Author: TJS George
Publication: Expressbuzz.com
Date: March 26, 2011
URL: http://expressbuzz.com/opinion/columnists/memo-to-buffet-on-the-beauty-of-daana/259968.html
Warren Buffett is a capitalist's dream. Sitting
in his patch of the world, he watches stock markets and investment conditions,
learns what moves to make at what time and turns himself into a billionaire
many times over.
But Buffett is also a capitalist's nightmare.
He has this strange belief that billionaires must give their wealth away for
the benefit of others. So he formed an alliance with another equally crazy
capitalist, Bill Gates, to form history's biggest give-away empire.
In America it makes sense to give your money
away. If you don't, you'll have to give it to the Government anyway. For your
image, goodwill and for your soul, charity is a better choice. It was a good
socially responsible idea on the part of early law makers in America to create
a tax structure that encouraged philanthropy.
Buffett and Gates are promoting the idea of
giving for the sake of giving, not just to save tax. They went to China, and
last week they came to India, to persuade other billionaires to join them
in an initiative they have named "Giving Pledge". It seeks the seriously
rich to pledge half their wealth to philanthropy in their life time.
It is an initiative we should welcome. But
let it also remind us that India had a tradition of philanthropy that was
as lofty as the best. What Jamshedji Tata did had a farsightedness and a structural
stability that benefits large numbers of citizens and institutions to this
day. Birla charities have acquired a religion-oriented image which is not
really fair because their donations to educational institutions are widespread
and massive if less known.
Actually the concept of charity is part of
the inner core of India's philosophical inheritance. But it appears in different
nuances at different times. Karna offers a disturbing example here. The ultimate
personification of charity, he would never ever say no to a request. Such
a noble quality should have led to good results. Instead, it led to his destruction
because he allowed Indra to trick him into giving away his protective armour.
He listened to the call of charity above and beyond his personal safety.
If Karna demonstrated the perils of giving,
Manu the law-giver reduced it to a quid pro quo business proposition. Manusmriti
lists precisely what you will get for what you give. Give water and you will
get contentment; give food and you will get happiness; give silver if you
want to get physical beauty; give bulls for prosperity, gold for longevity,
vehicle and bed for a virtuous wife.
This business code must be the one many of
our public-spirited industrialists follow. Give donations to a chief minister's
charitable trusts and get a few acres of land denotified; give loans to TV
channels, scholarships to nephews, foreign jobs to nieces and boxes containing
cash to MPs and in return receive whatever you desire.
Which is unfortunate because the same philosophical
heritage that sustains Manusmriti also holds aloft the most ennobling concept
of Daana known to humankind. P Lal once said that "the word Dharma has
many nuances and cannot be exactly Englished". The word Daana is like
that; it cannot be translated in its full richness. All that we can say is
that it is more than charity, more than giving.
Bhagavatam scholars explain that true Daana
is accompanied by Maana, reverence for the recipient of a gift. Daana is an
act of worship, and the giver worshipping the receiver. What a magnificent
thought! Giving can never be an act of condescension. You are not doing a
favour; you are receiving a favour.
The beauty of this concept can never be equalled
by modern-day givers. In so far as Warrent Buffett and Bill Gates - and Azim
Premji and Nandan Nilekani - are giving without expecting anything in return,
they honour the spirit of the ancient preceptors. That's enough for us to
rejoice. Charity that is dispensed to achieve an end is not charity; it is
bribery.
