Social Awareness
Community Involvement
Put
simply, philanthropy is the pursuit of excellence in every facet of
human life, for every human life, by imagining and implementing new
systems, to bring that philosophy to fruition.
An
important distinction should be made, that while being admirable,
charity is not the same as philanthropy. Simply argued by the concept
that an implemented philanthropic idea may make its owner rich, if he or
she so wishes. Compare this to the singular act of giving money away,
associated with charity; the two concepts almost oppose each other. "A
philanthropist knows the act of philanthropy before knowing the
definition of the word".
It should come from Heart
True
enlightenment is the situation when we understand and perceive the
world as it is. No light is going to come and hit our head bestowing us
with universal wisdom because there is no such thing. Any claim of
lights hitting the head can be easily disposed because the there is a
whole range of illusions that the human mind is so capable of
producing. As mentioned before, this is a precious life, this is a
beautiful life, and this is a wonderful life. The love that we feel
towards others should come from within. It should be derived from a
modern sense of compassion that is empirical rather than from any
religious indoctrination. We have to realize that our existence depends
on the presence of other people in this world and that should be our
philanthropic source!
An overview of philanthropy in India
While charitable giving by the wealthy is widespread in countries like the United States, it is far less established in developing nations such as India and China.
While charitable giving by the wealthy is widespread in countries like the United States, it is far less established in developing nations such as India and China.
India’s
booming economy – Atleast one figure in the top five on the Forbes list
of the world’s wealthiest individuals. But philanthropic activity has
failed to keep pace, partly because the rapid accumulation of individual
wealth is a still a relatively new phenomenon. “We have a history of
scarcity and so it takes a while to build confidence that the future
will be better on a sustainable basis and let go of newly earned
wealth,” In India, individuals and companies account for just 10 percent
of charity funding, compared with 75 percent in the United States.
Traditionally, so-called “old money,” embodied in the likes of India’s
142-year-old Tata Group conglomerate, has focused on promoting the
welfare of workers, with healthcare and housing. Other big Indian
business houses gave money for building Hindu temples and other
religious causes. Rich individuals also helped in their family villages
by building schools and wells.
The need for charitable funding in India is self-evident.
Some
42 percent of Indians, or 455 million people, live on less than $1.25 a
day, according to the World Bank and India’s statistics on health,
infant mortality and malnutrition are worse than those for sub-Saharan
Africa. But there’s little sign yet of India’s rich taking “The Giving
Pledge” — an initiative by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and
billionaire investor Warren Buffet that asks the wealthy to donate half
their fortunes to charity.
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