Posts Tagged ‘Generosity’
Bill Gates vs. Mother Teresa
Two days ago, I was in China, speaking to a bunch of influential business leaders. One of them posed a challenge: “You speak about Vinoba Bhave, the spiritual heir of Gandhi, and how he walked 80K kilometers across India and inspired people to donate 5 million acres to their neighbors. Yes, it might’ve been an unprecedented feat in the history of mankind, but really, how many people remember Vinoba today? Instead, think of how many people remember Steve Jobs and the legacy he left behind.” From a short-term impact point of view, it’s a thoughtful dilemma.
In fact, Forbes magazine did a piece which reflected similarly, asking the question: “Who has changed the world more: Bill Gates or Mother Teresa?” And they concluded Bill Gates. My response to this industrialist, though, was a true story that happened a few weeks ago at a school near Pune. I asked the same question to them: who do you want to be when you grow up — Bill Gates or Mother Teresa? Usually about 60-80% of them will vote for Bill Gates, but here, a majority of them said Mother Teresa. So I probed further. Why? As people started raising their hands, a shy young girl — maybe 11 years old — raised her hand, hesitated, and then put it down. Seeing that, I encouraged her to speak, and her response completely floored me.
“Sir, Bill Gates used the power of money to change the world, and Mother Teresa used the power of love to change the world. And I think love is more powerful than money.”
End of story. It was simple, clear, elegant and spot-on that it required no further responses from the class.**
The end of that story is the beginning of an audacious possibility. In keeping with the theme of our gathering, my Impossible Dream, and one that I’m sure we all share, is a world where we elevate this spirit of love from the mere emotional ranks of Bollywood to the infinitely stronger spiritual ranks of our hearts. As humanity, we have understood intellectual quotient (IQ), and even emotional quotient (EQ) but what the world needs now is CQ – Compassion Quotient. It is an intelligence of the heart. More than a decade ago, neuroscientists discovered that, physically speaking, there are actually neurons not just in our brain but also in our heart. As Kabir and many sages tell us so clearly: Open your heart and it can contain the whole universe!
Our greatest hope for awakening our collective compassion quotient comes from – children! Children like that 11 year old who just intuitively knew that if you are moved by love, you can move mountains. In conversations with Dr. Maria Montessori, Gandhi said it very clearly, “In the early part of my life, I discovered that if I was to realize Truth, I must obey, even at the cost of my life, the law of love. And having been blessed with children, I discovered that the law of love could be best learned through little children.”
The thing about this law of love is that it has a half-life that is far, far greater than the law of stuff. Its impact lasts for many generations. Inspiration from our gadgets devolves into mere information, sometimes within a matter of minutes. But when that same inspiration is delivered to us through someone who walks that talk, it activates the information in a context of vibrational aliveness. It resonates deep within our consciousness. And this is why, in the long term, the law of stuff stands no chance against the law of love. Work that is moved by love, no matter how small and humble, has an unending after-life.
A few years ago, my wife and I went on a walking pilgrimage. We started at the Gandhi Ashram in Gujarat and walked south; we ate whatever food was offered and slept wherever place was offered. It was an experiment that radically changed our lives. Along the way one thing we repeatedly encountered were the ripples of the law of love, particularly from Gandhi and Vinoba who had often walked those same paths. During a visit to a small village in the area, Gandhi realized it was 6PM – which was his prayer time. He was taking a walk on the farm, with some elders, but he immediately sat down right there for prayer. A bit thrown off, the elders gathered a couple folks who happened to be nearby.
Govardhan Patel was one of them. He was in fifth grade at the time, his mom had passed away when he was 2, and his father had polio; he wasn’t all that interested in Gandhi. As serendipity would have it, though, he sat there in silence during Gandhi’s prayer. And something shifted. He sat in on Gandhi’s evening talk, and that very same day he decided to dedicate his whole life to service. When we met him he was a ripe 82-years-young and was still going strong, having transformed not only his village but dozens of others.
There are many stories like his, for instance that of Nagardas Shrimali. At a train station, while Gandhi is just passing by, amidst the throngs of people, he yells out: “Bapu, what should I do with my life?” Bapu says, “You go and teach your values to other children like you.” Shrimali was 16 at the time, from that day forth to his last breath, Nagardas – who was “untouchable” — dedicated his life to educating children.
Authentic inspiration has a long after-life, indeed. And my friends, we need to rekindle this law of love within us, and within our greatest hope — our children, the next generation.
I want to end with a true story.
Many years ago, my dear friend Jacob Needleman was teaching a class at San Francisco State University, and he asked a question to his class of thirty students. “How can we be good?” One student raised his hand and said, “I learned goodness from my 5-year-old son.” He goes on to explain: “My son and I were enjoying Christmas in Mexico, as he was excitedly playing with the toys he had received just the night before. A kid from the neighboring slum comes by, and I told my son to give him one of his toys. After some pleas and tears, he finally agrees and picks up a toy. His least favorite toy!” In a vintage Mufasa-Simba moment from Lion King, the father looks his 5-year-old in the eyes and says, “No, son, not that toy. Give him your favorite toy.”
