QUESTION:
Satnaam Ji,
I want to start doing more charity work and giving more financially to charity etc.
Does the sangat have any guidelines on this, any projects that baba Ji is doing, recommended charities?
Or do we just do ardaas and just go with inner feeling?
Thanks
Satnaam Satnaam Satnaam.
REPLY:
A) DASVANDH :
Dasvandh means giving a tenth of your net earnings and time to the Guru. You need to be giving Dasvandh to the Guru, ten percent of your time (2.5hrs) every morning to Naam Simran and also ten percent of your earnings to the Guru and to charity.
Actually, the GurBani Guru tells us to give everything we have to the Sadh – give our Tunn, Munn and Dhann. Do we think that we have anything else to give? Probably not. Look at the beauty and divine power of the divine wisdom, it has covered everything in just three words – Tunn, Munn and Dhann. By doing so we will have given everything to the Sadhu. But, Guru Sahibans are very kind on us and made a rule in their times for the Gursikhs that they can give one tenth of their time and earnings to the Guru and the Guru will make up for the remaining 90% of it. This rule is still good and prevails because this was done by the Gurus. So if we give 10% of our earnings and time to the Guru, we can consider that we have given our Tunn and Dhan to the Guru. Giving Munn is however the most difficult thing to do and the ones who do so along with Tunn and Dhan become Dhan-Dhan. Their spiritual progress is beyond the imagination of an ordinary person. Again, we can only realize spiritual progress by doing so and not just by living in illusions and delusions.
Giving Dasvandh to the Guru and charity will also relieve us from the greed for money and attachment to worldly possessions. When we give 10% (Dasvandh) of our earningswe eventually become free of greed. The feeling of greed which then prompted untrue deeds starts to diminish. Our heart becomes kind, loving and self-sacrificing. We serving the poor and needy. This eventually relieves us of the deep mental sickness of greed. Helping the poor and giving charity donations will bring kindness inside us, as long as we do it as Nishkaam (desire free) Seva (service), without any desire for reward or recognition. Desires can only die by doing Naam Simran. So do Naam Simran whilst doing Seva, then it becomes Nishkaam Seva.
Earning inner poverty (attitude that nothing is mine, I have nothing), Gareebi Ves Hirda, will make us Nimana and will bring humility inside our soul and mind.
We should NEVER and we repeat NEVER become Beymukh (turn our back) to the Guru who gives us the GurParsaad. This will put a lock on our spiritual progress. Once we start doubting our Guru then we are finished. There is no more spiritual progress. We should always and forever follow the Guru’s advice and never go outside His advice or words. If He tells us to serve others then we should start doing it right away. We should continue to GIVE DASVANDH TO OUR GURU UNTIL HE TELLS US TO STOP DOING SO.
B) TOTAL SURRENDER & EXCUSES NOT TO GIVE DASWANDH – chat between Dassan Dass ji and Harjit (Preeto)
19 Jan 2010
Preeto: Satnaam simran and total surrender, we understand that now.
Veer ji said it to us once as well, that whatever good happened to us in bhagti happened when we totally surrendered and not for any other reason.
Otherwise we were always looking back into our past for the secret formula i.e What was i doing at that time when that experience of Divine Light happened (eg being strict about religious rules).
This is a very simple path ji, but it has taken us a long time to get rid of the emotional and mental baggage that didn’t let our mind sit still and do simran, we feel mostly free of it now.
Dassan Dass: the secret formula is total surrender to the guru – again to the satguru.
Sometimes people think that they will give the dasvandh of the earnings to some other place, which is not surrender to the guru.
The surrender has to be to the satguru who gives you the gurparsaad. Giving dasvandh to the guru is giving to none other than your ownself.
In fact you can’t give anything to the guru, it is the guru that gives you everything.
Giving is another secret formula, it is bandagi, whereas asking is business.
When you give dasvandh to the guru the guru puts in the remaining 90 percent from his own treasures and gives EVERYTHING back to you.
Just by giving as little as a dasvandh (a tenth) brings you jivan mukti.
Just giving as little as dasvandh brings you Chaar padarath- kaam, moksh, arth and dharam (four gifts for living).
Is it a bad deal?
Preeto: these exact thoughts were coming to us earlier today as well,
Gurbani says “tan munn dhan Sabh saup GUR kau – surrender ALL your mind, body and wealth to your Guru”,
but people like our father accuse holy men of just collecting wealth, and rather give their money to the Gurdwara,
or like now Haiti disasters and so on.
But you are right, it is good to help the needy and and charities, but by not giving daswand to the SatGuru, it is an act of not surrendering to the SatGuru who gave us the GurParsaad of Naam. It shows they have resistance, they dont have 100% faith.
