PDA

View Full Version : Donkey's food



satay
14 October 2007, 05:55 PM
Donkey’s food, an expression I borrowed from a close friend means ‘money is like donkey’s food’ for a sadhu.

What is a sadhu to do with it? For a sadhu, money is like donkey’s food. If as a sadhu one still craves earning money (even to help others), it is one extra desire that binds the sadhu to material existence. In my view, this desire to earn money is the worst desire as it leads to all other material desires. A sadhu belongs to the sanyas ashram.

Yet all of us work hard to earn our money. It pays the bills, it buys the material things necessary to survive and yes, it is also used to help those in need when donated to the right organizations. For those living grihastha ashram, it is our duty to earn money so that those who depend on us can be taken care of.

So to avoid further confusion on the usage of the term, money is donkey's food for a sadhu or an enlightened person or it should be. If it isn't then the sadhu is living in grihastha ashram just like the rest of us.

sm78
15 October 2007, 04:44 AM
A sadhu in sannyasa ashrama must work for the society as very very few can renounce work altogether and live as a brahmakoti jiavana mukta.

However the rule is the sadhu does not own any property and doesn't have any bank balance. Generally his ashrams and temples would be owned by trustees consisting of his sishyas.

I am not completely with you when you say, ravi shankar should not charge money for his courses. Most who attend his courses are wealthy people who are still not happy with their lives. Yet they won't sacrifice a pie for the society by themselves. Yet they are willing to pay for services to them.
One must charge for a service provided from persons who r more than capable to pay in return. Concept of guru-dakshina is not a neo age ravi shankar discovery.

How the guru uses the dakshina depends on his ashrama and inclination. You may judge his caliber based on what he does with the money. Whether is is just a business man or a philanthropist.

Finally, in the particular case of ravi shankar, I don't think he is a sannyasi. I think it may not be against his ashrama dharma to collect the money for himself (indeed if he doing so). Of course you and me will not consider him as a guru but a mere businessman. Maybe in that case (if it is indeed true that he fattens his own bank balance by selling spiritual merchandise) problem is in posing as a guru as opposed to collecting guru-dakshina. But I'll refrain from any judgement as I do not know what happens to funds at the Art of Living foundation.

However I may note that there is "no hindu organization" really working to save the hindus where they really need help. No one is fighing the terrible situation in kashmir, jammu, assam, kerala and now bengal where muslims are threating to take over the parts of the land. "No one" is fighting the xtian missionaries in their blatant conversion attempts gaining through out this land of bharata.

I say "no-one" in quotes as there are individuals and small organizations who are working to for sanatana dharma ~ however they don't comprize of ravu shankar, jaggi vasudev, ammachi or satya sai or any well known guru's sishyas.

As far as hospitals and education...a single catholic missionary church does way more than all hindu santhas combined.

satay
15 October 2007, 08:43 AM
Sure, I have no problem with businessmen selling spiritual merchandise. If someone wants to pay hundreds of dollars for age old breathing techniques, hey, I am all for it.

Kudos to ravi for packaging the obvious and selling it to those who are 'wealthy but unhappy'. If status of a sage comes with that selling more kudos to him for being so clever.

There is sucker born every minute.

saidevo
16 October 2007, 03:52 AM
Namaste everyone.

At the outset, this is a good thread, thanks to Satay for spawning it.

1. Some years back I read the following incident in a Tamil spiritual magazine:

A dampati (husband-wife) had gone to Rishikesh for a pilgrimage. On their way back they came across a Sadhu. The dampati prostrated to him. The Sadhu gave them some vibhuti (holy ash). When the wife searched her handbag for a piece of paper to preserve the prasAdam (divine gift), the Sadhu gave him a piece of paper from the many that were stacked beside him. Only then the dampati noticed that the piece of paper the Sadhu gave them was a five hundred rupee bill! The papers stacked beside him for packing up things given by him were also five hundred and one hundred rupee bills! When the dampati asked the Sadhu about it, he said simply that the paper pieces were offered to him by his devotees but he had no use for them except by what he did with them. The wife who narrated this experience in the magazine wrote that they had till that day preservered in their puja room the 'holy piece of paper' offered by the anonymous Sadhu!

2. Kanchi Paramacharya was once touring a remote village outside Tamilnadu with his retinue. In accordance with their custom he used to direct his people to prepare some food for the devotees who came from far away places seeking his darshan. The manager supplicated to the sage that they practically had no money or stack of groceries to meet such situations and that the village that was their destination was a small and remote one, so they had no hopes of any large monetary offer from the devotees. Paramacharya said that AmbaaL was there to take care of them and she will mete out what they needed (He actually said in Tamil, "AmbaaL padi aLappAL", meaning that AmbaaL would give them what they needed in litres)! When the entourage stayed in the village, people in the surrounding villages got news of the Sage's visit and started visiting them. Everyone gave their kANikkai (offer) in silver rupee coins. The crowd of devotees from the surrounding villages and from far away places swelled in the next two days resulting in a large heap of stack of silver coins. The disciples had no time to count the coins; they had to estimate the value literally by using a two-litre measure, couting one such measure for sample! The sage's words thus became true before the very eyes of the disciples.

As true sannyasis of the Sankaracharya tradition, Kanchi gurus never even sign their names let alone have bank accounts. Yet the MaTham receives large contributions, mainly from NRI devotees and rich people, and the accounts are maintained by Trusts of devotees. Kanchi MaTham runs/supports over 300 institutions for dispensing Hindu dharma, details of which can be viewed here: http://www.kanchiforum.org/interesting/institutions.htm.


3. It is more or less a myth that the Catholic Missionary Church is doing more than any/all Hindu Santhas combined in the fields of health and education. The list of institutions given above is a case in point. Another such example is the Sathya Sai Trust, which set up super speciality hospitals in Puttaparthi and gives free treatment for all ailments, without any distinction of status of people. The Sai Trust is also running educational institutions where everything is free. In addition, the Sai Trust has successfully executed drinking water supply projects in the villages around Puttaparthi and even helped procurement of Krishna water to Chennai without seepage in the cananls by using state of the art technology. With the mountains of wealth at the disposal of the missionaries, how many of them have contributed to--leave alone privately executing--such social welfare projects without expecting anything in return?

Sai Baba himself may be travelling by private aircraft or posh cars or other such vehicles in his Ashram, he may be sitting in plush and technologically modern sofa sets and even the ceiling of his auditorium may be embellished in gold, but as a man (or avatar as you might think of him) he wears a only a very simple dress, eats very simple food, and rests in a small room in his Ashram.

So where does it all leave us for an opinion about sages and money? I think it is the end that justifies the means in this case. It may be alright for the sages to receive and accept money and live amidst all that money, but not live in that money. For Jivan Muktas paper money is indeed donkey's feed. As householders who can't do without that paper money, it is we who are living a donkey's life.