On certain occasion, we all have philanthropic urges, urges to help, to charity and that certain urge is what maketh the invisible conduct of oneself. Our very perspective of understanding the world is solely on the basis on what we tend to observe because we consider witnessing to be the highest earmark for truthfulness. But what we do not understand is the very motive or the cause that has guided the action as the thought is what that reflects the character. Often, we overlook the minute behaviours and moments that might be reflected in the action because judging is a man’s inevitable habit and that latent truth is what we are misguided from. I remember a certain saying of Swami Vivekananda- two factors decide the conduct of a man- mercy and might. Clouded by partial knowledge of things and the world, we tend to do actions which might which apparently appear fruitious, but rather are actually fruitless. In other words, use of our God given might in the very wrong direction. All the very improper actions and misunderstandings in this world, I believe, are solely because we try to look the world from our eyes, and that is where we lose the very essence of understanding the pain bore by people and the world. By world I mean both animals and humans as a whole for we all constitute this ecosystem created by the Almighty with the purpose of establishing harmony where one species will understand the other. I suddenly remember a shloka from Brihadaranyaka Upanishada- Tadett treyam shikshed damam danam dayamitih which translates to there are three characteristics of a developed person- self-restraint, compassion for all life and charity. I write this because I feel one must understand the motive behind charity. Sometime love solely cannot be a motive because you cannot generalize it; likewise you cannot generalize satisfaction, greed and anger. There are many ways to establish the motive behind charity, several paths, and doctrines behind understanding your very motive of philanthropy but as Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa has quoted- There are many paths because there are many arguments, but the goal is one. For some, it is a means to find redemption, for some it is a means to find God, for some it is the understanding the highest form of invisible truth and for some it is simply an act of selfless compassion. I do not say which path you must choose as your motive because we cannot quantify compassion but the objective remains same, to understand people, to feel their pain, their endless helplessness and their grief. An act of charity is like the pole star, guiding you always towards truth irrespective of the path you choose. And I shall end by a certain quote by Swamiji from one of his lecture-
Charity never faileth; Charity opens the heart
and there is no higher virtue than Charity…
– Shomik Das Gupta