We had stopped giving Dasvandh for a while due to financial pressures and wife not being happy about us giving. But, earlier this year when we resolved to give Daswandh to satguru ji, but we didn’t tell our wife.
Then our wife found out because she opened our bank statement and we had to face her wrath. We really struggled at that time with our wife to do this.
We had REALLY big arguments but stayed strong and gave daswandh.
After that we were blessed with a dream were a Sevadar gave Baba ji some money and said this is from Harjit (Baba ji hadn’t blessed us with the name Preeto then).
And Baba ji asked “what does Harjit want in return” (like its a business deal) and we ran towards Baba ji because that was totally wrong, and said to “Baba ji we give you everything.”
After that we started going into samadhi and being blessed by all kinds of sants.
We are trying to get back to that now ji with your blessings, we slipped up a bit after that. Because we started thinking that we could buy all kinds of things for ourself and family with the money if WE ARE NOT giving daswandh. So we had unfullfilled desires to take care of again.
Dassan Dass: Then people make another excuse that the Guru takes the dasvandh for himself.
(They accuse their Guru of being greedy), but really they don’t want to give. But then they end up losing in some other form.
Imagine if everybody gives Dasvandh in the Satnaam Parivaar, then everybody will become a Sant Hirda
and how much then they will have to offer to the world.
Guru Gobind Singh jee asked for a head and he got only five of them so the ones who gave themselves to the Guru became puran braham gyanis. Just imagine if everyone in the crowd would have done so then everyone would have been blessed with puran braham gyan, yes?
Preeto: That would be the true Sadh Sangat. We think it is very simple to understand if people think of it in terms of love.
For the love of our children or family we spend lots of money, do anything we have to and not think twice about it. So we are all capable of giving out of love and making sacrifices out of love. But can we love our Guru like that, can we transcend our family love?
Bhai Lehna ji loved Guru Nanak ji so much and gave everything. All the following Guru jis did so, all the past Bhagats did so, it was love.
It wasnt even a matter of the Guru asking for it, or following of rules by the Sikh.
When we truly love our Guru, like Bhai Lehna Ji, then we dont need anyone to tell us to give Daswandh or give time to do seva, it comes from within us to give everything.
Dassan Dass: yes that is true, people keep on making the same mistake which was made by the crowd in satgur Gobind Singh ji’s sangat on the day of Baisakhi. They keep running away from their Guru and not surrendering to him. This is the secret formula, actually now there is no secret in this formula. The Gurus have revealed it to us.
The moment the surrender is complete there is Akal Purakh standing to greet you with open arms in the Dargah (as has just happened to Veer ji).
So simple. So easy. So fast.
Preeto: yes ji, we all know that money is not going with us and we leave it all behind because we have no choice when physical death comes. But only the ones who freely give up their attachments to it whilst alive become free whislt alive – jiwan mukt.
Dassan Dass: “apnaa aap gawaayeaa taan sauh paayeaa – losing oneself one realises God.”
and also “bin satgur suhaag naa hoyee ram – without a Satguru one is not accepted by God.”
Preeto: Thankyou so much, we always see that in your bandagi, how much you just surrendered to Baba ji – all out of love.
Preeto: We have to go now.
Please bless all of us to fall in love with our Satguru ji’s holy feet, with your holy lotus feet
Dassan Dass: thanks for your patience – God bless you
Preeto: dhan dhan sukhee raho ji
Preeto: thankyou for everything.
C) PUT THE DIVINE WISDOM INTO PRACTISE RIGHT AWAY
Preeto: Veer ji said that when we hear some new gyan, accept it within 3 seconds, accept it is the Truth and part of you and just do it. That is so true of how Veer ji progressed so fast, as soon as he accepted the BrahmGyan you gifted to him in his mind, inside himself, he complied and he put it into practise. It is as simple as that, like when he read above that Dasvandh goes to your Guru first, he did it right away. From the smallest pearl of divine wisdom to the biggest gyan, he just accepted it right away, now we know he called it the 3 second rule.
Dassan Dass: That is all true.
Do it without any delay at all, right from the same moment. The moment you start doing it you will go up the same moment, higher in spirituality.
Preeto: But we – stubborn part of the mind – just wants to hold on to the old beliefs, the old patterns of thinking, the old negative thoughts, even though we know there is no joy in them. We have really noticed that about ourself recently, and have realised not to listen to that side of the mind anymore, not to give it any more power by spending time in those thoughts, just to do simran instead, to focus on SatNAAM and we realise that is how our mind is getting straightened. And that is what you wrote in Sukhmani Katha that the Sadh is the one who has straightened his mind.
