GENEROSITY
IS A VIRTUE
Most of the religions provide lists of virtues and vices. If
you look at them even casually, you will
find generosity as one of the cardinal virtues.
God is mentioned everywhere as most generous. He has created
this vast world so generously that nothing seems to be lacking. There is an
infinite diversity and so plentiful adequacy that all humans and non-humans get
in good measure what they need.
God is unselfish but man is not. Generous persons are few and
far between. Most of the men and women
who have enough and to spare are close-fisted. They are not ready to share
their possessions with the needy.
Somebody has rightly said: Generosity is the quality of being
kind, understanding, and willing to give time, money, or other necessaries to
people in need.
For example, think of distributions of blankets among the
needy in severe winter; of food among the hungry in all seasons; of donation of
blood for the sick now and then ; and of setting up water spots for the thirsty
in harsh summer. But let not these acts of generosity and many more of other
kinds stop or decrease. Contrarily, they should be multiplied with greater
frequency.
The Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) said: True
generosity is a duty as indispensably necessary as those imposed on us by law.—It
is a rule imposed by reason, which should be the sovereign law of a rational
being. He also adds: True generosity
does not consist in obeying every impulse of humanity, in following blind
passion for our guide, and impairing our circumstances by present benefactions,
so as to render us incapable of future ones.
According to the English poet-playwright William Shakespeare
(1564-1616) : It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after.
To conclude, this short but admirable quote: Always give
without remembering and always receive without forgetting.
*******
G.R.Kanwal
20 December 2024
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