It’s that time of the year when people are thinking about the holiday ritual of gift-giving. Shoppers are dashing about in stores and online, looking for those special gifts for the people on their list.
Gift giving has been found to have various psychological effects on shoppers. A 2006 study by neuroscientists at the National Institutes of Health found that the giver experiences both an increase in their dopamine levels and an activation of parts of the brain that are in harmony with the joys of social contact. But it can also be combined with stress when the giver just can’t seem to decide what that special gift could be.
Sadhguru helps us understand what true giving can be.
Sadhguru: “On a certain day the pig went up to the cow and said, ‘I know you give milk, but I give pork. Why is it that you are so much loved and treated well and I’m not?’ The cow looked at the pig kindly and said, ‘I give milk when I’m alive and here.’ That’s the choice you have whether you want to be a pork or a milk-giving cow you want to give when you’re alive or people are waiting for you to be dead, so that they can get what you have.
What shall I give?’ I don’t want to talk about… or I don’t want to tell anybody what they should give, but what’s precious to you, that you must give. Something that’s not precious to you if you give, that’s not giving. Whatever is precious to you, what you value, that’s most… that’s what you must offer. What is worthless with you that’s what you give, that’s not the point. That’s not giving. That’s just cunning, trying to buy a ticket to heaven. If you go with this kind of mindset into the heaven, we don’t know what the hell is there, but one thing is for sure, if it’s a good place it’ll mock at you. I always find when you have a filthy mind, if you’re among people who are not like you, it looks like everybody is mocking at you, everybody is talking about you, everybody is saying something about you right now. This is the problem that people will suffer.
So, if… if heaven happens to be a good place… I have no intention of going there, so I’ve never bothered to find out. So, if you’re trying to buy a ticket to the heaven with your goodness, this kind of a tricky mind will suffer most if that happens to be a good place but if only your kind have gotten there, you’ll suffer even more, because you know how it’ll be if there are ten people like you. For every little bit they have a calculation. If you live among people where for everything there is a calculation, if you’re one of them, and you know how horrible it is to have ten like you?
So, to give that which is precious to you – what is most precious to a human being? His own life, his own self is what is most precious to him. So, one who chooses to give up himself or herself, not what’s in his pocket, not what is in his body, not what is in his mind, but himself. Whatever is most precious, if you know how to share that, then… We don’t know about the people; you’re longing for people’s attention, you’re longing for people’s affection and love because you do not know how to make all this trees fall in love with you, you do not know how to make the grass that you walk upon to caress you tenderly and bless you, the air that you breathe to become one with you, the food that you eat, longing to get into you and become you. All this things are anyway happening, the question is whether you are there to receive it or not? Anyway, it’s happening – the food that you eat becomes a part of you, air that you breathe keeps your life going, what the tree exhales you inhale. This is not a new phenomenon. It is always there as a live process. It is just that are you there to receive it willingly, consciously? Then every breath becomes an ecstatic process for you that you don’t have to seek attention and affection and stand in a queue for tickets to heaven.
It doesn’t matter. Even if you fall into a septic think… tank, don’t turn into a pig which gives only when it’s dead. To give when you’re well, when you… to give when you’re alive, to give when it matters to you, that’s what is most important. So, should I give? So, I want to give, I want to give, giving is great!’ No, no, no, I want you to understand. There is nothing for you to give. What the hell do you have to give? If you sit here life is being given to you by charity, free. You just have to learn to receive. What is there to give? One who came with nothing in his hands, what the hell can he give? You can only take something from here and put it here, take something from here and put it there, take something from there and put it here That’s all you can do. Just putting it where it’s needed – that’s all you can do. Did you come with an investment? Hmm? Are you a venture capitalist or something? Hmm? When you ventured into this planet, did you come with your own investment? Came with nothing. So, who the hell are you? What can you give? What do you have to give? You can take one thing from one place and put it in another place. Putting it in the right place and receiving the bounty of joy and fulfillment of putting things in the right place. Everything that’s life, everything that’s beauty, everything that’s ecstatic you can only receive, you cannot give. If you learn to receive gracefully, that’s the best giving.
People have always made giving into a big deal and they believe they’re giving. The only thing that you can share, that you can call sharing, is yourself. Everything else you picked up from the planet. You pick it up here and if you leave it there, is that giving? That’s not giving. That is just sensible living, that’s all. The only and only thing if at all if you can call as giving is that you shared the very life within you. This is the opportunity, this is the privilege, that the one who offer to everybody that you have the possibility of sharing who you are, because that’s the only giving, that’s the only act that you can reasonably term as ‘giving’. Everything else is transportation. No? Just transportation, isn’t it? From here to there, there to here, because you didn’t bring anything. It’s always been here, shifting places. Something that you consider as yours if you put it in their house, their house also becomes yours. Yes or no? Yes, isn’t it?
You can have the world either you can try to have the world rather by conquest and nobody has managed that till now fortunately. Not that it’s not possible; possible, but fortunately till now it’s not been possible. Another way to take the world is by inclusion. Sitting here you can make it yours. This is a more intelligent way and for sure a successful way of doing things. If this whole world is yours by inclusion, you know I’m letting all of you breathe, eat, do whatever you want, this is giving. Have the joy of giving because it doesn’t matter, all of you can live on my world, no problem. You can eat as much as you want, no problem, because we have no issue, because you can’t take anything and escape. Whatever you take after sometime you’ll put it back. So, what’s my problem? You can live on my world, no problem. Are you capable of taking something with you? Hmm? If you are that kind of a super thief then even… we are even more happy with you because you will take it somewhere and that also will become ours.
Now, this is not just playing with words. This is the experience of a yogi. A yogi means one who sees the Existence as himself. A union has happened. his is the fundamental goal of yoga, to achieve this union. If you sit here, everything is one with you, it is not even yours, it’s you. Now you can give. Everything is yours. You can let them take. Which is better? You giving, giving, giving, or you let them take what they want? Let everybody take what they want. We have no fear, they can use it, and they’ll anyway put it back. Some will use it gently, some will use it in brash ways, but they’ll all put it back. Nobody is going to take it anywhere.”
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