Giving

I just returned from a trip to Gujarat to complete some work. I spent time with my friend in Ahmedabad on my return from Baroda. She was chauffeuring me around to my favorite shopping joints. I noticed a basket in the backseat that had an assortment of clothing, t-shirts, shorts, towels, shawls etc. I wondered but did not ask about its significance. At one of the many traffic circles that dot Ahmedabad's roads, we passed a cycle-rickshaw type contraption pedaled by a young girl, no more than 10 years old, carrying two little kids in the backseat. As we prepared to pass them, my friend asked me to grab three items from the basket and hand it to the older girl. So we pulled up close and asked the girl to come closer so I could hand her the clothes. And then we sped up and zipped by, waving to the smiling snotty-faced kids. It felt amazing to be a part of this random act of kindness. Random perhaps to the recipient but very much a planned activity on the part of the giver who has thoughtfully kept items that can be put to use by the needy and deserving people that we share our world with.

In Paulo Coelho's new book, The Aleph, there is a point at which the author and Yao, his translator/companion during the trans-Siberian journey find themselves begging on a street corner, using their recently emptied plastic coffee cups. It is a strange situation for the two of them to be, given their status in life. But they manage to collect some cash. Yao illuminates Coelho on the significance of seeking alms and the benefits that the act brings not just to the seeker, but also to the giver and most significantly how the cycle affects the place itself. We have known for centuries about monks who live by what they collect by way of alms, accepting what is given, being content, seeking nothing more that the essentials. In the zen (or Buddhist?) tradition, it is believed that the act of giving benefits the recipient obviously because it fulfills his need but it correspondingly fulfills the need of the giver to give and the alms that change hands complete the cycle by moving from one to the other. Thus in places where begging takes place, the atmosphere is elevated due to the ability of all three, the giver, the seeker and the item that is given, to fulfill their own need.

Similarly, in the book "Immortals of Meluha", when Shiva comes across a poor beggar in the land of the Chandravanshis, a man apparently not taken care of by the government, he momentarily feels that the Meluhan ways of equality are superior but he quickly changes his mind when he encounters the generosity of the beggar who willingly shares his meager meal with Shiva, a stranger. Shiva is humbled by this gesture, it is this apparent "lack" that brings in disparity within the population and consequently stimulates the cycle of giving.

It is not always the giver who is blessed, he is materially superior in having something to give, but it is the recipient who brings about the quality of giving in the giver and also provides him an opportunity to act upon his instinct. I have always believed that the ability to give (and receive)willingly is a quality we must develop, whether we do that by reading about it or by following instructions of people who ask us to do it or by watching others do it. We are all givers at some point each day and equally are at the receiving end, whether we seek material gains, or help or praise or love or recognition. Giving something of value to another does not make you great neither does taking something that is offered with good intention make you any less. As long as we are aware that we are a part of the cycle of giving and receiving, our participation in this circle will only help the world become a better place.