In the Hindu tradition, charity is associated with dana, which denotes alms giving, gifting, and sharing; prema, an unlimited loving-affectionate kindness toward all beings; bhakti (“devotion,” Sanskrit), a boundless, unconditional, undemanding love toward God; and preeti, a heightened emotion of love, especially joy or adoration, covering many shades of human attachment toward aspects of creation and relations. All of these terms have a concurrent historicity of three or more millennia and continue to be used meaningfully in the present day.
According to technical Hindu meanings, dana is an act of conscious and willing relin-quishment of possession and transference of ownership of some thing to another willing recipient who consciously accepts the transfer, and as a consequence, becomes the new owner. Prema, bhakti, and preeti possess a commonality: They are often expressed as a virtue and as love, akin to agape in Christian theology. Each shade of meaning has shaped different aspects of cultural and religious practices in Hindu traditions.
In the religious realm, charity in all of these meanings is considered to be a purifying, refining practice on the path of spiritual progress. Dana, bhakti, prema, and preeti are understood to be different modes of yoga practice. Dana comprises the following elements: an agent of giving; a receiver; an item to part with; an occasion for transfer; the place of transfer; a ritual format to part with; an intention to do charity; the sacred chants associated with the act; and the expected benefit. The diversity in these factors is used in uniquely identifying and grading the acts of charity.
Prema, bhakti, and preeti are generally unconditional one-sided acts that are centered in faith and emotion. As action, they are not expected to conform to—nor are they amenable to—any logical explanation. Instead, they spring from a common ground of mind and emotional refinement. The direction of refinement is freedom from egoistic, possessive, selfish expectancy to a level of selfless surrender. It is in this selfless sense that they can best be understood as “charity.”
In the Vedas, the earliest tradition of Hindu scriptures, dana is glorified as just as efficacious for God/Self realization as the traditional paths of sacrifice (yajna) and penance (tapas). The classic Sanskrit philosophical-devotional text, the Bhagavad Gita, identifies three grades of giving on the guna scale of natural qualities: sattva (purity), rajas (energy), and tamas (stasis). Thus, a gift can be characterized by purity, passion, or inertia; usually these are understood to be in descending order. Later texts, such as the sacred Puranas, are mythological repositories that provide details of charity as “giving” for “acquisition of merit by pleasing Gods” and “purging of sins.” In this sense, some charities are considered to bestow a healing benefit.
Different modes of dana are considered to be acts of great merit and are connected with distinctive social and emotional flavors, including love: kanya-dana (parting with the beloved daughter in marriage), vidya-dana (training of a worthy disciple by the master), jeevana-dana (sparing the life of a defeated weak opponent in war), anna dana (offering of water and food for quenching of thirst and hunger), and abhaya-dana (offering protection to those who come seeking safety and those who surrender). These are considered to be charitable acts of great merit.
Dana, prema, bhakti, and preeti are seen in two modes of practice, public and private. Every earning member of the society is religiously mandated, or at least advised, to do charity and earn future merit, which creates virtue (dharma). This mandate can be transformed into a command of compulsory annual giving or sharing a percentage of earnings or possessions with society for a noble cause; for example, kings are by tradition specifically mandated to share their wealth with society. In modern times, these images of morally virtuous and truly selfless acts of giving continue to be respected in the pronounced culture of honor that governs India’s familial and social relations.
