Brihadanishad: Self-Beliefs In The Vedas

Small things are to be counted too -- we should hold doors open for people, pick things up from the street, clean up our neighbourhoods, visit the sick and the elderly, be generous to our neighbours, always greet people with a smile (as it is a sunnah) and deal with them kindly, and do any other good deed that we can think of that will bring benefit to ourselves and all the people around. The Prophet Muhammad said: “The best charity for a continuous reward is to provide water” for instance digging a well or building a canal. This point reminds me of a story of a man told by the prophet Muhammad. He mentions that a man lowered himself into the well, drank and came out. Then he saw a dog protruding its tongue from thirst. The man said: This dog

The Rigveda relates dāna to satya "truth" and in another hymn points to the guilt one feels from not giving to those in need. It uses da, the root of word dāna, in its hymns to refer to the act of giving to those in distress. The Upanishads, present some of the earliest Upanishadic discussion of dāna. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in verse 5.2.3, states that three characteristics of a good, developed person are self-restraint (damah), compassion or love for all sentient life (daya), and charity (dāna).Learn three cardinal virtues - self restraint, charity and compassion for all life.— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, V.ii.3. The Bhagavad Gita is a digest and clarification of the upanishads, and is essentially inseparable from them. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it is said that once the Creator, Prajapati, spoke a single syllable, “Da,” to his human disciples. “Then he said: ‘Have you understood?’ They answered, ‘Yes, we have understood. You said to us, “Datta—Be charitable.” ‘Yes,’ agreed Prajapati, ‘you have understood.’” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 5:2:2) So Dana, which means: giving, gift, charity, almsgiving, self-sacrifice, donation, and generosity, is both an action and an attitude. Krishna considers this an important factor in spiritual life, one from which we will profit from understanding. Once more he analyses a subject from the aspect of its guna-quality. Bhagavad Gita describes the right and wrong forms of dāna in verses 17.20 through