Tuesday 1 July 2014

On Giving, and Giving Quietly

Last week, a Well Wisher visited the K. J. Somaiya Medical hospital, and donated a dialysis machine. On seeing the service provided, he volunteered to provide another 5-6 machines so that the service to the poor could be expanded. He did not want to be named.

This adds in capital, to the operating assistance we get from another donor, who is also very quiet giver, who subsidizes the cost of dialysis to the poor. As a result, we are currently able to provide dialysis care to those who cannot afford it, at under Rs. 400 per treatment. What wonderful examples of giving.

I think, that we should celebrate such examples, since the world needs more role models of those who give, rather than those who simply 'make'.

As the Dalai Lama said last week, that our education teaches us today, to spend more time following that which is limited (material goods), instead of also spending time in cultivating that which is unlimited (the power of the mind). We need to make, but also, from what we make, to give back to society.

There is a beautiful saying in Sanskrit:

शतहस्त समाहर सहस्त्रहस्त संकिर

Earn with a hundred hands, but give with a thousand.

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