Charity and “Om Tat Sat”

Self-Inquiry: Giving with the Right Feeling & Attitude:

What mode of giving is most typical of you: sattvic, rajasic, or

tamasic?

(a) See item #1 below. Divide 100 percentage points between the 3

types of charity based on your most typical ways of giving.

(b) As you ponder this, continuously repeat with feeling and faith,

the invocation “Om Tat Sat, Om Tat Sat, Om Tat Sat”

(pronounced “Om Tut Sut”).

(c) Be aware of any shifts in mood.

________________

In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna informs us:

“Hear now of two topics: Charity (alms giving) and the ancient declaration, ‘Om Tat Sat.’

___ 1) Giving (charity) is an important spiritual practice – and giving is one’s sacred duty. There are three modes of giving. Charity is…

___a. Sattvic—when you give to a deserving person who can make

no return, and you do it as a joyous duty with no expectations or sense of obligation,

___b. Rajasic—when it is given with strings attached making

both giver and receiver uncomfortable; any hint of desire in

the giving ruins it spiritually

___c. Tamasic—when given to unworthy persons of questionable

character who squander it, or when given disrespectfully with

an insult.

___ 2) All three spiritual practices (sacrifice, purification, and charity) are elevating, and yet they all have a tinge of worldly impurity in them—even when done in a sattvic manner.

___ 3) To cleanse these good practices, invoke the declaration ‘Om Tat Sat’ as you commence them.

___ 4) Om Tat Sat is an ancient phrase echoing back to the very beginning of time when Divinity first projected Itself as sound.

___ 5) Each word—Om, Tat, and Sat—represents the Supreme Consciousness, the Source from which everything else comes. Consider them one by one:

• Om (essentially an appellation of the Godhead) is uttered by

spiritually knowledgeable people whenever they perform spiritual activities. It lends a blessed, sacred tone and begins to dissolve the tinge of impurity.

• Tat (literally ‘It,’ or God); saying this while doing these spiritual

activities reminds you that all actions are God’s, not ‘yours,’ which helps remove the sense of ‘I’ or ‘mine’ from the doing.

• Sat (literally, ‘That’ or ‘That which is,’ or ‘Truth, Existence Itself’

invokes an overall attitude of goodness, a reminsder that the act about to be done is noble and conducive to God realization. Saying Sat purifies your own acts and reforms the world as well.

___ 6) Sat has other meanings and other purposes. Any action performed for the sake of the Divine is Sat. Engaging steadfastly in the three activities—sacrifice, purification, and charity—is Sat.

___ 7) Repeating Om Tat Sat (literally ‘Om That Is,’ or ‘God alone is the Reality’) creates an uplifted attitude toward any good activity.

___ 8) The implication is that Sat (That) is both the goal and the pathway, both the Godhead and the means for achieving it.

___ 9) To invoke these without firm faith is Asat (not That).”

– Krishna

________________