At this point, the son instinctively protests, but then looking at his father’s stern-yet-compassionate look, he begrudgingly goes to the door to give away his favorite toy. Naturally, the father figured he will have to console his son when he returns; lo and behold, much to his surprise, the son returns back with a hop in his step. With an innocence befitting to a 5-year-old, he looks his Father in the eyes and says, “Dad, that was amazing. Can I do it again?”
This is the law of love, and may we all keep doing it again and again and again.
~ Nipun Mehta
Happiness is Like Jam…

Photo: http://www.lebanonmart.com
Happiness is like jam, you can’t spread even a little without getting some on yourself.
~Vern McLellan
Best Road Trip
Tyler Kellogg calls himself a chronic do-gooder, and what he did last summer is proof. After scraping together $2,000 and retrofitting his car with a sleeping space, the 21-year old college student hit the road. His goal: to bestow random acts of kindness on 100 strangers.
He drove 1,600 miles, from his parents’ house in Adams Center, New York, to the Florida Keys, then back again.
“The first person I helped was a guy installing a boat lift on a lake in Oneida, New York,” Kellogg recalls.
“I was shaking when I asked if he needed a hand.”
What if he thought Kellogg was crazy?
“When he said, ‘Can you help me get this lift into the water?’ I knew everything was going to be fine.”
He helped a cop fix a downed barricade in Washington, D.C., and spread countless cubic yards of mulch in Maryland and North Carolina. And somewhere outside Atlanta, he met a man who was crying because his wife had recently died and he had no one to talk to.
“For three hours we sat on his porch,” Kellogg says.
“When I left, he said, ‘Thank you. I realize now that my life will go on.’”
In 55 days, Kellogg assisted 115 strangers and made an exhilarating realization:
“You don’t have to be a billionaire to be a philanthropist,” he says.
“You just have to ask people, ‘How can I help?’”
~ from the Reader’s Digest June/July 2010 issue
What We Leave Behind…
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
– Maya Angelou
Share it
.. because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…
Luke 4:18
I live in Baguio. And I must say that I love it. I go out to the porch early mornings, watch the sun rise as the fog slowly lifts up from the skies. And I thank God for the cold when I think about how the heat in Manila gives me a headache and I have to hang out in malls and other places that I know are air-conditioned. Because it is intrinsic in man to seek comfort.
Sometimes people visit Matthew and myself at our home to seek our counsel. And it can get uncomfortable because we’re losing out on rest or more time together. And it is intrinsic in man to seek comfort. But we choose to listen, because someone needs our love. Sometimes people approach us who are in dire need. And even if our allowance falls short of our budget at times, we try to share whatever little we have. We meet these challenges every day. But how can we not be generous, when we have a God who was first generous to us?
Indeed, it is intrinsic in man to seek comfort. But it is also intrinsic to give comfort, for we were born to serve.
– Jojang
2008 Christmas Letter

Jojang and Matt
Dear Family and Friends,
It has been an arduous year for Matthew and I. We were home together most of the time. We had a “forced” retreat, recovering from various health problems we both suffered individually and/or together.
But trials are blessings in disguise, isn’t it? There is so much to be grateful for.
First of all, I thank God for the strength He gives us. Where would we be without the unfathomable love of God? Although, we did go through the pain of trial and suffering, the grace of God was more than enough to sustain us.
Matthew and I have deepened our relationship further.
This year, we also experienced the generosity of friends and family. Most of them know that we are cash strapped. And with all our medical expenses, we are humbled by the nameless people who reached out and gave us financial help. Until now, we still couldn’t imagine how we were able to settle our bills. Considering how hefty they were. God is good, indeed.
While recuperating, Matthew and I discovered that there can also be good stuff on television. We watched movies that are inspirational, historical. We learned a lot from the documentaries of National Geographic and Discovery Channel. We try to keep abreast with what is happening with the world. What with the current financial, economic crisis there are a lot to watch out (and pray) for. Oh, but we didn’t only watch the serious mind boggling stuff. We also had fun laughing at silly and funny movies. We enjoyed answering questions from game shows.
However, what tops the list for us this year is our website and blog. It woke up my slumbering skill in writing. I like writing, and I used to do so in the past. But then, I got busy. And it got set aside. Now, because I had time to sit down in front of the computer, it’s slowing coming back. And I enjoy it immensely. I’m convincing Matthew to write too. He has so much wisdom, and reading his writings will be a great experience.
That’s why this 2009, we are looking forward to a great year ahead. We have many things in mind to post at our website and blog. We also have many plans in store for our lives.
God has been good to us. In spite of our trials we know that He is with us every step of the way. We know that He will continue to do so. And we believe it will be so with you, reading this blog. We wish you all the best. We pray for God’s blessings in your life. May this coming year be a wonderful year for you. May the good Lord grant you the desires of your heart.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
– Jojang