I am going to tell
you in what circumstances I wrote this; that will make you understand:
Someone wrote to
me saying that he was very unhappy, for he longed to have wonderful
capacities to put at the disposal of the Divine, for the Realisation,
for the Work; and that he also longed to have immense riches
to be able to give them, to put them at the feet of the Divine
for the Work. So I replied to him that he need not be unhappy,
that each one is asked to give what he has, that is, all his
possessions whatever they may be, and what he is, that is, all
his potentialities - which corresponds to the consecration of
one's life and the giving of all one's possessions - and that
nothing more than this is asked. What you are, give that; what
you have, give that, and your gift will be perfect; from the
spiritual point of view it will be perfect. This does not depend
upon the amount of wealth you have or the number of capacities
in your nature; it depends upon the perfection of your gift,
that is to say, on the totality of your gift.
The Perfect Gift
I remember having
read, in a book of Indian legends, a story like this. There
was a very poor, very old woman who had nothing, who was quite
destitute, who lived in a miserable little hut, and who had
been given a fruit. It was a mango. She had eaten half of it
and kept the other half for the next day, because it was something
so marvellous that she did not often happen to get it - a mango.
And then, when night fell, someone knocked at the rickety door
and asked for hospitality. And this someone came in and told
her he wanted shelter and was hungry. So she said to him, "Well,
I have no fire to warm you, I have no blanket to cover you,
and I have half a mango left, that is all I have, if you want
it; I have eaten half of it." And it turned out that this
someone was Shiva, and that she was filled with an inner glory,
for she had made a perfect gift of herself and all she had.
I read that, I found
it magnificent. Well, yes, this describes it vividly. It's exactly
that.
The rich man, or
even people who are quite well-off and have all sorts of things
in life and give to the Divine what they have in surplus - for
usually this is the gesture: one has a little more money than
one needs, one has a few more things than one needs, and so,
generously, one gives that to the Divine. It is better than
giving nothing. But even if this "little more" than
what they need represents lakhs of rupees, the gift is less
perfect than the one of half the mango. For it is not by the
quantity or the quality that it is measured: it is by the sincerity
of the giving and the absoluteness of the giving….
Offering of Wealth
to the Divine
But in ordinary
life, when people want to give their wealth to the Divine, and
the Divine is not in front of them, then to whom are they to
give? They don't know where to give their money!
Yes, but then the
question doesn't arise. If they haven't met the Divine either
within or without, it doesn't come into question. They are not
asked to give to someone they do not know.
If they have found
the Divine within themselves, well, they have only to follow
the indication given by the Divine for the use of what they
have; and if they follow quite sincerely and exactly the indications
they receive, this is all that can be asked of them. But until
then nothing is asked of anyone.
One begins to ask
only when someone says, "Here I am, I want to consecrate
myself to the Divine." Then it is all right, from that
moment one asks; but not before. Before that, even if you casually
pull out a coin from your pocket and put it there, it is very
good; you have done what you thought you ought to do and that's
all; you are not asked for anything at all. There is a great
difference between asking the Divine to adopt you, and making
a gesture of goodwill, but without the least intention of changing
anything whatever in the course of your life.
Those who live the
ordinary life, well, if they make a gesture of goodwill, so
much the better for them, this creates for them antecedents
for future lives. But it is only from the moment you say, "There,
now I know that there is but one thing which counts for me,
it is the divine life, and I want to live the divine life"
- from that moment one asks you, not before.
Bargaining and
True Giving
[Very often people] come with the idea of taking from the Divine
all they can: all the qualities, all the capacities, all the
conveniences also, all the comforts, everything, and sometimes
even powers, and all the rest. They come to take, they don't
come to give. And their show of devotion is simply a cloak they
have thrown over their wish to take, to receive. That covers
a wide field: from saving one's soul, having spiritual experiences,
obtaining powers, to leading a petty quiet life, comfortable
- more or less comfortable, at least with a minimum of comfort
- without cares, without botheration, far from the worries of
life. That's how it is. That covers a wide range. But when they
give, it is a kind of bargaining; they know that to obtain these
things, it would be well to give a little something, otherwise
they won't get them, so they make a show of being very devoted.
But it is only a pretence, for it is not sincere.
Unfortunately for
them, it deceives no one. It may be tolerated; but that doesn't
mean that anybody is deceived.
The bargaining is
everywhere, in all the parts of the being. It is always give
and take, from the highest spiritual experiences to the tiniest
little material needs. There is not one in a thousand who gives
without bargaining.
And the beauty of
the story I told you - moreover, there are many others like
it here - is just this, that when the old woman gave, she didn't
know that it was Shiva. She gave to the passing beggar, for
the joy of doing good, of giving, not because he was a god and
she hoped to have salvation or some knowledge in exchange.
- The
Mother
