Today’s thought – on giving..

 

“One of the great movements in my lifetime among educated people is the need to commit themselves to action. Most people are not satisfied with giving money; we also feel we need to work.”

Peter Drucker

 

“Is the rich world aware of how four billion of the six billion live? If we were aware, we would want to help out, we’d want to get involved.”

Bill Gates

 

..and, now, Kabir Day 39

 

The couplet transliterated:

Chidi chonch bhar lai gayi, nadi ghatya na neer |

Daan diye dhan naa ghatai, Kah gaye daas Kabir ||

 

Translation:

As the bird takes away water beak after beak, the river loses neither water nor level|

Giving wealth does not make a man any the lesser, so says Kabir, the everyman ||

 

My understanding:

Here, Kabir, allegorically, once again refers to the true wealth of man, not just the paper the commercial world calls money.

 

A teacher becomes wiser by teaching, and engineer better by building, and a doctor better by practicing.

 

The devotee unveils the Face of God inside himself ever so slowly by praying, and the lover learns the true meaning of love by loving – not by wanting love.

 

Money, by itself, has no intrinsic value. Its value is derived from the worth we gain from it. If no one cared for diamonds, the whole diamond industry might be found wanting for work – irrespective of the abundance or scarcity of diamonds.

 

Drucker and Gates above talk of this need of the educated man – the need to go and prove the worth of our education – by giving, not receiving. For therein lies true satisfaction – from the ability to be of use to others, to society.

 

Kabir, in simple words, reinforces the concept – the river exists to please, but loses not when the bird drinks from it – for it is in fulfilling the thirst or wanderers and hundry fields that the river finds its true purpose.