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What is the Greatest Dan?

A spiritual discourse on the greatest form of giving, or dāna.

"The greatest is nāma dāna. Nāma means the name—the name of God."

"You are a spiritual leader. You are changing the mental environment. The most dangerous environment is mental pollution."

Swami Maheshwarananda explains the hierarchy of giving, declaring the gift of God's name or mantra as the highest form of dāna. He addresses teachers of the Yoga in Daily Life system, describing their role as spiritual guides who lead others from darkness to light and combat mental pollution. He clarifies the limits of their authority, noting they inspire and guide students toward a master for deeper practices like mantra initiation, while emphasizing the immense spiritual merit of this inspirational work.

Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

What is the greatest dāna? Dāna means donation or gift. A gift is exchanged with friends or given to family members, but dāna is given without any such relation. We give dāna to a temple, an āshram, a church, a priest, a sādhu, to needy people, or for humanitarian or environmental projects. That is called help. So one is a gift, one is help, and the third is donation. Donation, or dāna, goes directly to spirituality. The question is: which kind of dāna is the greatest? Yajña or Havan? Giving food, money, or clothes? What is the greatest? It is said the greatest is nāma dāna. The highest is this nāma dāna. Nāma means the name—the name of God. Name means mantra, and that means prayers. So when you give someone the name of God or prayers, you have given the greatest thing. You have given the biggest wealth. Mīrābāī says, "I received the wealth of God's name. I can utilize as much as I can; it will not get less, and no thief can take it from me, and it will increase day by day." That is the name, or nāma dāna—the gift of the name. This is directly connected to the teachers. To be a teacher is a great thing because you are leading one from darkness to the light. Teacher means Gurū. "Gu" means darkness, and "ru" means light. You are blessed that you can teach Yoga in Daily Life; you have received this light into your hands. You are a light in darkness. Therefore, you should always be aware that you are a teacher. With love and understanding, you give this wisdom to your disciples. This is the biggest or greatest opportunity you have in your life. Therefore, the teacher of Yoga in Daily Life is not a physical instructor; our Yoga in Daily Life teacher is not only a social worker or an environmental worker, but you are a spiritual leader. You are changing the mental environment. The most dangerous environment is mental pollution. If you can remove the mental pollution—meaning to lead them to the positive way of life and spiritual life, make them aware of the name of God and mantra, give them motivation to live healthy and long, and give them a clear understanding of human dharma—this is what Yoga in Daily Life teaches. So you are a blessed one; you are a fortunate one; you have married good karma from past lives. You have much good karma from past lives that you have come to this path. How big is your boat? How many will you ferry to the other shore? How many passengers will you ferry for money? Those who are stranded on that small island—it depends on you. You will inspire and give them salvation under the shelter of Mahāprabhujī's light. Therefore, you are a teacher of Yoga in Daily Life. And still, you have to develop yourself also. Knowledge is never old, and knowledge is never limited. Where there is knowledge, there is no darkness, and the knowledge is everlasting. So there is no end of knowledge, but there is some limit in life where you have a capacity to observe and preserve everything. After 25 years, your memory becomes tired. You have fed in whatever you could; now the computer has no capacity and it is rejecting everything; you can't put in. That's why, when you telephone, you ask, "Please, your number?" "Yes, 8-9-6-7-4, 8-9-6-7-4, 8-9-6-7-4," "8-9-6-7-4, 8-9-6-7-4, 8-9-6-7-4, ... 8-9-6-7-4." "Can you repeat if I wrote correctly?" This is our condition. Our memory is completely overfilled. Therefore, Maharṣi Patañjali said, "Yogaḥ citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ." Through the practicing of yoga, you shall calm down all the vṛttis in your citta. You have overloaded your computer. You don't even know what is inside. And you are surprised when you dive within thyself and find certain things which you think is rabies. So there is a limitation to where you can learn something and develop your spirituality, develop your knowledge, your buddhi. But then after, you need again the Satgurū Deva, the Master, who will try to clean all the unnecessary thoughts and desires from your citta and give you that divine mantra. So there is a very important and a necessity of the guidance. So you, as a yoga instructor, yoga teacher, Yoga in Daily Life teacher—still that awakening is not in you. Therefore, you are not entitled to give mantra. You are not entitled to give kriyās. But you are entitled to inspire and bring them here. That is what you can do. And doing this for you is a great karma. So how many souls can you inspire? How many souls can you liberate? It depends on you. How big is your ship? Recording location: Czech Republic, Strilky, Summer seminar

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt, what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

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