Become givers, not takers: Spiritualists

‘Hindu
Dharma has its soul in ‘contribution’ that is giving and one should not
stop oneself being a ‘consumer’ and should also contribute, spiritual
leader Swami Dayananda Saraswati has said.

Inaugurating
the Hindu Spiritual and Service Fair – 2009 in Jaigopal Garodia
Vivekananda Vidyalaya at  Anna Nagar in Chennai on Friday, the
spiritual leader said every human being must be a contributor and that
is Hindu Dharma.

 The Dharma of religion, culture, society
and government is to convert every human being from a ‘consumer’ to a
‘contributor’. Teachers, gurus and religious leaders must make the
people think what they should contribute, he said.
 
‘We have
to develop the habit of ‘giving’. The incapacity to give must be given
up and the capacity to give must be nurtured. We should learn to give
and it could be learnt only by giving, like how we learn to swim by
swimming and drive by driving.

Similarly we should give to
grow into a giver. Once we start giving, we become contributors’, the
Swamiji said. Quoting Vedic verses, the spiritual leader said, ‘there
are two ways of earning Adrishtam to understand the Hindu Dharma and to
control the hidden variables.

‘Annapradhanam is to create
situation where people take care of their livelihood which is very
important for the development of a Dharmic society’, Swamiji said.

Earlier, Swami Mitrananda, director of Chinmaya Yuva Kendra and
organising secretary of the fair, said, ‘The idea to organise this fair
was conceived a year back, which evolved into Global Foundation for
Civilisational Harmony (GFCH) with an aim of establishing peace and
harmony through dialogues with various faiths.’

Every prayer
is valid, every faith is valid and every civilisation is precious.
Right to retain faith is also a part of human rights, he said. About
the fair, he said, ‘Thirty-three organisations, which have a combined
membership of 22 crore have taken part in this exhibition and all these
organisations have given more than 30,000 schools and equal number of
medical centres to the society, underlining the importance of education
and health care.

This fair is a good beginning of the
progress of collective service and every exhibitor and visitor must see
the exhibition with the feeling of ‘my religion, my culture,’ he said.

Swami Athma Shraddanandaji of Ramakrishna Mutt read out the speech of
Swami Gouthamananda, president, Ramakrishna Mutt, in which he said, 
‘religion is not mere belief on any dogma, but realisation which leads
to spiritual enlightenment. Service to man becomes worship of God and
the service can take many forms such as social, educational, medical,
relief and rehabilitation’.

Swami
Nithyananda Paramahamsa, founder of Nithyananda Dhyana Peetam, said,
‘Freedom is the foundation for growth and such a freedom in Hinduism
has grown into different traditions and different concepts. Hindu
Dharma has been there since time immemorial and it doesn’t require
marketing.

The fair is organised to make people understand
the concept of service. One should learn to serve and the success of
this exhibition is going to be a milestone in the journey of modern day
Hindu Dharma’.

Organisations like Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam
Service Activities, Vivekananda Kendra, Mata Amritanandamayi Mutt,
Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Sanatan Sanstan, Art of Living and Chinmaya
Mission and many others have put up stalls in the exhibition. All the
stalls have displayed their publications and service activities. The
fair will be on till tomorrow.