Not expecting any fruit in return in only for God's work
A hasty donation to poor people is not correct
Beggar homes for deserving beggars
Spiritual knowledge means only the subject confined to God and not in any way to the world. Hence, sacrifice of work and its fruit are confined to the spiritual field (Nivrutti) only and not to worldly life (Pravrutti). You need not do free service and donate back the salary to your worldly employer! Nishkaama karma Yoga or free service without any fruit in return preached by the Gita is limited to God only since the word Yoga means the association with God. You should not be exploited by the worldly employer. Of course, it is true that you must have the training of concept in the world so that it will be easy to implement it in spiritual line. In such case, you take the training by serving the poor people and you have to serve without aspiring any fruit in return since the poor man can’t pay back to you in anyway. Shankara recommended this in the case of service to poor people (deyam deena janaayacha…). Of course, you have to take lot of care and precaution in seeing that the poor people, generally addicted to sinful habits, don’t misuse your donation and get damaged further. A hasty donation to poor people is not correct. Instead of donating a small coin to poor every day, these coins should be stored and an association of such donors should be formed to maintain beggar homes in which food, cloth, shelter and medicine are freely supplied to the deserving beggars. Children, old people, disabled and diseased categories in beggars really deserve for such free service. Be careful to beggars acting as disabled! You must provide work to earn for other category of beggars in these beggar homes. Donation is a double edged sword. If the donation is done to deserving and if it is not misused, that is the best path to heaven. Hasty donation without recognizing the deservingness is the worst path to hell. Hence, you must think well and analyze deeply before doing donation so that you can avoid hell even if the heaven is not attained!
A religious trust maintained by ordinary human beings will commit many such mistakes, if not guided by the best scholar of spiritual knowledge like the human incarnation Bhagavan Shri Satya Sai Baba. I will just analyze a small issue of the service done by several trusts in doing supply of food to the devotees attending the temple as attraction of business to donors. Every devotee is forced to take the food since the food is labeled as the remains of food taken by God (Prasada). This is not correct. The food can be sold to the devotees in reduced rates. The entire money for this program can be spent in maintaining the beggar homes so that the deserving needy people are effectively served. The reason for hasty donation is the importance of place (desha) and date (kaala). “This place is Tirupati and today is holy Ekadashi and let me donate to poor on this day and in this place”. This is the reason for the hasty donation. Deservingness of receiver (paatra) is not analyzed. Lord Krishna donated all His wealth to Sudaama (Kuchela) seeing the deservingness of the receiver. The place of donation was not Tirupati and the date of donation was not Ekadashi. Since the receiver has topmost deservingness, the place of donation is real Tirupati and the date of donation is real Ekadashi. The Veda says that the receiver should have 1) excellent spiritual knowledge or devotion and 2) aspiration for nothing from donor (Shrotrisyasya chaakaamahatasya).
A hasty donation to poor people is not correct
Beggar homes for deserving beggars
Spiritual knowledge means only the subject confined to God and not in any way to the world. Hence, sacrifice of work and its fruit are confined to the spiritual field (Nivrutti) only and not to worldly life (Pravrutti). You need not do free service and donate back the salary to your worldly employer! Nishkaama karma Yoga or free service without any fruit in return preached by the Gita is limited to God only since the word Yoga means the association with God. You should not be exploited by the worldly employer. Of course, it is true that you must have the training of concept in the world so that it will be easy to implement it in spiritual line. In such case, you take the training by serving the poor people and you have to serve without aspiring any fruit in return since the poor man can’t pay back to you in anyway. Shankara recommended this in the case of service to poor people (deyam deena janaayacha…). Of course, you have to take lot of care and precaution in seeing that the poor people, generally addicted to sinful habits, don’t misuse your donation and get damaged further. A hasty donation to poor people is not correct. Instead of donating a small coin to poor every day, these coins should be stored and an association of such donors should be formed to maintain beggar homes in which food, cloth, shelter and medicine are freely supplied to the deserving beggars. Children, old people, disabled and diseased categories in beggars really deserve for such free service. Be careful to beggars acting as disabled! You must provide work to earn for other category of beggars in these beggar homes. Donation is a double edged sword. If the donation is done to deserving and if it is not misused, that is the best path to heaven. Hasty donation without recognizing the deservingness is the worst path to hell. Hence, you must think well and analyze deeply before doing donation so that you can avoid hell even if the heaven is not attained!
A religious trust maintained by ordinary human beings will commit many such mistakes, if not guided by the best scholar of spiritual knowledge like the human incarnation Bhagavan Shri Satya Sai Baba. I will just analyze a small issue of the service done by several trusts in doing supply of food to the devotees attending the temple as attraction of business to donors. Every devotee is forced to take the food since the food is labeled as the remains of food taken by God (Prasada). This is not correct. The food can be sold to the devotees in reduced rates. The entire money for this program can be spent in maintaining the beggar homes so that the deserving needy people are effectively served. The reason for hasty donation is the importance of place (desha) and date (kaala). “This place is Tirupati and today is holy Ekadashi and let me donate to poor on this day and in this place”. This is the reason for the hasty donation. Deservingness of receiver (paatra) is not analyzed. Lord Krishna donated all His wealth to Sudaama (Kuchela) seeing the deservingness of the receiver. The place of donation was not Tirupati and the date of donation was not Ekadashi. Since the receiver has topmost deservingness, the place of donation is real Tirupati and the date of donation is real Ekadashi. The Veda says that the receiver should have 1) excellent spiritual knowledge or devotion and 2) aspiration for nothing from donor (Shrotrisyasya chaakaamahatasya).
