No Sacrifice

Greetings, and many blessings to you for a wonderful New Year from the Dasvandh Office. Many thanks to all of you who shared your wonderful feedback about the year-end video, and for your generous contributions to help us continue our work.

While I was gathering information for this issue, I found the saying: “Giving is not a sacrifice.” I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was going to write my article about that and she answered, “But the Siri Singh Sahib (Yogi Bhajan) said to give until it hurts.” What better way to get a point across!

What defines sacrifice? “The surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim; an offering to appease or make favorably inclined.” What makes it a sacrifice is the tag-on of having too much of a vested interest in the result of the giving. Giving is not a sacrifice – it is like showering a loved one with love or showing our gratitude to the Infinite – there can be no “return receipt” for what we give. But once we learn to give so freely that there is no gain involved for ourselves, once we give regardless of an outcome, and regardless of our personal interest, we have learned to give without sacrifice, and it can never hurt, no matter how much we give.

This year, if you don’t already, I invite you to try out this theory in your own life and bring giving in your life to a place of no sacrifice. I’ll end with a beautiful quote I recently found on the internet: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” (Norman MacFinn).