Charity simply means an unconditional sharing
Osho on Charity : It simply means you have something; you should enjoy to share it. Don’t be a miser. Don’t hold on to it because this whole life is going to end one day and you will not be able to take anything with you. So while you are alive, why not share as much as you can? Things which can be taken away any moment …it is better that you share them. And it is a great joy to share. The man who learns the art of sharing is the richest man in the world. He may be poor, but his inner being has a quality of richness that even emperors may feel jealous of.
I have always loved a small Sufi story: A poor man, very poor, a woodcutter, lived in the forest in a small hut. The hut was so small that he and his wife could sleep …only that much space was in the hut.
In the middle of one dark night, it was raining hard and somebody knocked on the door. The wife was sleeping close to the door. The husband said to the wife, “Open the door. The rain is too much and the man must have lost his way. It is a dark night and the forest is dangerous and full of wild animals. Open the door immediately!”
She said, “But there is no space.” The man laughed and said, “This is not a palace of a king, where you will always find a shortage of space. This is a poor man’s hut. Two can sleep well; three can sit. We will create space. Just open the door.”
And the door was opened. The man came in and he was very grateful and they all sat and started talking and gossiping and telling stories to each other. The night had to be passed somehow because they could not sleep; there was no space. And just then, another knock ….
The man, the new guest, was now sitting by the side of the door. The owner of the hut said, “Friend, open the door. Somebody else is lost.” And the man said, “You seem to be a very strange fellow. There is no space.”
He said, “This was my wife’s argument too. If I had listened to her argument, you would have been in the forest, eaten by the wild animals. And you seem to be a strange man that you cannot understand that we are sitting just because of you. We are tired after a long day. I am a woodcutter — the whole day I cut the wood and then sell it in the market and then we can hardly get food once a day. Open the door. This is not your hut. If three persons can sit comfortably, four persons can sit a little closer, with a little less comfort. But we will create the space.”
Naturally he had to open the door, although reluctantly. And a man entered and he was very grateful. Now they were sitting very close; there was not even a single inch of space left. And then suddenly, a strange knock, which did not seem to be a man’s! There was silence from all three; the wife and the two guests were afraid that he would say open the door.
And he said it. “Open the door. I know who is knocking. It is my donkey. In this wide world he is my only friend. I carry my wood on that donkey. He remains outside, but it is raining too much. Open the door.”
And now it was the fourth guest to be allowed in, and everybody resisted and they said, “This is too much. Where is the donkey going to stand?”
This man said, “You don’t understand. It is a poor man’s hut, it is always spacious. Right now we are sitting; when the donkey comes in we will all be standing and we will keep the donkey in the middle so he feels warm and cozy and loved.”
They said, “It was better to get lost in the jungle, rather than to be caught in your hut.”
But nothing could be done. When the owner said to open the door, the door was opened. And the donkey came in. The water was dripping from all over his body and the owner took him into the middle and told all the others to stand around. He said, “You don’t understand. My donkey is of a very philosophical mind. You can say anything, he is never disturbed. He always listens silently.”
I have loved this story which says that the emperor’s palaces are always short of space — although they are so big …. The house of the president of India has one hundred rooms with attached bathrooms, one hundred acres of garden. This used to be the viceroy’s house and still they have separate guesthouses. What are these hundred rooms doing there? One wonders ….
I have once been there because one of the presidents, Zakir Hussein, was interested in me. He was a vice-chancellor of Aligarh University and when he was the vice-chancellor, I spoke there. He was presiding, and he loved what I had said. When he became president and he came to know that I was in Delhi, he invited me to come and he took me around. I asked him, “What purpose are these one hundred rooms serving?”
He said, “They are just useless. In fact to maintain them, one hundred servants are needed. For the maintenance of this big garden of one hundred acres, one hundred rooms — and in front you see two big buildings. They are guesthouses and each guesthouse must have at least twenty-five rooms, not less than that.”
I said, “This is absolute wastage. In how many rooms do you sleep?”
He said, “In how many rooms? I sleep in my bed. I’m not a monster that I will spread myself into many rooms …head in one room, and the body in another and the legs in another.”
“But then,” I said, “these hundred rooms which are simply empty, fully furnished with everything available that a man needs, should be put to some use.”
But this is the situation around the world. The emperors have big palaces and still there is no space. They are always making new palaces, new guesthouses.
And the poor man in this story said, “It is a poor man’s hut, there is no shortage of space. We will manage.” And they managed. The night passed beautifully, although they had to stand up. But it is beautiful to share whatever you have. Even if you don’t have anything, you can find something in your nothing, also to share.
Charity is Sharing.
Source – Osho Book “Bodhidharma : The Greatest Zen Master”