Note: Life always has lessons for the perceptive. I believe this is one such conversation and hence have documented it . This took place in February 2018 when i visited Bengaluru. The other person, whom i call B is a relative, a good friend and is of my age. The free flowing conversation has been structured and edited for presentation and details not needed removed.
B: X told me that one of your ideas got selected for the top 400 in the competition. what is it about ?
RJ: Our team of friends who work in different organisations submitted two ideas. Both got selected for top 3000 out of some 16000 ideas and 1 got selected for top 400.
B: What is this top 400 idea about ?
RJ: We want to map trees in urban locales and help maintain them by bringing in local community. Once the tree info is there, it can be tied up with other important data points that matter for human life.
(I just went on to explain how many trees were lost in the vardah cyclone and how they could have been saved with scientific pruning.)
B: Sounds interesting. We in Bengaluru have lost so much green cover over years. Did you get a good reception for the idea ?
RJ: No. It was not well received. People just look at the money making potential of such ideas and are also very near term. The panel thought that we didn’t have a revenue model that was of interest and also suggested that we should keep business and social responsibility separate.
B: Why so ? In my organisation, as part of CSR, we had tree planting drive some time back. Lot of money was spent. We even had a DJ to cheer up people. We ended up getting lot of attention within the organisation. No one knows what happened to the saplings or how many survived.
RJ: Is there no follow up ?
B: Not so sure how much of a follow up we have on such activities. we are a big organisation and out of our revenue , a percentage has to be spent on CSR and the budget is quite sizeable. We even have a separate team to oversee how the money is spent. and he mentions the money in USD.
RJ: That is lot of money.
B: Yes , lot of money. But these doesn’t seem to be much systematic happening in the way the money is spent or on the follow ups. It seems to be more on individual discretion.
People are more interested in photo ops, sharing photos on social media and getting some visibility within the organization. Rather than doing something that is long term and show actual results on the ground.
RJ: May be that is what CSR has become in many places. Real giving is not that. We all know that in Mahabharatha, Karna was known for his dhaan. There is this story involving Karna, Krishna and Arjuna and it goes like this.
Arjuna and Krishna were walking and Arjuna kept asking why Karna is so famous for his dhaan. To answer him, Krishna created a mountain of gold and told Arjuna to give every bit of it away. Arjuna advertised about his giving to nearby villages and started giving the wealth on this own. But how ever much Arjuna gave it away, the wealth never diminished. After a couple of days, Arjuna told Krishna that he is giving up.
Krishna then called Karna and laid down the same conditions. Karna called the villagers and told them that the wealth was all for them to use , requested them to take it and walked away.
Seeing this Arjuna was stunned. Krishna told Arjuna that even while giving, Arjuna was still attracted to the gold and wasn’t giving away with all his heart and mind. That was the reason the gold never diminished. In case of Karna, he wasn’t attached to the wealth and so easily gave it away with all his heart.
My dad always used to say that what the right hand gives away shouldn’t be known even to the left hand. You have to be so discreet about giving and it shouldn’t impact the self respect of the receiver in any manner. He was very critical of people who donated with lot of advertisement and called them the kind of people who would donate a tube light, but would block half the light with their painted name.
B: That reminds me of an incident. I was late from office today because of work that had piled up due to two days leave. I was away in Mysore to play for the annual concert of the old age home run by my teacher.
When my teacher retired, his guru told him to start an old age home. Now my teacher comes from a typical middle class background and no where close to what we can call rich or some one with lot of surplus income to give away. He was hesitant how we could take such a huge financial load on his shoulders and run the place, with whatever money he had.
But respected his Guru’s words and started the old age home. It has not been an easy journey. But the home gets just enough funds to run, through well wishers. It has been 25 years now and the home is doing well by god’s grace.
RJ: Wont your CSR group help fund the home ?
B: No the rules are different and we dont fit the rules.
RJ: What your teacher started is a selfless act . He didn’t do it because he had the money. it is obvious he didn't have and he didn’t do it for any fame or to be in limelight.He followed his guru’s words.There was a need and he did and continues to do his best to fulfil it.
This reminds me of the lesson taught through the golden hued mongoose, again from Mahabharatha. The greatness of charity lies not in the mass of wealth but the spirit of generosity and Universal love in the heart of the donor. I think your teacher's act qualifies for the gold standard.
This is dharma. This is very different from the western idea of charity/giving or CSR. Dharma is a very indian concept and it can’t be defined but only explained. Briefly we can say that dharma is something that contains or upholds the cosmic order .
B: X told me that one of your ideas got selected for the top 400 in the competition. what is it about ?
RJ: Our team of friends who work in different organisations submitted two ideas. Both got selected for top 3000 out of some 16000 ideas and 1 got selected for top 400.
B: What is this top 400 idea about ?
RJ: We want to map trees in urban locales and help maintain them by bringing in local community. Once the tree info is there, it can be tied up with other important data points that matter for human life.
(I just went on to explain how many trees were lost in the vardah cyclone and how they could have been saved with scientific pruning.)
B: Sounds interesting. We in Bengaluru have lost so much green cover over years. Did you get a good reception for the idea ?
RJ: No. It was not well received. People just look at the money making potential of such ideas and are also very near term. The panel thought that we didn’t have a revenue model that was of interest and also suggested that we should keep business and social responsibility separate.
B: Why so ? In my organisation, as part of CSR, we had tree planting drive some time back. Lot of money was spent. We even had a DJ to cheer up people. We ended up getting lot of attention within the organisation. No one knows what happened to the saplings or how many survived.
RJ: Is there no follow up ?
