Aims India Fundation Blog

Why is charity so important? Can’t I just live my life without hurting others and be a good husband, father, mother or son. Why should I contribute to social causes in some distant land? These are arguments given by many when they choose not to contribute to charities of any kind. The answer is that all of us have received charity of some kind to get where we are right now. Our parents have put us through school. 

The government may pay for your medical expenses or your education. You may have received a scholarship for your college education. Even if you haven’t received any of these, the world you see around you was built by people with a vision to help others. Great inventors and scientists did not make revolutionary devices or develop life saving drugs purely for the money involved. Many have toiled half their lives to find a way to eradicate diseases that may have claimed our lives long before any of us got to read this article. We live on borrowed life. We stand on the efforts of generations before us. We owe it to generations yet to come. We have to pass on the favour that has been done for us. 

That is one reason why charity is so important – our responsibility to our world. The other reason is something selfish in a way, the pure joy of giving. The joy of helping someone who needs a helping hand and watching that person get up from the floor because of your help. It is a selfish joy reserved for those who choose to extend a helping hand and not just walk by when they see somebody in need of one. Charity is not only something we owe to society, but something that we owe to ourselves.

Source: Unknown / Google.