Donate your thought today!
Photo copyright Suresh Gundappa 2007 Buy this photo from my gallery!
What is the value of one dollar?
It is difficult to say but you can imagine. Just think of one dollar you donated today to someone needy, and in return the person who received it passed it on to someone else or bought something, and then the same dollar keeps circulating : In this fashion money keeps circulating and one dollar actually creates a value of million dollars!
Currency comes from root word “currete” or current which means to flow or in circulation. This is all you need to know when you donate, Even a small single dollar you donated changed million lives. Just imagine the concept and donate every time so that you feel the magnanimity of the charity.
Similarly best charity in life does come in small acts, an act of compassion, act of good wish, act of praying for someone else , all have immense potential to yield similar snowball effects. Thought is a energy and every thought has a capability to create positive impact and change lives. Your small act of charity can save lives and can help millions of people.
Make a start today and it doesn’t matter what you start with, you may start with a dollar or a flower or a fruit or a wish or a prayer!, Just start act of giving today and know that you already kick started a snowball of positive change!
Meditation is art of knowing you are integral part of universe. meditation is art of feeling love when butterfly swapped it’s wings somewhere in the world . Meditation is knowing you can make a difference. Meditation is art of knowing your are bottomless vessel of Love and it keeps filling up as you pour more out.
Love dear ones and I wish you love
Suresh
Thank you for giving your time here suresh, some words in this particular post are so beautiful and strong I feel it may start an avalanche of good acts by itself
Its a different thing all together to make it a consistent natural way of life, but I can definitely attest that with whatever little I’ve done so far, that at times even a trivial act may make a big difference to someone else. Yesterday evening again I happened to give a lift to an elderly person and also offerred cellphone for him to contact whomever he was trying to find. It was night and he’d been walking alone on a dark street. Along the way based on his phone calls, I got the impression he was going through some hard times. I didnt speak much though, as I’ve decided to be through with getting to know about other’s difficulties and finding my own helplesness in being able to sincerely do anything about it most of the time
He’d been a bit lost, and his destination Banshankari bus stop turned out to be quite a distance actually. At the end of the ride, he was so grateful with folded hands he said “thank you for treating me with so much respect” and I was so surprised and touched. I also said bye to him with the same gesture. More than him, I think it made a difference to me that I learnt little more about gratitude.
Sometimes I feel my ego increases when I help others. So whenever I give a gift to someone, I just feel that I’m merely conveying to that person what was already his
and this helps me eliminate any trace of expectation/obligation within myself.
Other questions I have about giving. Anyone’s points/counter-points are welcome. Sometimes I wonder that when we give, we may actually be harming rather than helping. Giving a beggar 1 rupee may make him more lazy. There are so many beggars who hoard huge amount of money enough to deal with property. Other times we may even be putting ourselves at risk – eg what if the fellow I give a lift may turn out to be a criminal? There was a stage when I tried to help everyone (and usually just ended up wasting time/energy/whatever). There was an astrologer invited by my uncle when I was a young kid, who’d predicted that I’d always try to help peoplebut never really be effective at it
And then a stage when i decided never to help anyone, thinking everyone is better off learning to become independent and fending for themselves. And now I’m at trying to throwing away pre-defined decisions, and just doing whatever occurs randomly on the spot… so far so good…
This is a nice site based on a similar idea, run by anonymous people: <a href=http://www.helpothers.orghelpothers.org.
Sanjay M
August 21, 2007 at 11:12 am
Beginning, you, the splendid picture, you showed. Thank you. I am the Japanese. You have lived in Japan.
tukikage
August 21, 2007 at 1:31 pm
The following in your post are really true and you know when you really do it no amount of
money or things can give u that satisfaction what little you do to help some one in need
really a great post and I owe a lot to it and as usual the photo and ending comment are superb
“”
Similarly best charity in life does come in small acts, an act of compassion, act of good wish, act of praying for someone else , all have immense potential to yield similar snowball effects. Thought is a energy and every thought has a capability to create positive impact and change lives. Your small act of charity can save lives and can help millions of people.”"
praneshachar
August 21, 2007 at 3:30 pm
What fierce pride I see in this photo. Where and how did you take it? I like the way you frame the pictures when you post them. How do you do that? Do you make a background in Photoshop and put your pictures to post inside it? (sorry for the mundane question amidst so much higher wisdom.)
Jana Bouc
August 25, 2007 at 4:14 am
Suresh,
Great post!
Sanjay,
The questions you have are what we all struggle with. My take is: when giving keep no expectations. Because when the universe gives it keeps no expectations. It just gives.
I remember a dialogue with a friend who was sponsoring a child’s education and was troubled by the fact that the child was not performing well at school. She was considering stopping the funding but was not sure if that is the right thing to do. My answer were a series of questions :
“Had that been your child, would you have stopped the funding?”
“Who knows what other difficulties this child faces that prevent him to reach his full academic potential?”
“who knows when or how this education will help him? Maybe someday your act of kindness will compel him to do an act of kindness”
None of us has used the universe’s gifts to their full potential. Each of us has a degree of misuse and waste. How then are we qualified to judge the small gifts which we give?
Gurdas
August 27, 2007 at 7:30 am
Hmm… makes a lot of sense Gurdas, esp the last para.
Sanjay M
August 27, 2007 at 9:16 am
Great post! It does not take much to do so much good!
tobeme
August 27, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Jana
thanks for your comments and i really appreciate your time. As you know you are one of my favorite artists and coming from you feels extra special. I do use a tool to frame my photos but i do not touch my photos! this particular photo i took in one of India’s forest! while on top of watching tower! used a telephoto lens!
Suresh Gundappa
August 28, 2007 at 12:28 pm
beautiful post and thought.
may i share some of your photos sometime with links?
the thoughts accompanying the beautiful photos are getting really rich. love them!
MysticSaint
September 2, 2007 at 7:46 pm
September 4
Unto those that hath shall be given, and they shall have abundance: but from those that hath not shall be taken away even that which they have.
– The Gospel according to Saint Matthew
This is a strange paradox, a little-known secret. Jesus isn’t speaking of worldly goods. He is speaking of a very rare kind of treasure: the more you draw on it, the more you will have. The more patient you are with people, for instance, the more patience you will have. The more generous you are today, the more generosity you will have tomorrow. The more love you give, the more loving you become.
The principle can be stated in the plainest of terms: if you are selfish with your love, the scant security you cling to will be battered by life. But if you give of yourself freely, your security will be unshakable. Your joy will be limitless. You will always have more to give.
Source: http://easwaran.org/thoughts
Sanjay M
September 4, 2007 at 4:37 am
Donation isn’t the only way. If you want a more direct approach, check out http://www.kiva.org/
Kiva is amazing. It’s a site that lets you make microloans to working poor entrepreneurs in the developing world. Farmers, shopkeepers, builders, textile workers, and shoe sellers in Azerbaijan, Samoa, Togo, Kenya, Ecuador. Kiva helps you help them for as little as $25 at a time.
I like this approach because you’re helping people that want to be helped, that are ambitious. Not to say this should substitute for donating money, but this is a supplementary method.
Also, instead of giving gifts to family members on their birthdays, I donate $ to an organization in their name. I avoid the materialism, and hopefully they feel satisfaction of a positive act happening on their birthday. =)
BadKarmaSD
September 7, 2007 at 5:13 pm