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Stray thoughts on Charity

I always wonder what the best form of charity is. I vaguely remember Vivekananda’s idea of best charity is teach one to attain the spiritual excellence. I guess it all started when I read this essay by Vivekananda in my 11th or 12th class. There are different forms of charity. I can give away something only if I have some. My spiritual philosophy is not very concrete. I am yet to decide what to believe and what not in terms of spirituality. When I do not have a perfect spiritual knowledge, how can I guide some one else on those lines?

I started pondering on those lines. Different people have different opinions on charity. Some say that the best form of charity is to give food to some, some feel educating the unprivileged is better.

As all the Cancerians do, I learn from the ideas of different people. I don't blindly follow them, but I learn. I make mistakes, but I learn!

I asked a friend at my college about his opinion on charity. When I ask about the opinion, it is just a vague question. Since the question is not very specific, there is a higher probability of the response having the exact ideas of the speaker. His opinion was related to giving money to beggars. According to him, we can give money to elderly beggars since they do not have any one to help them financially, but we should not encourage the kids to beg. I could not have agreed any better. I started following the same. I started giving some money to some poor old people. But I ignored the kids when they beg.

After few years, I asked another friend - a colleague of mine - about his philosophy on charity. Again, his opinion was about beggars. This time, it was slightly different. He said that we should give money both to kids as well as to aged beggars. He believes that the kids beg only because they do not have any one to take care. Moreover , kids will revert back the behavior of society when they grow up. If we are kind to them, they will behave well in their grown up age and if we ill-treat them or ignore them, they might have a tit-for-tat attitude, which is bad for the country.

Some of my colleagues are regular visitors at the old age homes and the charity centers for mentally challenged children. They go there for occasions like their birthdays etc. They would pay some amount of money to the trust and they would provide the inmates with food for a day or so. They would go there to cut their birthday cake and distribute food and sweets among the inmates. In some occasions, fruits were distributed.

When I spoke to another friend of mine, she told me that she believes helping and taking care of one individual and their kids/family members fully, instead of partly helping huge crowd to put off their hunger for one afternoon. There is no point in feeding so many people for a day and leaving at that. They don't even know if they will get to eat meals the next day. It could be the servant maid in your house, or any individual that you know of. Take care of everything of that individual, his/her kids, their books etc. Infact, my friend's mother helps their servant maid by paying the expenses of her kids' books and school uniforms at the beginning of the every academic year. I got inspired both by her ideas as well as the deeds that her mother does.

I also believe that every individual is good at performing a particular kind of charity. We need to assess it ... Like we assess our strengths and weaknesses. I believe that mobilizing funds for charity organizations is also a form of charity. I think I am good at that. Probably, I feel so because I am good at motivating people to do some good. But I wonder how trustworthy these charitable organizations are. I remember reading in a news paper that the recent terrorist plans (foiled) in UK were funded by some charity organization. Also, I wonder how prudent the idea of founding a charitable organization is.

I stop to blog my thoughts on charity here with mixed, confused and rather not-fully-concrete opinions. So... What is your take on charity? Kindly do leave a comment on this blog, as I am yet to zero down on a set of rules that I should follow. Policy is yet to be finalized and your opinion matters :-)