charity

Do you want to live an exciting life. One thing I have been advised to do to live an exciting life is to help others with expecting anything in return. Imagine the people you would meet if you would hold the door open to strangers. Imagine the people you would meet if you gave a smile to a stranger. Little acts of kindness make the world a happier place.

It does not matter what you do or who you are there are people around you that could do with your help. When you do help do not view the act of help as a deposit that you expect back something in return. Just help and write off any expectations of return. Help your friends, help your colleagues and help strangers.

According to Bhagwad Geeta, there is a famous saying that all the living beings on this earth have come empty handed and they will go back empty handed. They brought nothing of their own and they will take along nothing. Everything that they have built is going to be left behind when they leave this world. But still, human mind aspires, to achieve money, glory, power and success. Sometimes, the aspirations and desires grow to the levels of obsession and hence they eliminate the difference between right and wrong. They simply work hard to achieve whatever it takes to become the ultimate conqueror of the world.

But the question is that what should be done? Should people work hard to achieve the best of what they want or they should understand the truth about this world? What would help them to become a better human being? There is a wonderful story that talks about that in detail:

According to Jainism, in heaven, there is a parallel mountain to Himalayas, which is called Sumeru. It is the highest ever mountain and is made of Gold. It is studded with precious diamonds, rubies and other jewels. Whoever conquers the world gets the honor to engrave his name on this mountain after his death and departure to heaven, as a symbol of glory.

It happens only once in a thousand years that someone gets to become a Chakravartin aka conqueror of the world. Even alexander the great was not the conqueror of the world. This is a story about a Chakravartin, who had conquered the world and got a chance to go to the Sumeru Mountain up in the heaven to engrave his name.

As he reached there, with his prime minister, his wife and his commander-in-chief, to write his name, he was stopped by the gatekeeper, who suggested him to go alone. But, the king was adamant to take his people along because they had sacrificed their lives to come along with him and he wanted them to see his name glorified on the golden mountain. But, the king agreed to go alone to write his name first and then call the three in to see it as suggested by the gatekeeper. As he reached inside, he was stunned to see that there was no space for him to write a name. He was confused and he asked the gatekeeper about it. The gatekeeper told him that the mountain had been there for eternity and if he had to write his name, he would have to erase someone else’s name and write his own. This is what had been happening for eternity, as per the gatekeeper. The king decided to not write his name by erasing someone else’s because he knew this would happen to his name also, one day. He understood that there’s nothing in name and fame.

Humans are here on the earth to work, do their karma and they should never run away from that. They should work hard and relish all the enjoyments without growing obsessed to it. They should understand that everything that they have created is going to stay here. Hence, they should never be proud of creating anything. They should be humble and intelligent enough to not look for credits for their work. They should know that whatever they have done has been done before.. and remember this great saying by Charles Dicken

"There were two classes of charitable people: one, the people who did a little and made a great deal of noise; the other, the people who did a great deal and made no noise at all."