B: Not so sure how much of a follow up we have on such activities. we are a big organisation and out of our revenue , a percentage has to be spent on CSR and the budget is quite sizeable. We even have a separate team to oversee how the money is spent. and he mentions the money in USD.
RJ: That is lot of money.
B: Yes , lot of money. But these doesn’t seem to be much systematic happening in the way the money is spent or on the follow ups. It seems to be more on individual discretion.
People are more interested in photo ops, sharing photos on social media and getting some visibility within the organization. Rather than doing something that is long term and show actual results on the ground.
RJ: May be that is what CSR has become in many places. Real giving is not that. We all know that in Mahabharatha, Karna was known for his dhaan. There is this story involving Karna, Krishna and Arjuna and it goes like this.
Arjuna and Krishna were walking and Arjuna kept asking why Karna is so famous for his dhaan. To answer him, Krishna created a mountain of gold and told Arjuna to give every bit of it away. Arjuna advertised about his giving to nearby villages and started giving the wealth on this own. But how ever much Arjuna gave it away, the wealth never diminished. After a couple of days, Arjuna told Krishna that he is giving up.
Krishna then called Karna and laid down the same conditions. Karna called the villagers and told them that the wealth was all for them to use , requested them to take it and walked away.
Seeing this Arjuna was stunned. Krishna told Arjuna that even while giving, Arjuna was still attracted to the gold and wasn’t giving away with all his heart and mind. That was the reason the gold never diminished. In case of Karna, he wasn’t attached to the wealth and so easily gave it away with all his heart.
My dad always used to say that what the right hand gives away shouldn’t be known even to the left hand. You have to be so discreet about giving and it shouldn’t impact the self respect of the receiver in any manner. He was very critical of people who donated with lot of advertisement and called them the kind of people who would donate a tube light, but would block half the light with their painted name.
B: That reminds me of an incident. I was late from office today because of work that had piled up due to two days leave. I was away in Mysore to play for the annual concert of the old age home run by my teacher.
When my teacher retired, his guru told him to start an old age home. Now my teacher comes from a typical middle class background and no where close to what we can call rich or some one with lot of surplus income to give away. He was hesitant how we could take such a huge financial load on his shoulders and run the place, with whatever money he had.
But respected his Guru’s words and started the old age home. It has not been an easy journey. But the home gets just enough funds to run, through well wishers. It has been 25 years now and the home is doing well by god’s grace.
RJ: Wont your CSR group help fund the home ?
B: No the rules are different and we dont fit the rules.
RJ: What your teacher started is a selfless act . He didn’t do it because he had the money. it is obvious he didn't have and he didn’t do it for any fame or to be in limelight.He followed his guru’s words.There was a need and he did and continues to do his best to fulfil it.
This reminds me of the lesson taught through the golden hued mongoose, again from Mahabharatha. The greatness of charity lies not in the mass of wealth but the spirit of generosity and Universal love in the heart of the donor. I think your teacher's act qualifies for the gold standard.
This is dharma. This is very different from the western idea of charity/giving or CSR. Dharma is a very indian concept and it can’t be defined but only explained. Briefly we can say that dharma is something that contains or upholds the cosmic order .
The person who receives alms and gives away a part of it to crows and dogs or the person who retains a small portion of the food in the banana leaf he uses to eat, for other living beings to consume are all doing dharma.
It is not that i am against CSR or Charity. And i can’t deny the advantage of the scale it brings, but just pointing out that we need to bring in the true spirit of dharma for it to be effective.
It is not that i am against CSR or Charity. And i can’t deny the advantage of the scale it brings, but just pointing out that we need to bring in the true spirit of dharma for it to be effective.
and we just moved on to other topics of interest and it was time for me to catch the train and the conversation came to a close.
Note1: The word Dharma is used to mean nyaya (Justice), what is right in a given circumstance, moral values of life, pious obligations of individuals, righteous conduct in every sphere of activity, being helpful to other living beings, giving charity to individuals in need of it or to a public cause or alms to the needy, natural qualities or characteristics or properties of living beings and things, duty and law as also constitutional law. Dharma is the law that maintains the cosmic order as well as the individual and social order. Dharma sustains human life in harmony with nature. When we follow dharma, we are in conformity with the law that sustains the universe.
For more on the topic , http://veda.wikidot.com/dharma
Note2: Also check out the term Rta - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ṛta
Note3: The story of the golden mongoose - https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/stories-from-swami-vivekananda-the-golden-mongoose
Note4: The story of a biker and how the poor tea seller didn’t charge him for breakfast , but only for the tea is another example of dharma . - https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/rider-stops-at-a-village-tea-shop-for-breakfast-gets-stunned-when-the-old-couple-charges-only-rs-5-find-out-why-306684-2016-02-02
Note1: The word Dharma is used to mean nyaya (Justice), what is right in a given circumstance, moral values of life, pious obligations of individuals, righteous conduct in every sphere of activity, being helpful to other living beings, giving charity to individuals in need of it or to a public cause or alms to the needy, natural qualities or characteristics or properties of living beings and things, duty and law as also constitutional law. Dharma is the law that maintains the cosmic order as well as the individual and social order. Dharma sustains human life in harmony with nature. When we follow dharma, we are in conformity with the law that sustains the universe.
For more on the topic , http://veda.wikidot.com/dharma
Note2: Also check out the term Rta - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ṛta
Note3: The story of the golden mongoose - https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/stories-from-swami-vivekananda-the-golden-mongoose
Note4: The story of a biker and how the poor tea seller didn’t charge him for breakfast , but only for the tea is another example of dharma . - https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/rider-stops-at-a-village-tea-shop-for-breakfast-gets-stunned-when-the-old-couple-charges-only-rs-5-find-out-why-306684-2016-02-02
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