The Most Successful People are the Givers; Giving is receiving

By Sister Chirya —

There was a farmer who grew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors.

“How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year,” the reporter asked. 

“Why sir,” said the farmer, “Didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”

So is with our lives. Those who want to live meaningfully and well must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

Beneath the surface energies of a loud world is a quiet resurgence of the human spirit. Moving from a material focus to a spiritual focus and drawing power from inner spiritual resources, a critical mass of human beings is empowering a new approach to living – giving.  The life-sustaining energy of spirituality enables giving, freeing us from the limitations and polarity of the old paradigm based on body consciousness.

We think we need to get something to complete ourselves or prove our worth. One of the most spiritual important insights or secrets in life is that you already have what you need to give away! Most of us are taught to live a life of always desiring and wanting. We do so because we think when we get what we want we will be fulfilled and esteemed by others.

But it’s an illusion. Only giving allows us to know what we are and what we have within. We are all already complete and worthy, but we do not know and experience it until we give it away! 

Ask the question, “How can I serve?” The intention to serve will point you towards what you need to give. If the intention is real, it also generates the will. The most successful people in life are the givers.

Simply by giving I will receive all that I need. Giving is receiving.  Today let me find a way to ‘give’ unconditionally and with love. Give a smile, give a word of appreciation, give a thought of good wishes, and give your cooperation for a task. Make today a day of giving and tomorrow you will receive the fruits.

The method of becoming a giver and not someone who is always asking for help, love and respect from others is to start filling oneself with those treasures first by connecting with a Higher Source or God, who is full of those treasures Himself.  God never asks for treasures from any human being, but only has one intention – to fill others with everything good he possesses.

He possesses every virtue. He is an Ocean of all those virtues. We need to train ourselves to make our personality like God’s by having a deep relationship with Him through meditation and daily remembrance. 

Respect, kindness, benefit and accessibility are the key characteristics of generosity. Generosity is like a fruit tree in season, when all its fruit is available for the picking. When I am full, complete, and conquered selfish needs then I can be naturally generous. My being is open to others to share the best without obligations.

“Only a powerful soul can offer love. Only a powerful soul can afford to be humble. If we are weak, then we become selfish. If we are empty, we take; but if we are filled, we automatically give to all. That is our nature.” — Dadi Parkashmani

(Yvonne Risely, of Owego, can be reached via email to bkchirya@gmail.com or chirya.risely@peacevillageretreat.org. Sister Chirya is a student and teacher with the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University for over 40 years. She is published in several international publications to include the Daily Guardian in Delhi.)