Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?

For all things philosophical.

Moderators: AMod, iMod

Post Reply
dattaswami
Posts: 652
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 11:42 am

Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?

Post by dattaswami »

Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?


[Smt. Sudha Rani asked: If a beggar comes in alms, shall we help him with some food, etc. or shall we neglect him because he is a sinner undergoing the punishment given by God for his sins?]

Swami replied: There are two angles in this case:-

1. The soul has become a beggar due to his sins and God is punishing him for reformation. If the beggar is somewhat reformed at least, he will receive your food and eat it properly.

2. If the beggar is not reformed at all even to a small extent, he will receive the food from you and while going back, a monkey will jump on him and he will lose all the food fallen in the soil.

Here, you have to understand two angles. One angle is related to the soul, which must sympathize with every victim of punishment and must try to help that soul with kindness. The other angle is related to God who is following that beggar to reform him through punishments. God will bless you for your charity. But if the beggar is not reformed at all even to a small extent, God will see the beggar to suffer with hunger by making the food to be lost without eating. This angle of God is not at all connected with the angle of soul. Hence, the soul need not stop giving food to the beggar thinking that it is interfering in the administration of God so that the punishment given to beggar is resisted. The angle of the soul is quite different and the angle of God is totally different. Both these angles will never conflict with each other.
User avatar
Agent Smith
Posts: 1442
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:23 pm

Re: Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?

Post by Agent Smith »

This is a test, right? You're recruiting for a secret global organization whose objective is world domination! :mrgreen:
Iwannaplato
Posts: 6658
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:55 pm

Re: Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?

Post by Iwannaplato »

dattaswami wrote: Sun Jan 22, 2023 6:23 pm Swami replied: There are two angles in this case:-

1. The soul has become a beggar due to his sins and God is punishing him for reformation. If the beggar is somewhat reformed at least, he will receive your food and eat it properly.

2. If the beggar is not reformed at all even to a small extent, he will receive the food from you and while going back, a monkey will jump on him and he will lose all the food fallen in the soil.
This is victim blaming, adding insult to injury. It's parallel is what an abusive upper class has as the mythology for why they have money and the poor in their country do not.

If you could actually see the pattern of past lives, you'd know this is BS.

It's caste system conceptual abuse.

Shall we help the guru if he falls down and breaks his hip?

It is so mental and empathyless, this way of calculating kindness based on brainwashed hand-me-down biases
User avatar
Alexis Jacobi
Posts: 5150
Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2021 3:00 am

Re: Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?

Post by Alexis Jacobi »

Here's the damndest thing. Right now, right at this very moment, a monkey has entered the backway from the forsest near our house and he is sitting there, with an extremely casual but a mocking expression, and eating bananas from a great bunch that comes from our finca which are ripening on the back patio.

So, is there an acausal connecting principle at work here?!?

Please ask Swami.

Image
Flannel Jesus
Posts: 2576
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2022 7:09 pm

Re: Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?

Post by Flannel Jesus »

The cruelty of people who genuinely believe in forms of "prosperity gospel"... It's just so, so needlessly cruel. It is a way for human beings to justify cruelty to people who have already been dealt a shitty hand in life.

If god's plan is to punish someone, you showing compassion towards them has absolutely no capacity to divert the plans of a deity.

If his misfortune wasn't due to any divine plans but just to good ol' natural bad luck, then you choosing to "neglect him" in order to increase his punishment is just self righteous cruelty. His punishment is meaningless and doesn't need you to enhance it. It's sadistic.

You don't have any obligation to give anything to a beggar, but your decision should have nothing to do with any ideas about divine punishments. The decision should come from within you. Can you afford it? Do you want to? Then do it.
Impenitent
Posts: 4330
Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:04 pm

Re: Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?

Post by Impenitent »

Alexis Jacobi wrote: Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:50 pm Here's the damndest thing. Right now, right at this very moment, a monkey has entered the backway from the forsest near our house and he is sitting there, with an extremely casual but a mocking expression, and eating bananas from a great bunch that comes from our finca which are ripening on the back patio.

So, is there an acausal connecting principle at work here?!?

Please ask Swami.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnVf1ZoCJSo

-Imp
User avatar
Agent Smith
Posts: 1442
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:23 pm

Re: Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?

Post by Agent Smith »

Destitute beggar
Or bloody dagger
You make the choice
Each has a price
Life's a game
Beggars don't aim
But beggars do flow
Then time to go
alan1000
Posts: 313
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 10:03 am

Re: Shall we help a beggar with food or neglect him as he is undergoing punishment?

Post by alan1000 »

As to the primary question there is, of course, no ambiguity: if you follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, Buddha, Judaism, or Islam, you will feed the beggar and treat him or her as a brother or sister. I won't try your patience by enumerating quotes from scripture.

If you are a Southern Baptist, you'll probably take the opposite view. Like anti-abortionists so often support the death sentence.
Post Reply