Tithing

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When I was a kid (3-4 years), I often noticed that my family members, relatives and even some strangers give food, money, clothes or other necessary things to people they never know, never seen before. I never questioned them because just by seeing that process I felt someting good, though at that time I never know what is going on but something good. I was growing up and along with my age, my noticing was also increasing. Time by time I started feeling like even I should try this and I saw beggar asking for some money or food, I was seeing him and there were many questions in my mind like “How much money should I give?”, “Is he lying?”, “Is he really a beggar or just cheating people?”, “If I give him money, what will I do without money?” and many other. He was very poor and weak so I asked him, “What will you have – money or food? He replied, anything you want to give but please help me, I am hungry. I started doing some calculation for the money I have and money I will spend for him (even I was living upon my pocket money from my dad). After few seconds of calculation I decided to bought him a packet of biscuits which can help him satisfy his hunger upto certain level. I bought it and handed over to that beggar, he was like bit happy and blessed me and went away, for the first time I realized what happens to someone while helping other.

After a couple of days, I was sitting with my mom & dad at home. I was left with very less money after that help to begger, so I tried to talk to dad and ask for some money (obviously mom will start a rapid fire round of questions, where did you spend?, why?, what you did? etc…), dad just said that he is not going to give a single penny more untill next week (yes, my pocket money was on weekly basis). I tried to explain why I want some money before next week, so I started to tell them about that beggar whom I bought a packet of biscuits and I ran out of money now. I even tried to know if I was right doing it or I did any mistake, mom gave a nice smile looking at dad and said that, you helped him to satisfy his hunger, that is really good. Dad was like, he liked it too but will not give an extra penny as he wanted me to learn a lesson. His thinking was bit different, always help if someone is really in need but it should not make you ask for help from others. I understood what he wanted me to learn. My dad also said that never give money to beggars, you never know what they will do with that money (money can be used for any addictions, gambling, etc.), so give them food as much as you can afford and never think or calculate, just do it. I know that my dad was saying two different things to follow at a time which was next to impossible but the moral of his words was like – “Never think while helping hungry people” and “Always calculate before doing any financial help”.

Time by time, I started learning about helping people and from varied sources I came across many different words to define that help. Different people speak different words like donation, tithing, help, support etc. Just like what I said in previous post “Blessing Power” (https://doyoureckon.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/blessing-power/), “As you SOW so shall you REAP: Life is like a boomerang. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later much more than we sow.”, this happens in tithing also.

I tried to study many ways to do tithing from different cultures and found that it should be done according to your need. If you never want to stay hungry, donate food to hungry, clothes for clothes, money for money and like wise (not like the theory of a warrior – “Eye for an eye”, we are here for a good cause). I even heard many stories to explain what a tithing is and how it can help oneself. Let me tell you one of those stories and it is even one of my favorite stories (myth or truth, never known but a good story with a good lesson). Once upon a time there was a very poor lady living with her only son (his age was around 5-6 years), mother was working as a maid and earn her living leaving her son at home alone. They often faced days with no money and no food. One day mother woke up and realized that it was her son’s birth-day, she searched all the vessels for some raw material from which she can prepare a small cup of sweet dish for her son. Some how she managed to prepare it and before leaving to work she asked her son to eat it as a lunch and blessed him. He was waiting for the lunch time to enjoy that sweet dish, mean while a sage came to son begging for some food (in many cultures and places, sages have to beg for food and cloths). Little boy was confused, he started thinking that he has a small cup of food (his favorite sweet dish) for his lunch, what will he eat if he gives away that food to the sage. He knows that the sage was busy with is meditation and didn’t ate anything for a week. He decided to offer that small cup of food to the sage and stay hungry thinking that her mother can give him some food next day. The sage finished the food and blessed that little boy. At that moment, it was just a blessing from sage but the sage knew that all the powers and blessings he got during that meditation was transfered to the little boy in return of the food. The sage went away to unknown place and since then that boy started getting huge offerings everyday ever after. Everyday, he was offered to wear brand new clothes and jewelleries while donating his stuff of previous day. -Moral of the story is, you will receive according to your donation.

Note: Your past karma(s)/deed(s) are always counted along with your tithing, therefore people always get different results.

Different teachings tell us different ways but the moral of the story is almost same everytime. In general, definition of tithing is very simple i.e. tenth part of one’s income. Various studies gives random results so we will try to follow the definition with some custom variation.

Let’s understand the procedure with a very simple example. Suppose your profit is 10,000 (whatever the currency is) per month. Tenth part of your profit will be 1000. Now the question is how to spend this 1000?

We will equally divide that 10% to donate i.e. 20% x 5 (places).

• 20% to your parents
• 20% to your teacher (one who made you achieve something in your life, one you respect the most)
• 20% to the place where you worship and ask for blessings (temple, mosque, church, etc.)
• 20% to the people working for you on regular basis (not just employees, it can be any person working for you regularly)
• 20% to any charitable work/foundation

In most cases, people do tithing for business purpose and due to their greed they don’t find any good results. Tithing has to be done with good heart without any expectations, let our supreme god decide what will be result of your tithing.

Start practicing this basic formula and enjoy the fruits. There is also another way to do it which I will try to show you later on in a new post.

Always remember, “More you give, more you receive”