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Influential People and Charity
Influential people can play a very important role in encouraging other people to get involved (voluntarily, of course) in charitable activities. These include, among others, monks, preachers, writers, publishers, organizers of social and religious activities, and so on. A part of each religious lecture anywhere by anybody should be devoted to how to help people in need.
Traditional Areas of Charity
You can help people in many different ways. I am sure you know all the familiar forums. Feed the hungry. Shelter the homeless. Treat the sick. Clothe the naked. Protect the innocent. And so on. They all play important roles in helping the people in need.
As a starter, you can adopt/sponsor a selected number of students in a school of your choice. Start with your own alma mater, if you so wish. Look for a school in need in your
wherever you live. You never know; you might be supporting a future Einstein, Gandhi, Gates, King, Lincoln, or Teresa.
Jain organizations can do that by providing support to causes such as schools, hospitals, organizations for homeless, and more. Every Jain organization should provide support to at least one charitable cause in their community.
Each issue of Jain Digest (and similar other publications) should devote a page or two in its each issue that summarizes who is doing what charitable work for the people in need in the United States. The Problems in Doing the work of Charity
Helping individuals is easier than helping organizations (public schools, hospitals, etc.) Many times these needy organizations do not know how to ask for or receive help. You may find them slow and unorganized in responding to your desire to help them. Many times bureaucratic structures around them discourage them from receiving help. Think about this. If they were smart enough like you are, why would they need your help. Many times poverty and ignorance demoralize and confuse people/organizations so much that they don't know how to ask for or receive help. It is a double tragedy.
Sometimes people misuse the funds raised in the name of charity. That is wrong. However, that is no reason to be critical of all charitable activities. Just select them carefully. Start with your own alma mater, as an example.
However, such problems should not discourage you from trying to help others. Trying to help people is much more than just writing a check. You also need commitment, patience and persistence. Concluding Thoughts About Charity
Just remember one thing. The Lord Mahavir Himself gave to charity 10,800,000 gold coins every day for a whole year before taking diksha (sainthood).
Non-Traditional Areas of Charity
Let me venture into some territories not so familiar. As a starter, you may provide help to the impoverished but promising entrepreneurs. You probably already know that the small business entrepreneurs create the most of the new jobs.
Encourage people back home to keep their animals (cows in particular) in their own homes. You would be providing a great service to these animals, on the one hand, as you provide a major civic service, on the other. For your information, individual people own many of these "gau matas" (mother cows). They let them loose so that other people can feed them.
Similarly, encourage people back home to dispose off their garbage properly. Throwing it out on the street creates and destroys lives of millions of bacteria and insects, and it also causes all kinds of diseases and problems. It is a good area to put our principle of non-violence in practice.
Encourage people to control population through peaceful, non-violent, and voluntary methods of preventing conception. Dr. L. M. Singhvi, a world-renowned statesman and Jain scholar once said that "the Jain laity .... must not procreate indiscriminately lest they overburden the universe and its resources...."
Many Jains in America talk about sharing the noble principles of Jainism with the American community. A good way to translate many noble speeches and sermons about Jainism into practice is to provide help to the needy people in America.
Acharya Shri Hastimalji Maharaj, Jain Dharma Ka Maulik Itihas, Pratham Bhag, Jain Itihas Samiti, Jaipur, 1971, p. 360. ? Ibid, page 456.
Translated and adapted from Narendra C. Bhandari, Katha Vir Bhagwan Ki, second edition, American Center for Indian Studies, 1997, back cover.
Munisri Nyayavijayaji. Jaina Philosophy and Religion, (translated by Nagin J. Shah), Motilal Banarasidas Publishers, Delhi, 1999, p. 265. s Sri Jinendra Varni, Saman Sutam, Sarva Seva Sangh Prakashan, Varasani, 1993, p. 199.
Quoted in Kurt Titze, lainism, A Pictorial Guide to the Religion of Non-Violence, Second Revised Edition, Motilal Banarasidas Publishers, New Delhi, 2001, p. 227.
32 / JAIN DIGEST- Summer 20004
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