Low income individuals should always make contributions however little it may be. Many look upon the wealthy to give generously while personally abdicating any social responsibility.
When the bridge to Lanka was being built by the Vanar army, the small monkeys carried small rocks while the stronger monkeys carried larger rocks. Looking on was a squirrel who wanted to contribute toward this noble project and so he rolled his body on the sand, and then ran to the bridge and shook himself.
The Maha Sabha’s school building program had a big monkey in the person of Bhadase Sagan Maraj but that did not deter small donors, mainly cane cutters (lowest paid workers) from making their financial contributions. Villagers would form delegations and travel from village to village on bullock carts collecting 25 cents, one and two dollars and the occasional five dollars. Today the concept of crowd funding has allowed small donors to make contributions through digital platforms toward community projects to the tune of millions of dollars.
In the recently concluded Ramleela at Green Park, Felicity, a list of donors was read out at the beginning of the Ramleela every evening. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that an arti should have been taken out to give the small donors the opportunity to contribute.
Swami Krishna Dass, speaking of his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, said that the latter always encouraged his devotees to engage in seva and japa to prepare them for meditation.
If human beings engage in sharing their resources, greed will be eliminated and crime such as theft, murder, fraud etc. would be reduced drastically.
When Swami Vivekananda was in the USA John D. Rockefeller, the wealthiest man in the world, barged into his room. Swamiji told Rockefeller about his past lives and advised him to give some of his wealth in charity. Swami told him that the money he had made was not his and that he was only a channel and his duty was to do good to the world. Rockefeller was upset and left only to return with some legal papers pledging to donate money to philanthropic work. Rockefeller went on to donate more that 500m to charitable causes. In 1900 that was a huge sum.
We need not be John D. Rockefeller or a scion of the Tata family of India to engage in charity. Our indentured ancestors understood the value of charity and so, when someone was ill, a puja was done and guests, especially children, were fed. Though cane-cutters they understood the working of the universe and their role and duty in it.
Sri Krishna said: “He who takes from society and do not give back is a thief.” (BG 3:12)
It is a truism that several poor individuals are in such deprivation because of their selfishness. Disgusted with their selfishness and greed, their family and friends avoid them and when difficulties come their way, they are left to struggle all by themselves.
Parasites are bad for the community. They are freeloaders who exploit their hosts until death before moving to another host.
Parasites must be purged from the community; they are liabilities.