Dassan Dass: That is the key to success:
earning the words of a braham gyani.
No questions, just do it right there and then and end up in dargah.
The reason for blockage and road blocks is not doing and nothing else.
This is a divine law and can’t be broken.
It is a mandatory divine law to do what the guru tells you to do and then see what happens.
Look at Om jee he went in to the Dargah first and then he met us after five years.
Same thing happened with a few other people in the sangat too, what did they do differently from the rest of the sangat? What did Om jee do differently?
This is what they did differently:
THEY FOLLOWED THE GURU’S WORD in real life, every single moment, every single day and with every single breath.
D) DASVANDH BECOMES COMPLETE
Nov 2010
DD: (Looking at Preeto) We are not going to let you go anywhere, we are going to keep you with us 24 hrs a day even if your wife wants to swear at us, let her, we don’t care (laughs). She’s going to say ‘the Baba has come again!’ (laughs) But, we have given your mother and father liberation (blessed Preeto’s generations including wife and family and coming generations).
Romaj Ji: refers to (Preeto) He is a great soul Baba Ji.
DD: His seva is Dhan Dhan. This child has done such a beautiful seva (website satnaam.info).
Preeto: We didn’t do anything, its all your grace.
Romaj Ji: Yeah…really good, very good.
DD: all this sangat that is here, or we have is because of his seva. Even if he does Simran or doesn’t we have told him his Dasvandh is complete and everything else in his Bhagati is complete.
DD: but he will just scream over and over in his emails about his misdeeds? Who else has the courage to keep on criticising themselves?
Swaraj Ji: he does so much seva.
Romaj Ji: yes, he does so much seva. He is great.
DD: the first day he ever came to us (first email 8 years ago in 2002), that day we said when he joins the sangat he will inspire the whole world.
E) HOW DASVANDH IS BEING USED
The Dasvandh being given by the sangat is being used for the purpose of translation, printing books and running the website. 100% of your Dasvandh is helping others to receive the Puran Sat – Complete Truth, no matter who it is, whatever their language. Click here to read more.
(NOTE: it is not for us to judge how our Guru uses the Dasvandh, it is nice that Dassan Dass ji has told us how he redirects it into seva of the masses, but even if he used it for other purposes, it is not for us to first judge what the Guru will use the money before and then deciding to give or not. As the Guru’s Sikh it is just our job to give, give and give. Satnaam Baba Ji used to run a restaurant whilst doing his 7 years of Bandagi going to Gurdwara everyday. When the time came to leave that seva, Baba ji had also sold the restaurant and God told him not to worry about the future because the sangat would give him Dasvandh. As Sikhs we are all taught to give clothes and money and food to the beloved ones of God, just as Baba Nanak ji fed the hungry Sadhus with those 20 rupees his father gave him to go and do good business with. Even though his father slapped him on finding he had fed the holy, Baba Nanak deemed serving the holy with his money as the best business in the world. Bhai gurdas ji also writes on giving even a penny to your Guru, the Guru fills your treasurechest to overflowing. and also, that in the world their is pain and pleasure, profit and loss, but with the Guru there is no loss only spiritual gain.)
F) DASSAN DASS JI’S OWN EXPERIENCE OF GIVING DASVANDH
8 Feb 2010
HOW TO SURRENDER
Dassan Dass: Give his tunn (body), munn (mind) and dhan (wealth) to the Guru – which is nothing but acceptance again.
Guru’s words will bring you infinite divine power. Truth is infinite.
Truth has no boundaries. Truth has no limit. Truth has no dimensions. Truth has no depth – it is infinite.
And trust in guru’s word is bandgi.
Preeto:
we trust in your divine words ji,
you said to us previously that all you have ever said for us to do is satnaam simran,
it is so simple what you have asked us to do
– we forgot how simple this inner path is,
we made it complicated by trying to do other things
and to win arguments and make meditation centres and so on.
But its so simple, no matter what happens just to do satnaam simran with love, trust and devotion.
Dassan Dass:
Acceptance comes with trust,
unconditional love comes with acceptance,
devotion comes with acceptance,
bairaag comes with acceptance,
and above all mukti comes with acceptance
– and acceptance is surrender.
That is all we did and you have seen the results.
We did so with the gurparsaad 10 years ago. It will be 10 years in this summer of 2010.
Preeto: your journey is amazing ji. You have bcome timeless
Dassan Dass: all it took was from September of 2000 to December of 2000
– and complete realization was the reward. Within a few months.
It is so simple and easy to do.
Preeto: you jumped into the ocean of baba ji’s love, into Naam, completely, deeply and madly in love.
Dassan Dass: what did we lose by giving dasvandh to the guru?
Preeto: nothing ji , you lost nothing.
