a person for three hours. After three hours, again he needs food. If we give vidyādāna, education or knowledge, he will have food for himself for one life. If we give education, he can earn food for himself. He will make money and buy food for himself. If we give jñānadāna, we will satisfy that person birth after birth! Annadāna satisfies for three hours. Vidyādāna satisfies the receiver for one life. If we give jñānadāna, it fulfills that person for life after life.

He will never fall into depression or the ocean of material world, birth after birth. The Ultimate Enriching Charity, Jñānadāna Jñānadāna is the ultimate sharing of enriching with knowledge. The common expression says, ‘If a person needs fish and we feed or buy him a fish, he can be satisfied for one meal.’ This is annadāna. ‘If we teach him how to fish, he can manage his whole life without hunger.’ This is vidyādāna. This is where the expression stops. In our Healer’s Initiation Program, we tell them to stop eating fish! That solves their problem for many cycles of birth. This is jñānadāna! Understand one thing, even if you have come and sat here accidentally after looking at my pictures saying, ‘I saw a cutout or poster.

He is so young. The poster says that he is speaking on Bhagavad Gītā. Let me see what he is saying...’ Even if you have come just to check it out and you land up listening to the whole Gītā, it will enrich you. At some point in time, you will remember these truths and live them. Naturally you cannot be the same person again. You will be enriched! At some point in time when you are about to make a mistake or you fall into powerlessness, you will remember these truths. These thoughts have gone inside you. They will make you complete with yourself choicelessly and lead you to completion.

This is jñānadāna. The knowledge that you have received now will transform your whole life even if you don’t practice it. These words are so powerful that automatically they will start working on you. You will not remain the same person. Your depth of depression will be reduced. Your depth of suffering will be reduced. You will feel that you are entering a new life. You will become courageous and a new confidence will enter your life. This is jñānadāna. This is the ultimate puṇya (virtuous deed) of giving knowledge. No other good deed is equivalent to giving spiritual knowledge. Giving food bestows three hours of satisfaction. Giving education gives satisfaction for this one life.

Giving spiritual knowledge satisfies souls life after life. Kṛṣṇa says when charity is done purely out of a feeling of sharing to enrich others, it is sātvika, the ultimate good, the ultimate purity—tad dānaṁ sāttvikaṁ smṛtam (17.20). One more point is that the person who gives loses nothing with jñānadāna. With all other dāna, the person who gives has a little less. In annadāna, he who gives will lose and he who receives will gain. In vidyādāna, the giver does not lose. He retains the same level. In jñānadāna, I tell you a secret, the more you share, the more it grows in you! The more you enrich others with the science of completion, the more you grow in completion.

It is a win-win situation. Here, you receive automatically. It grows in the person who shares and enriches. I tell you another important secret: Don’t think you are the only one being enriched by listening to me now. By expressing these truths, ŚraddhatrayaVibhāgaYogaḥ Authenticity:StraightwayTo Liberation 1231 even I am being enriched. Enriching others enriches you back! Listen! Enriching others enriches you back! A simple analogy will help explain how this happens. When a woman gives birth to a child, not only is the child born, the woman too takes birth, as a mother. Until then she is only a woman. Once she gives birth, she is called ‘mother’. When a child takes birth, not only does the child take birth, even the mother takes birth.

Before that she is not a mother. She is only a woman. The moment she gives birth to a child, both the child and the mother are born. In the same way, when you receive spiritual knowledge from me, I also grow! That is why in the Vedic system, we recite the following mantra before spiritual lessons: Oṁ sahanāvavatu sahanau bhunaktu saha vīryam karavāvahai tejasvi nāvadhītamastu mā vidviśāvahai Oṁ śānti śānti śāntiḥ This śānti or peace mantra means: may we both (master and disciple) achieve perfection or completion. May both of us grow. May both of us enrich each other. May we not have enmity towards each other. Understand, the mantra doesn’t say, ‘May you learn.’

It says, ‘May both of us learn.’ The vedic system is so humble. To tell you the truth, when I speak, I also learn. Somebody asked me, ‘Swamiji, what are you going to speak about?’ I said, ‘Who knows? Just like you, I also sit and listen!’ Here all I have in front of me are saṃskṛit verses. I read the verse and speak whatever comes forth spontaneously; that’s all. Just like you, I also sit and listen. Just as you are enriched, I am also enriched. Both of us grow. Only an egoistic person thinks that the disciple is benefited. No! The Master also benefits, he is also enriched.

He can become a Master only when a disciple happens! Only when a child is given birth, the woman is called a mother. Only when a disciple becomes enlightened, the Guru becomes a Master. Otherwise, he is not a Master. If the woman is unable to give birth to a child, she cannot be a mother. Similarly, until you become enlightened, I cannot be called a Master. Be very clear, by sharing this knowledge, I also grow. The person who shares with simplicity and humility, who is very clear, very integrated and authentic about the whole truth of sharing and is not caught in the false ego, his dāna, his sharing of thoughts is sātvika and is related to satva guṇa—attribute of goodness.

When you ask questions, if I don’t know the answer, I say I don’t know the answer. People ask, ‘What is this? Swamiji, you are enlightened and you say you don’t know.’ I tell them, ‘Only an Enlightened Master says I don’t know. Only he has the courage to speak the truth. If a normal person doesn’t know, he minces words. He puts some words here and there and confuses the audience.’ Confusing the audience is not a complicated job. It is easy because they are already confused! There is nothing more to be done. Just use some words, that’s all. And it’s not a big thing. Only an Enlightened person is courageous enough to say, ‘I don’t know’ when he doesn’t know.

To answer a question without knowledge doesn’t require Enlightenment. It needs foolish hypocrisy. The straightforward, integrated and authentic approach to the truth is what Kṛṣṇa calls sātvika dāna. Here, in whatever way I experience the truth, I simply express it and share it—authentically, without reservation. That is sātvika dāna according to Kṛṣṇa. And He goes on to explain rajas dāna and tamas dāna. Many times, the dāna is not given voluntarily. Or they may give something away as a part of a ritual. For example, in a Hindu wedding the giving away of a bride is called kanyā dāna. Earlier I spoke about people who give their property for charitable purposes in their will.

What choice do they have? They cannot carry it ŚraddhatrayaVibhāgaYogaḥ Authenticity:StraightwayTo Liberation 1233 with them. In many cases they may have fought with their children and decided not to leave them anything. So instead of giving away the wealth to their children, these people give it away as charity. Such acts are not acts of charity. They are done with ulterior motives. There are others whose charity it is better not to accept. Kṛṣṇa refers to this as giving in ignorance, tamas. People will come with money not declared for tax as earned income and gift that to the ashram. They will use it as a tax saving strategy. What for?

Often, disciples ask why I am not accepting donations from very wealthy people who come to the ashram seeking help. Unless the person stays with me for a year or more and shows his integrity, authenticity and responsibility towards enriching the mission, it is difficult to accept anything from that person. Why become bonded to people whose motives are not merely selfish but self-defeating? Parāśakti (Existence) guides the mission and She takes care. What She cannot give, no one else can give. What She decides not to give, who else can give? Om Tat Sat