Jnaneshwari (Bhavartha Dipika)

by Ramchandra Keshav Bhagwat | 1954 | 284,137 words | ISBN-10: 8185208123 | ISBN-13: 9788185208121

This is verse 17.20 of the Jnaneshwari (Bhavartha-Dipika), the English translation of 13th-century Marathi commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita.—The Dnyaneshwari (Jnaneshwari) brings to light the deeper meaning of the Gita which represents the essence of the Vedic Religion. This is verse 20 of the chapter called Shraddha-traya-vibhaga-yoga.

Verse 17.20:When, with the sole thought of giving away, a gift is given, to one who has not (previously) obliged (the giver), and with (due consideration of propriety as regards) place, time, and recipient: that gift is pronounced as Sattva-dominated. (266)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

(In the case of Sattvic charities): He gives away in charity with the greatest regard, whatever wealth he earns acting strictly according to his own religion (duty). If good seed is available, there is (often) felt the want of good fertile soil; similar is the state experienced in regard to charity. If one (luckily) secures an invaluable gem, one finds it difficult to get gold for preparing a socket for setting it (gem) in. If both these (gem as also gold) are at hand, a (beautiful) body (limb) for wearing such an ornament is needed. When luck is in ascendance, there automatically comes in an assembly of a holiday, a dear one and also riches. In that way when the Sattva Guna comes to the help of charities, there automatically assemble together place, time, recipient and riches,—all suitable for the purposes of charity.

Therefore, for making suitable charities, one must try and seek out either Kurukshetra or Kashi, but in the absence of these, one may resort to any other place of similar sanctity. Then one should find out an auspicious occasion such as the eclipse of the Sun or the Moon, or any other pure and holy occasion like that, at such a time and place should be found a person deserving of being given charities—one who is purity incarnate. He should be the very abode of good conduct, commercial centre (for the dissemination) of Vedic knowledge, and also a holy gem amongst Brahmins. Then one should completely surrender to such a one (donor’s) ownership and mastery over the riches in the way a wife surrenders her person to her beloved Lord (husband), or in the way a righteous person returns to the depositor his deposit kept in trust with him, and becomes free and absolved, or in the way the royal page after tendering to the king ‘Tambul [Tambula]’ (tāmbūla—betel-leaf with betel-nut etc. prepared for chewing) rests at ease. In that way should be given charities in the form of land, etc. with a motive-free mind, nay, no expectation whatever of a fruit should in fact be allowed to arise in the mind.

The recipient selected should also be such that there should not exist any possibility of the return by him of the charities in one form or the other. No reply is ever received to a call made to the sky, or no reflection could ever be seen on the reverse side of a mirror; or a ball dashed against marshy ground does not rebound and get back into the hands of the one dashing it; or fodder placed for consumption before a dedicated bull, or an honour done to an ungrateful person never displays any sort of reciprocity. In that way, (it should be seen that) charity once given does in no way and in no form whatever come back to the giver. There should not also linger in the mind any distinctive feeling that one is the donor and the other is the ‘donee’. Charity given under such requisite conditions is, Oh Warrior, Sattva—dominated one, and is the best amongst all charities. A Charity made under conditions in every way suitable in regard to the place, time and the (worth of) the recipient, constitutes a pure and justifiable (following the Scriptures) charity.

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