Noble Use of Money

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Mahavideh Foundation

Page 16

Noble Use of Money
Noble Use of Money
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inspection you will find that he is not really poor but in actuality, plenty of money. This happens because people have not learnt to collect money in the name of poverty. It has become a business. Where should you give charity? It should be given to the common man who does not ask for it, but despite living frugally suffers a lot from within. They are the ones in difficulty, so give to them, the middle class.
Know Where Your Money Goes One person had a flash of gnan. What gnan? He thought that people would die of severe cold exposure. Winter had arrived and it got cold in the home. Then what about those people sleeping on the footpaths? This is a type of a gnan. He had money. He went and bought a hundred new, inexpensive woolen blankets of poor quality. The next morning at 4:00 AM he went around covering whomever he came across sleeping on the footpath. When he went back a week later, none of the blankets were to be found. They had sold the new blankets for money.
He should not have given new blankets, instead he should have bought old, used ones from a flea market, so that they could not be sold. If his budget was seventy rupees per blanket, he could have bought three used blankets for the price of one new blanket. Then he could have given all three to just one person who would use it for the purpose intended since no one would want to buy them.
Nowadays you cannot give cash. If you want to give food, buy some food and distribute it. You should not give packaged food because they will try to sell it for even half the price. What can one do in a world like this? If you buy them fritters, break them up into smaller pieces. You can also give some yogurt to go with the fritters. If they ask you why the fritters are in pieces you can point to the yogurt that you are giving them also. In this manner, they will not be suspicious that you think that they will sell the whole fritters. And thus you have ensured that they will consume the food.
It is not possible for you to take care of everything. However, if someone comes to you and asks for help, you should help him, but do not give him money, otherwise it will be misused. That happens here in India. Nobody in this world can solve this Indian puzzle! If you were to investigate the whereabouts of the donated blankets, you would not have to look very far. Just go to one of the shops nearby! Such is the Indian puzzle!
When will money be worthy again? Surely there should be some principles or ethics where money is concerned. This is a peculiar time cycle, so should there not be at least some kind of principles? How can things work without ethics?
People will sell off everything. When it comes to money, they will even sell their daughters. Things have gone to such extremes. One simply cannot behave in this way!
You can help a person with his livelihood, but do not give cash. Help him start a business. Money given to anyone who is violent through his thoughts, speech and actions will only perpetuate violence.
Charity With Awareness Of The Next Life Worrying that your money will be used up cannot preoccupy you. Whatever money is spent is fine. The spending
So in the current time cycle, if you are making a donation, do so only after giving it a lot of thought. By nature, money of this era is wrong, because it hardly flows towards good use. Even when you give to charity, you will only be able to give after you have given it a lot of consideration. In the past money was pure and so regardless of where one made a donation, it went to a good cause.