EDITORIAL

Begging Alms (October 1977)

Our readers might remember a recent episode, that took place in the Maharashtra State, and which ultimately took  a humourous turn.  We are referring to the hit passed by the Maharashtra State, which made begging an offence in the State.  Under this bill all persons, who were found to be begging, were arrested and sent to work on the construction of a dam, that was under cons­truction in this slate.  Though all the facilities such as residence, utensils, ration etc. were provided for the beggers and though the state was dreaming about the rehabilitation of the beggers,  the dream proved only to be a day-dream and the beggers, who were used to getting food without doing any work, did not like to toil, with the result all of them deserted the place and ran away. Thus ended the honest attempt of the Maharashtra State Govern­ment to liquidate the begging in this state.  From time immemorial, it has been a practice in  this country for the Sadhus, Sannyasis and the disabled persons to beg alms.  The people at large have also never thought anything unusual in their begging, because it is usually thought to be a duty of the society to give food-gr ams or cooked food to these people as a charitable act or philanthrophy.

Two prominent saints of Maharashtra viz- Saint Ramdas and Saint Tukaram, who lived in the seventeenth century and who were more or less contemporaries, have expressed somewhat contradictory opinions about begging alms. In one of his Abhangas •-Saint Tukaram said, ......

("Wretched is the life of one, who depends oh the begging bowl. God should ignore such a person).

In   his   famous   book   Dasbodh   Saint Ramdas wrote about (begging alms) as follows :-

 

"Begging alms is the main function of a Brahmin. He must preserve the tradition of begging alms".

After laying down the main function thus, Saint Ramdas later on directs how much should be accepted as alms thus :-

(One should beg for alms and should remain satisfied with a little. Even if you are offered a lot, you should accept only a handful). While describing the benefits of begging  alms further,  Saint Ramdas has said, “there is no detachment like begging alms” “(under the garb of begging alms, we should observe all the people” “detachment    from this world is expressed by begging  alms” “Many   acquaintances  are caused due to begging alms and many misunderstandings  are removed from it”.

If we examine the above quotations from the literature of the aforesaid two saints, we find that though  Saint Tukaram has condemned begging,   his main object is to blame those persons, who depend on begging for their livelihood like the modern beggers in most of the Indian cities. The only thing that these beggers do, is to beg and some of them also indulge in petty thefts. These beggers are thus only a burden on the society who  does not get any return for the food and clothing that the society gives to these people by way of alms.  Saint Tukaram was there- before quite right in condemning these parasites sucking  the blood of the society, like the mosquitoes sucking human blood.

From the quotations from Dasbodh, given above, we will see that Saint Ramdas has altogether a different view about the practice of begging alms. In the beginning he says that it is one of the functions of a Brahmin.  It is a part of  his duty to beg alms.  Though he thus includes begging of alms in the duties of a Brahmin, still he immediately cautions as to how much should be accepted as alms.  Like other beggers  a Brahmin should not accept any quantity of food and store it for future. He clearly says that if after requesting for alms, a large quantity is offered, only a handful should be taken and not the whole.  He has also said that a person begging alms is detached from this   world and it is quite natural.  We ordinary people are always  worried and attached to this world because we are worrying for the next day. We are also worried about the food to be   cooked for the day. Our worry is that the food, which is cooked may fall short or otherwise if it is not fully consumed, the remnant may be spoiled and thus wasted.  We have also to see that the food-grains and other provisions for the next day, are kept ready only to day, so that we may not have to starve on the next day.  While describing the other benefits of begging alms.   Saint Ramdas states further that because  of  the travel, which is required to be done for begging alms, we are able to make many acquaintances and many of our misunderstandings are cleared when we mix with the common people. As a part of advice useful for our daily life, Saint   Ramdas also says that we might observe  the ways and attitudes of the various people that we   come across during the course of our wandering.  Samarth Ramdas was not a saint who only had a religious outlook on life. While shaping people, who were having full faith in religion, he also   wanted them to take interest in the worldly life.   He wanted to inspire people to be religious and also national minded.   It is because of this that he looked on first (begging alms) from various points of view, unlike Saint Tukaram, who had mainly a religious outlook on life.

