Generosity

One day when Lord Krishna was resting in his palace, Duryodhana came to meet him. He was upset that he was not given credit for his deeds and was shadowed by Yudhishtira. Yudhistira was the eldest among the Pandavas. Pandavas were the five brothers - Yudhishtira, Beema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. They were good people who were good and were always honest and true at heart. Duryodhana was the eldest among the Kauravas. Kauravas were the hundred brothers who included Duryodhana and Dushashana. They were bad and always in the evil side and were dishonest and bad at heart.

Duryodhana complained to Lord Krishna and told to him “I am also very generous. I have helped the needy and poor and I am very kind at heart. I have gifted lot of wealth to poor and needy. But always Yudhishtira gets the name. In fact I have done more charity than him. But unfortunately I am not given due credit for my deeds.”

Krishna promised to find a solution to this problem. After two days he invited both Duryodhana and Yudhishtira to his house. He told both of them that he wanted to give a small test to them to find out how generous they were. He told them “Both of you are great Kings and have done lot of charity and helped the poor and needy. Now I want to test the level of your generosity. So I will give you one mountain of gold. And I want you to distribute the gold to people. One who finishes the entire mountain by end of day will be considered the most generous person among the two of you”. Both of them agreed and went to their respective mountains of gold which were built in the opposite directions.

Duryodhana started to put his entire hard work right away. He immediately sprung into action. He took out his axe and started to cut huge pieces of gold and distributed to people. He did not rest for lunch or tea. He distributed the whole day and did not notice the time also. Evening came and lord Krishna came to Duryodhana to study his status. He had a half a mountain of gold left with him.

From there both Krishna and Duryodhana went to look out for Yudhishtira’s status. But to their surprise found that the whole mountain was present as is. Not even a piece of it was given away. Yudhistira became very proud and told Krishna” I told you right. I am more generous. I have given away half the mountain within a day. But see Yudhishtira has the entire mountain as is. Unfortunately I was not getting the due credit”

Krishna smiled and called Yudhishtira and asked “Why is your mountain remaining the same. Didn’t you get the mind to give it to any one? Duryodhana has already given half of it”

Humble Yudhishtira told Krishna, ”Lord, I have finished the task you assigned me, within a few minutes after the assignment itself and I was resting the entire day in this tree’s shadow. I gave the entire mountain of gold to the first person who walked past this way.”

Duryodhana was dumb struck. Duryodhana understood how miserly he had been in cutting the mountain and giving it.

Krishna told to both of them “Generosity comes by birth. The more you have the mind to give the more you will give. You should not compete with anyone on charity. It should be done for the good will of the people and not to boast of personal success. If you are generous continue your good deeds and do not advertise the charity that you have done and claim credit for it.”

Duryodhana realized his mistake and put his head down in shame.