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Gurudeva : LESSON 126 from Merging with Siva

Be a Master Of Giving

Why can't you spiritually unfold until you learn to give and give and give and give until it hurts? Because that hurt is your block. Many people give and they give generously, up to the point where they feel, "I have given a lot," or "I have given too much," or "I gave as much as I can give," or "I will give more when I can," or "I enjoy giving and I used to give a lot, but I can't give so much right now." These are the little blocks that come up within man's nature and undermine man's nature and bind him down to the depths of the negative areas of the subconscious mind. And then he can't progress. Why can't he progress? Because he can't have devotion unless giving unfolds as his light. Now, the man who has unfolded into giving doesn't qualify his giving, he doesn't even think about it. If he doesn't have a lot of material things to give, if he is going through circumstances which do not permit him, then what does he do? He gives what he can, in devotion, little things, to make people happy, little things to progress activity, little things to progress himself. He gives what he can, and he gives more than he can. And when something is given him, that gives him the power to give again. That is the great law. That is the great unfoldment.

When a seeker has unfolded to the power of giving, he doesn't think about himself so much, because he is spontaneous. He is always looking for an opportunity to do something good for someone else. When someone has not unfolded into giving, he thinks about himself a great deal, and he calculates his giving, because he has to give in proportion to something else. And by giving in proportion to something else, he is creating his future limitation. He is saying "I am just this big, and I will always be just this big because that is as far as my consciousness can go, just that much. So, I will hold my consciousness within this grave." But it doesn't work that way. The consciousness is not like that, because by limiting your giving, by limiting your consciousness, as time goes by it will shrink. And it will shrink until you don't know it. Your friends will notice, but you won't. It will shrink and shrink and shrink. And that is one of the things your friends won't tell you, that your consciousness has shrunk, and that you are not the same as you used to be.

This works in reverse, too. The person who has a heart full of joy, even if he doesn't have material possessions to speak of, always finds something to give; he gives what he has. He knows that he is not the gift, that he is not the giver at all, and when something comes his way, he gives of it freely. He is a vehicle for giving, and finally he is so full of abundance in consciousness that he knows he is not the giver, and he fulfills bhakti yoga in his life. If you give and give freely and spontaneously, you feel good about it, and if you do it again, you feel even better about it. But if you give and give selfishly, you feel bad about it, and if you continue to do so, you'll feel worse. If you give and give spontaneously, you will awaken your inner nature, and spiritual power will flow through you, and you will merge with God within you. But if you give, and give selfishly, by hanging onto your gift after you have given it, you close the door to spirituality. Giving is in many, many forms. The best way is to rely on the incomparable law of karma. Give freely, and your gift will come back to you often doubled soon after the gift is given. Then this opens the door for another gift to be given out. Your intuitive nature will tell you how you can give, when and where, and soon you will find yourself giving every minute of every day in the most spontaneous ways.

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