A Jain saint visited Bhadreshwar, a small village in Kutch, India. A merchant by the name of Jagdusha went to meet and pay his respect to the saint. Saint blessed the Jagdusha. He through his astrological knowledge cautioned on the upcoming great famine in the region that would last for three years. Every grain of food will be precious. The condition will be so bad that people would be willing to not only sell their cattle but their children to survive.
He blessed the merchant and said –
“Please prepare for this grave situation without wasting any time.”
Merchant Jagdusha bowed to the saint and immediately swung into action. He ordered his people across the country and abroad to start purchasing all the grains possible and fill the warehouses.
As predicted the famine struck the region. People somehow managed to survive the first year with the savings they had but things started to go from bad to worse. Jagdusha was already aware of what is going to come and he saw a golden opportunity to serve the people. He opened his warehouses for the people.
King of Gujarat VishalDev called merchant Jagdusha to his court and said –
“I have heard that in Patan city you have 700 warehouses filled with grains. Given me those grains, I will pay you whatever price you want.”
Merchant Jagdusha replied –
“No, I cannot sell those warehouses. They don’t belong to me.”
King was angered by his reply and thought that the merchant must have become greedy. He ordered his men to break open the locks of the warehouses. They were completely filled with grains. The king stared at Jagdusha and rebuked –
“How can you be mean at such a critical time and only think about your business?”
Before the King could say anything further, the soldier came rushing to the King with a Tamra Patra (Copper Plate) and handed it over. On the plate a sentence was carved which read –
“The grains in this warehouse belong to the poor”
The King reading this fell at the feet of the merchant and said –
“How generous of you! You donated everything but did not even take any pride in doing so. Your name and generosity will be remembered for generations! Please accept my apology.”
It is said that Jagdusha used to get special ladoos (Indian sweet) made in which he used to put silver coins inside. He would go and personally distribute it to respectable families who would not seek help or alms from anyone. He opened all his warehouses across villages and asked his men to give the grains without taking a penny from the villagers. This went on for three long years. Thousands of families survived the great famine because of the generosity of merchant Jagdusha.
Wisdom Bite
As per our ancient scriptures, charity is one of the virtues for a meaningful life. But why should one do charity? How does it help?
One of the main reasons for doing charity or philanthropy is to reduce our attachment with money and our wealth which is one of the causes of suffering. When you donate, you are letting go of something that you were holding on to dearly. You feel a sense of deep happiness inside when you see a smile and happiness on the face of the receiver.
Today, doing charity has become like a formality. We donate some money on our birthday or anniversary to an orphanage or an old age home and think we have done our job. It is another challenge to find genuine social organizations or people. Many organizations have hidden agendas in the name of social work. Whom you donate, how you donate, and when you donate is as important as the donation itself.
So where do you start? There is a saying – Charity begins at home! Start helping people in your circles like friends, relatives, or members of your community who may be going through challenging times. They may not openly convey their situation but may need help.
Ultimately, our goal should be to decrease our attachment to money and increase kindness, compassion in our consciousness. We are going to leave behind everything when we die so why not make use of our wealth for the good.
Would love to hear some thoughts on this from you. 🙂
