Why giving without getting anything in return is the gateway to happiness

Being raised in a Hindu tradition whose religious customs centered primarily around bhakti yoga, the practice of connecting to the Divine through acts of loving devotion, my parents and elders would regularly infuse in me the importance of striving to live a life of dana (giving) and seva (selfless service).

While growing up, however, because the real estate of my mind was generally occupied with a focus of playing sports, hanging with friends, and attempting — usually unsuccessfully — to talk to girls, very little space was left for actually contemplating such teachings, which seemed rather basic and obvious to me anyways.

Yet, as I shifted from the frivolous and free years of teenagehood and settled into my twenties, questions of identity and purpose settled in as well. I thus did what many who are lost and confused often do. I looked to my roots for answers.

Picking up the Bhagavad Gita, a philosophical text revered not only by bhakti practitioners, but by all within and outside the Hindu diaspora, I read about how selfless service is more than just a virtue to live by, but an impetus that is imbedded in our very being. As fire’s purpose can be determined by its nature — to give off heat and light — our purpose too is determined by our true nature, which is spiritual. The Divine is within us all, and as such, the suffering of others should not be seen numbly as having nothing to do with us. If we all originate from the same divine source, then we are all part of the same spiritual family, and should naturally want to help one another.

Thus, giving purely for the unadulterated desire to uplift others, not out of selfish motives, is extolled throughout Hindu scripture as being the process by which we can learn to let go of mundane material attachments and cultivate the spirit of renunciation required to become liberated from samsara, or the cycle of rebirth and death.

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