Nothing else mattered, nothing else ever does,
just you and your guru.
Dassan Dass: we gave dasvandh to the Guru even when we didn’t have a job.
We borrowed money on credit cards and gave dasvandh to the guru.
And look at what we were rewarded with.
We lost a property worth 1.2 millions dollars as well.
Preeto: you lost the world, but gained the universe – the Infinite Divine Power.
Dassan Dass: we had big financial blows.
But with baba ji’s kirpa we did’t get any heart attacks
or even high blood pressure. Actually our blood pressure only got better!
We laughed and said there is no labh or haani – no profit or no loss in bandgi.
And we have never had a shortage of funds
Preeto: yes ji, “lakhmi thot na aavayee jai karach karundaa – wealth never finishes even though I spend it (in service of others)” – Guru Arjun Dev Ji.
Dassan Dass: never underestimate the Guru’s words.
They are just unbeliveably powerful, they are infinite divine power.
Those who don’t give dasvandh will not be able to get jivan mukti
Preeto: yes ji, may we cherish the Guru’s divine words in our heart and apply them in our life.
Dassan Dass: And they will not get jivan mukti until they give dasvandh to the guru,
no matter what happens.
They may have to be born again and again to clear their account.
Giving dasvandh is the shortest and most rewarding way to do so.
Only the Gurparsaad can wash all the sins, there is nothing else that can wash the sins.
Eventually everyone will have to give dasvandh,
wether in this life of the one after or the one after and so on.
So the sooner the better.
Preeto: yes we also struggled a few years with money, we were losing alot every month due to our properties
being empty. And then it was the hardest thing to give daswandh as well,
but we did manage to at that time,
and found things got much better, as we managed to sell those properties with baba jis kirpa.
Wereas our father and brother are still stuck with their loss making flats.
But Susan also gave daswandh and managed to sell hers as well.
We leaned not belive in the illusion that by not giving daswandh we are going to be better off.
Dassan Dass: that is right, by giving dasvandh Maya can’t eat you.
And not giving dasvandh, maya will continue to eat you.
That is why we say giving, giving, giving – tunn munn dhan – mind, body and wealth.
This is what gurbani says – “tunn munn dhan sabh saop guru ko – give mind, body and wealth ALL to the Guru.”
Some people still think that giving dasvandh to some other charities is the same as giving to the Guru.
But that is not true, gurbani says “tunn munn dha sabh saop GUR ko.”
Although giving to other charities is good as that is a punn karam (virtuous deed) too,
but that will not bring you jivan mukti
Preeto: somebody asked Mother Teresa how much to give, and she said “give until it hurts.”
And we realised by giving like that, tht in the end it stops hurting when lobh & moh (greed & attachment thieves)
stops pinching us.
Dassan Dass: that is true she was a sant too.
This kind of hurt brings unimaginable rewards.
Everybody wants to meet God and wash their sins
and get eternal bliss, but how many do what they are supposed to do?
One in tens of millions.
Preeto: nobody wants to die ji, nobody want to give even a tenth of their mind, body and wealth, regardless of giving ALL
of their mind, body and wealth.
Dassan Dass: we still say and feel we are not capable of giving anything to baba ji
and we didn’t give anything to baba ji, it was all his gurkirpa and gurparsaad.
How can we give God-Guru anything, when everything is His, “teri upma tujhi ko arpan” ?
Preeto: we were dukhi (hurt) as a teenager,
we even thought of suicide once, but in the end we took sikh initiation and said to God,
“we give you our head, we are alive now because of you,
we live for you,
we will do your bandgi and
trust you to take care of our worldy affairs.”
Dassan Dass: that is why you are so today
Preeto: we didnt know any gurbani in those days or have any divine wisdom, it was just our inner feelings.
And with your blessings we have met so many divine and wonderful souls who have truly died like this.
Dassan Dass: that is because of your bandgi in previous janams.
That is real life – death of self and to become non existant.
Preeto: yes ji, dukh woke us up, and our soul went forward.
It is the greatest gift to wake up and feel the separation.
Dassan Dass: this is gurparsaad.
Preeto: most people dont understand us, they are not awake, they dont want to wake up either.
Dassan Dass: forget about them and keep awakening yourself – sada sada awake – sada sada munn kaa jagna.
Preeto: thankyou ji, we have decided to stay quiet and just do our bhagti and simran now.
We dont need to save the world or win arguments or persuade anyone at this time.
Dassan Dass: we will see you later, as we have to go now, thanks for your kindness, seva, love, devotion, trust and bandgi
Preeto: thankyou ji again for everything.
Dandauth bandhna ji.
Dassan Dass: dhan dhan raho sada sukhi raho