Jain Spirit 2004 10 No 20

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 43

At
Charity consists of giving alms to the qualified person for
one's own benefit.
Tattvartha Sutra, 7.33
LIFESTYLE 41
CHARITY BENEFITS
THE DONOR
ATUL K. SHAH LEARNS ABOUT THE MEANING OF CHARITY FROM MR. D. R. MEHTA
Charity is for one's own benefit! This is odd. Very odd indeed. In the modern world, we understand charity to be something that the giver does to help the recipient, and something for which the recipient should be grateful. Moreover, a majority today think that charity is primarily about giving money to a needy cause.
uring my editorial trip to India in February 2004, I visited the hospital for injured or missing limbs in Jaipur, founded by an eminent civil servant,
treatment which would help them become mobile and therefore, more independent. What I saw was a truly educational and uplifting experience, one which shook so many of the conventional views of charity. Mr. D. R. Mehta truly believes that his personal act of charity is more as an instrument rather than a doer, and something which is truly joyful.
I discovered that to help needy people requires much more than compassion. It requires skill, self-discipline and dedication. And very often, giving money is the easy part. It is much harder to turn the money into something which fulfils the needs of others and to be given with the utmost humility so that patients do not lose any of their dignity and self-esteem.