If charity is a mentality to be cultivated, is automatic monthly donation from ones bank account undesirable?
Answer Podcast:
Transcript
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So, charity is more of an activity but also mentality. Then if we just do automatic checks every month, then we are not even conscious of it. Right, we are not even giving checks.
Automatically it doesn’t matter. We don’t even come to know. I don’t think anybody is so consensual that they don’t come to know.
We are surely conscious about where our money is going. It is just that we may not be consciously doing anything to add to that. I think there is something which is contextually variable in the practice of bhakti.
That means, say, there is a principle of offering devotion, principle of practicing devotion that is internal. But the practice of devotion specifically may vary. So, Viverosi Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or his Sankirtan party playing harmonium or playing various kinds of drums which might be played now.
But there is this context. Essentially, there is devotion. So, depending on the time and circumstance, the way bhakti-free practice will vary.
So, in the past, for example, people would not give classes in the internet. And now that’s what people do. In fact, most of the people give classes, especially as a mere devotee.
Their primary habit is when they are driving to work. And they didn’t even hear a reasonable quality. And they didn’t even get a wish by that.
That may not be the way it has been done in the past. It has been done differently. But that is just the process.
The way, the form in which it is done will vary. Just as, you know, directly devotional activities like KV can be done in a different way than what they were done earlier. So, similarly, charity can be done differently.
And as far as being consciously aware of things, as I said, you will always be aware of it. At some level, it is where the Lakshmi is going. But along with that, the conscious awareness is also ultimately meant to create a commitment.
And all relationships center on commitment. You know, if a husband cannot say, I like you, cannot say, I like you, so you are my wife. I don’t like you, so you are not my wife.
No, a relationship is based on commitment. That’s all a relationship is based on commitment. And if we are making commitment, that yes, annually we are going to give some Lakshmi, that commitment itself indicates seriousness.
And that we are not consciously aware of it. And at the forefront of our consciousness, that doesn’t matter if we are otherwise also doing activities, by which we are practicing one. So, it is an individual way by which we can ourselves make sure the charity gets done.
And, as I said, from the temple or the recipient’s perspective also, it’s a reliable source. So, one of the important principles of bhakti is that dehe shakal bhakti. On timely circumstances, certain formats in which bhakti is performed can be changed.
And this is quite a favorable change, which enables us to perform bhakti conveniently and for others also to receive charity conveniently.