Daan : One of the biggest Dharma

Human life is divided into three aspects, physical, spiritual, and divine. It is said that life should not be only physical or material but it should be spiritual and divine. Lord Shri Krishna shown three paths to make human life divine which are yagna (Sacrifice), daan (Charity), tapas (Austerity). Yagna (sacrifice) is nothing but our duty towards god, daan (Charity) is our duty towards society and duty towards self is tapas (austerity).

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Dharma is an important term in Indian philosophy. It means “duty”, “virtue”, and morality” or maybe “religion” and it refers to the facility which supports the universe and therefore the society.

So the question comes why daan is taken into account together with the most important dharma? This will be explained by none aside from greatest hero of our Indian epic, Karna. A warrior par excellence and known for his generosity. Karna’s most important attribute was giving charity. To many Indians his name is synonymous to philanthropy. Following tales will prove why he was known as “daanveer Karna”.

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 Karna and Brahmin

Karna’s subjects were well aware if they approach their king he would always help them. On one such occasion Karna was applying oil to his body and getting ready for bath but when he got to know somebody was at his doorstep he ordered his soldiers to send the person to him immediately. The bramhin told him that he need help to perform his daughter’s marriage. The very next moment Karna gave the big golden bowl from his left hand to the Brahmin. Although he was happy to get such a huge bowl he still asked karna why he donated with his left hand instead of right hand, as hindus do not perform good or auspicious things with the left hand.  Karna told the Brahmin that human mind can fickle.  By the time the one change the object from one hand to other the mind could change. Karna gave whatever he could give without thinking about the quantity, as if he took time to think he might have donated less which he didn’t want to. 

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Karna and Yudhishtira

Lord Krishna always used to praise Karna which Arjuna never really liked. Once Arjuna asked Krishna why his elder brother Yudhishtira was called Dharma Raja he had taken care of needy, whereas it was Karna who was called Daan Veer. Krishna told that he would explain when the time was right. After few days during rainy season Krishna told Arjuna that they would disguise as Brahmins performing puja and visit Yudhisthira. They went to his palace and requested for 400 kgs of Sandalwood to perform yadnya. Unable to find dry sandalwood he sent them away empty handed. They visited Karna and put forth the same request. Karna realized that it would be difficult to find dry sandalwood in rainy season, Karna broke the doors into palace into pieces and gave it to them. Krishna than said Yudhishtira and others donated because as religious scriptures it was the right thing to do but Karna donated because he never liked to send anyone empty handed.

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      Karna and Arjuna

Even after witnessing incident with Yudhisthira Arjuna found difficult to accept that Karna was a better person. So to make Arjuna understand Krishna turned two mountains on their way into gold and asked Arjuna to distribute it within one day. Arjuna passed the message to all the villagers breaking the mountain into pieces he started distributing it to villagers. By the end of the day he had not even distributed half of the mountain. Krishna then called Karna and gave him the same task. The next moment Karna called two villagers passing by and gave them one mountain each and asked them to take whatever amount of the gold as per their needs. Krishna then explained Arjuna that he was attached to material things because of which he considered gold as valuable thing and hence started distributing the amount of gold which he thought was a generous amount. On the other hand Karna the size or value of his donation did not matter. He also did not care whether he was praised for his charity.  

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       Karna and Krishna

Although he was grievously injured Karna was lying alive on the battlefield. Krishna on realizing that his good Karma was protecting him and preventing him for dying Krishna went to him in the disguise of a Brahmin and asked for charity. Karna smiled and said that he was almost going to die and did not have anything to give him. Brahmin indicated that Karna still had some gold in his tooth which would be valuable to him. On realizing the fact Karna took a stone and broke his tooth and gave it to Brahmin, exemplifying the “way of life” which he led. However, seeing the displaced tooth Brahmin told that it was dirty. Not finding the water nearby Karna shot an arrow on land and the water of river Ganga started coming out. He then washed the tooth and gave it to Brahmin. Disguised Brahmin Krishna was pleased and said that the legend will live in hearts till end of times and he’d remembered for his great qualities of Daan (donation) and so we know him as Daanveer Karna.

Even when dying Karna donated and completed his dharma. He always took himself as a medium and never wanted to get praised for his donation. The measuring of daan (giving) is to divide whatever we have for the pleasure of infinite divine. Charity should be done for the wellbeing of the society.

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In various Hindu scriptures such as Purana, Mahabharta, Ramcharitramans etc, importance of donation or daan has been highlighted. By knowing the true nature of charity with reverence and power the donation is in welfare of today’s and the future world. Charity or donation should be done as one of our duty and must be performed without attachment and expectation of reward. Narad purana says gold is purified by fire, the body is purified by water, soul is purified by penance and money is purified by donation. Donation done for God’s cause with reverence is never been wasted, it always gives infinite and renewable fruit.