Ultimate Enriching Charity, Jñānadāna (17.20-17.22)
Kṛṣṇa speaks on the concept of dāna, enriching charity. Dāna, charity is sharing out of the space of enriching, not expecting good results or easy route into heaven. Charity is done out of love and gratitude, out of the responsibility to enrich the Whole. Only then it becomes real dāna. Sharing at the proper time and place and with a worthy person is charity in the mode of goodness, satva.
There are three kinds of dāna. Understand, annadāna means sharing to enrich with food, clothes and is related to someone's physical needs. Next is vidyādāna. This means sharing to enrich with education for mental growth. And the third kind is jñānadāna, sharing to enrich with spiritual knowledge. Annadāna satisfies for three hours. Vidyādāna satisfies the receiver for one life. If we give jñānadāna, it fulfills that person for life after life. He will never fall into depression or the ocean of material world, birth after birth.
Jñānadāna is the ultimate sharing of enriching with knowledge. Kṛṣṇa says that when charity is done purely out of a feeling of sharing to enrich others, it is sātvika, the ultimate good, purity—tad dānaṁ sāttvikaṁ smṛtam (17.20).
The person who gives loses nothing with jñānadāna. With all other dāna, the person who gives has a little less. In jñānadāna, I tell you a secret, the more you share, the more it grows in you! The more you enrich others with the science of completion, the more you grow in completion. Here, you receive automatically.
The straightforward, integrated and authentic approach to the truth is what Kṛṣṇa calls sātvika dāna. Here, in whatever way I experience the Truth, I simply express and share it, authentically, without reservation. That is sātvika dāna according to Kṛṣṇa.
Understand, all kinds of food, penance, sacrifice or charity fall into the basic three categories explained by Kṛṣṇa—sātvic, rājasic and tāmasic. When they are done from the space of completion with the attitude of gratitude to the Divine, only then you have spiritual elevation. Only the act done from the space of satva or goodness gives the final result.
Śraddha is also the understanding that the enriching act of sacrifice, austerity or charity, yajña, tapas or dāna is not directed towards oneself or a material goal. They are directed towards the enrichment of Supreme Consciousness.
Oṁ Tat Sat (17.23-17.28)
In conclusion, Kṛṣṇa moves on to a different plane altogether. He provides the technique to achieve this space of completion that expresses as the space of enriching. The method by which anyone can surrender the fruits of his action called karma phala to the Divine. He provides the tool in the form of the invocation, Oṁ Tat Sat.
Oṁ Tat Sat. Any person enriching or working with the space of addressing Oṁ Tat Sat will be with Existence, the Divine Consciousness.
These three words simply imply: 'I offer all to that Truth. I surrender everything to that Divine. Let that be the Truth.' This is the Mahā-vākya, the great Truth, handed down by the Master to Arjuna as the technique to ensure śraddha, authenticity in all activities of sacrifice, austerity and charity.
Any action, whether penance (tapas), charity (dāna) or sacrifice (yajña), has no meaning when the purpose is not to achieve the Ultimate, the Divine. The final aim in all the Vedas is to gain the experience of Kṛṣṇa or the Supreme Consciousness. The Guru is the only being who can enrich you with the space of completion, to make your life successful and fulfilled.
Let us all pray to Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa to give us the experience that leads to the Ultimate Consciousness, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM.
Let us pray to Him to give us all Śraddha, authenticity and experience of the Truth that He is teaching through the Gītā, to all of us, and let Him make us establish ourselves in Eternal Bliss, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM.