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Christmas is a season of gifts and cakes. Gifts are
given to the beloved ones and we have a character called
Santaclause who goes around giving gifts to the
children. Well, gifts are given on birthdays and other
important occasions of life. We now have shops called
gift shops. Our culture is a gift culture.
But how does the culture of gift come about
historically? According to evolutionists mutual aid was
an important process because men were dependent beings
on each other to receive and to give aid. This mutual
aid was especially for hunting, agriculture and for the
purpose of harvesting the crops with cattle.
Anthropologist Marcel Mauss traces back its history into
the tribal cultures of the world. In his book The
Gift he analyses the phenomenon. According to him
before money exchange came into the use people used to
exchange gifts as a means of social contract. In this
contract one would give cattle, gold, jewellery, women
and so on. It was considered a matter of honour to give
and reciprocal gift was expected too. Among the American
North West tribes and also Andaman tribes rivalry was
expressed by the rule “always to return more than one
received”; failure to return means losing the
competition for the honour. In such societies gifts were
received with burden attached. It was a challenge that
had to be reciprocated to prove that one is not unequal.
This mentality remains now too in our society.
There are three obligations of gift: to give,
to receive and to reciprocate. When one receives a gift
one feels a moral and spiritual obligation. It creates a
sense of gratefulness towards giver. You are called to
give. Generosity is an obligation. Every gift has to be
accepted and praised and you are expected to return the
gift with some other gift. Refusal to receive means,
rejection of the bond of alliance and commonality. We in
India have that sort of culture even now. We do not
expect people to return back the bag in which we send
some sort of gift to the other family. Even on birthdays
people give you a return gift. However, gift giving is
not to become a burden or an empty show. Dana has
to be done with great devotion.
What is a gift? Is it a mere thing? No.
According Marcel Mauss souls are mingled with things;
things with souls. There is a sort of mysterious power
in the gift that makes the receiver reciprocate the
gift. Gift has some force, some magical power that makes
receiver and giver happy.
What is the right thing to give as a gift?
According to Ralph W. Emerson, Rings and other jewels
are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is
a portion of you. You must bleed for the other.
Therefore, the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his
lamb, the farmer, corn; the miner, a gem; the girl, a
handkerchief of her own sewing. A gift should convey a
man’s biography. But a gift which does not represent
your life and talents but a goldsmith or a tailor is
useless. [Emerson: Gift 1844]. Emerson notes that
the only true gift is a gift of one’s self, for a ‘real
gift’ must be something painful to give. The true gift
unites the giver and receiver…and the gift finds perhaps
its most perfect expression in the gift of love.
According to Nietzsche, to be able to give gifts
rightly, is an art and great care and skill is required
in order to prevent feelings of indebtedness in the
recipient of one’s generosity. For him giving is a
necessity. He considers gift-giving virtue to be the
highest virtue.[Thus Spoke Zarathustra].
In
Indian tradition gift giving is as ancient as our
civilization. Dana comes from the Sanskrit word
danam, which means gift. In Indian philosophy it
is called Danadharma—law of gift giving.
According to Manusmrti, “The thing that is given
produces its rewards in this life and the next, it is
not lost. Again it says that the gift of Vedic Knowledge
is superior to all other gifts because it is equal to
Brahman. That means the best gift is the gift of
Brahman himself. However, Manusmrit adds that the
gift has to be given to the worthy recipient.
Distributing gifts to unworthy recipients is equal to
sowing in a barren land that does not produce good
harvest.
According to Bhagavatgita there are three types
of gifts: satvika, rajasika and
tamasika. Satvika means gift made without any
personal gain to a worthy person. Rajasika means
gift made expecting some reward in return and
tamasika is a gift made to an unworthy person, at
improper time and place. According to Gita it is
satvika gift, which leads to total self giving,
atmasamrpana.
According to Brahminsism it is the nature of food to be
shared out. Not to share it with others is to kill its
essence. Again the concept of Dana is very
strongly found in Buddhism and Sikhism. According to
Buddhism property is a bundle of responsibility.
In
giving a gift one undertakes the hermeneutical project
of discovering what is appropriate to the true character
of the recipient. If I fail to interpret him properly,
he will feel that some violence or degradation has been
done, but if the donor succeeds in reading the heart of
the donee the latter may feel that his private space has
been invaded and his very joy at the gift will confirm
the donor in his interpretation of the man behind the
mask.
In
Hinduism creation is the self-sacrifice of Purusha.
It is the total self-giving and self-sacrificing. God
gives himself through disintegration of himself. On
Christmas God gave his only son to the world as a gift.
The child Jesus is like a Christmas cake given to the
world to be cut into pieces on Calvary and eaten like
you eat cake and drink wine on Christmas day. What
return gift have you got to give to the Lord? Beautiful
life wrapped in the vows? If you are giving to God a
gift than give yourself and if you are giving a gift to
some human being then give God to him. |
