The Power of "Da"

There is a beautiful story in the Upanishadas. Once gods, demons and human beings received an instruction from the supreme Brahman on what they should be doing. The word they all heard is "Da", and they interpreted it as their own deficiencies that needed to improve. The gods, belonging to the subtle realms were addicted to sense pleasures. They were asked to exercise "Dama" (beginning with Da. Dama implies control, controlling of the mind and the senses, not giving in to external impulses. The Asuras or the demons heard the word "Daya", implying compassion. They are by nature cruel, mean and selfish and have least consideration for others. The Humans heard it as "Dana" or Gift. The humans, being intermediary between gods and asuras in terms of tendencies were in best position to practice selflessness by giving away what they possessed.

This story has a very wide implication. In today's world gods are the powerful, mighty, great men, scholars, intellectuals, CEOs and corporate honchos, the big guns of the societies, the heads of the large corporations, the statesmen, the leaders of the nation. They enjoy every good thing that the earth can provide. They have name, fame and fortune. They are the demigods living on the earth, on the gross, material plane. They can enjoy unlimited sense pleasure, but the time is short. If they do not exercise control there is a major risk as their followers, who follow their examples and footsteps would not have any restraint and the earth will have to pay a huge price. Unlimited increase in consumption of resources by a few will result in a disaster for the planet, which we are slowly but surely heading into. So the only solution for them is, Dama, controlling their senses, look inward. 

The asuras are the demons of the society today who can do anything and everything on account of their very nature - Hitlers and Stalins were asura leaders, so are many other asura heads of states and asuric people who have great power to unleash violence, the terrorists and their sympathisers. For them the prescription is Daya. Else along with everybody else they also run the risk of getting destroyed. Remember Hitler and his fate! All terrorists die a dog's death anyway. And all power ends in garbage bins and swamps. So compassion can only prevent our earth from becoming a bloody mess. Last but not the least, for us, the ordinary humans, the mantra is Dana - Give. Dao ar phire nahi chao in the words of Swami Vivekananda - give and do not look back. Give whatever you possess - money, knowledge, wisdom, virtue, food, clothing, shelter, service - but always without any expectation of getting the favour returned. The Dana can be of four types, in increasing scale of importance - Anna Dana - giving away food, money, wealth, Prana Dana - giving life and joy, Vidya Dana - giving knowledge, education, wisdom, and Brahma Vidya Dana, the highest of them, giving the knowledge of Self Realization. Of course you'll have to possess the goods before giving them away and the last one is only possessed by the greatest teachers of mankind, but the other three can be given away freely. Let us all humans start doing so, leaving gods and asuras of modern times to chart out their own course of salvation or self destruction.