In the face of the  aforesaid  diverse opinions expressed f two famous saints of Maharashtra,   we   have to examine mendicancy of Shri Sai Baba. In Sai Satcharita Shri Dabholkar has examined this question and he writes regarding the mendicancy of Shri Sai Baba as follows :-

THE NECESSITY OF MENDICANCY

Now to return to the question of mendicancy.  A question may arise in the minds of some that if Baba was such a great personage — God in fact, why should He have  recourse to the begging bowl, all his lifetime?    This question may be considered and replied from two standpoints.  (1) Who are the fit persors who have a   right to live by the begging bowl?  Our  Shastra say that those persons, who getting rid of,  or becoming free from the three main Desires, viz.    (1) for progeny, (2) for wealth. (3) for fame, accept Sannyas, are the fit persons to live by begging alms.  They cannot make cooking arrangements and dine at home. The duty of feeding them is laid on the shoulders of house-holders. Sai Baba was neither a house-holder nor   Vanaprastha.  He was a celibate Sannyasi i.e., Sannyasi from  boyhood.  His firm con­viction was that the   universe was His home. He was the Lord Vasudeo — the Supporter of the universe and the Imperishable Brahman.  So he had the full right to have recourse to the begging-bowl.  Now from the standpoint of (1) Panch-soona    — five sins and their atonement.  We all know that in order to prepare food-stuffs and meals, the householders  have to go through five actions or processes,   viz.   (1) Kandani   — pounding. (2) Peshani — Grinding,   (3)   Udakumbhi —  washing   pots,   (4)   Marjani — Sweeping and cleaning, (5) Chulli — Lighting hearths.  These pro­cesses involve destruction of a lot of small insects  and creatures, and thus the householders incur an amount of sin.  In  order to atone for this sin, our Shastras prescribe five kinds of sacrifices viz. (1) Brahma-yajna or (2) Vedadhyayan - offerings to Brahma or the study of the   Vedas,   (3) Pitri-yajna — offerings to the ancestors,   (4)   Deva-yajna — offerings to the Gods, (5) Bhoota-'f     yajna ????— offerings to the beings,   (6)   Manushya-Atithi-yajna — ;-jj[??? offerings to men or uninvited guests.  If these sacrifices enjoined by the Shastras are duly performed, the purification of their minds is effected and this helps them to get knowledge and Self-realization, Baba, in going from house to house, reminded the inmates of their sacred duty, and fortunate were the people who got the lesson at their home from Baba. (Page 51-52, Sai Satcharita 7th edition 1974.)

In the above passage, Shri Dabholkar has explained fully the theory of mendicancy from which  it will be seen that it is the duty of the society to provide food for the person, who has dedi­cated his whole life to the welfare of the society.  There is one more difference between the other beggers and Shri Baba.  The beggers only collect food from the society and do not give any­thing back to the society, except perhaps nuisance. The beggers collect the food and consume the whole of it by themselves, without giving anything to others while look at the way in which Shri Daba used to utilize the food collected by him by begging.

"The food thus collected was thrown in a Kundi i.e., earthen pot. Dogs, cats and crows freely ate from   it and Baba never drove them away. The woman, who swept the floor of the Masjid took some 10 or  12 pieces of  bread to her house and  nobody prevented her from doing so".    (P 47 Sai   Satcharita 7th edition 1974). As explained by Saint Ramdas, Shri Baba begged alms in a limited number of houses and also collected limited food.  Out of the food collected by him, be consumed very little and the rest was allowed to be consumed by cats, dogs, crows etc. Thus the mendicancy of Shri Baba was also His Leela   and it was done by Him only to remind the people of their  sacred duty.  One recent saint of Maharashtra, Saint Gadgemaharaj also lived on the bread, which he procured by begging. In the   beginning   he would not get it regularly ;  but he never felt sorry for that and remained without food occasionally when he did not set bread.

Mendicancy in the  case of a begger is thus a vice and it should not be encouraged, because  thereby a part of the society turns into parasites, who consume the food procured by others by great effort. In this world no one, who is able-bodied, has a right to consume food without toiling and therefore begging is really a sin against society. The Maharashtra Government, there­fore, acted in the right direction in passing a bill against begging; but because of the traditional lethargy of the people in this country and our queer ideas of philanthrophy, the beggers are thriving in this country and begging is a business of certain people in our country. However we must not measure all the people with the same yard-stick. We must differentiate between people. Though everyone who begs alms could be catagoricaily termed as a begger, we have also to look to the whole life of a person and his object in begging. Thus the mendicancy of such saints like Ramdas, Shri Sai Baba or Shri Gadgemaharaj does not really amount to begging as in the case of beggers and it should be looked upon as a part of their life's mission to remind the members of the society of their sacred duty towards great souls like them.