Spiritual Economics

Paying It Forward Is an Important Concept in Creating a Gifting Mentality

In the mid-90s my thinking of, and realizations about, Spiritual Economics led me inescapably to the gift economy and I began to think about how to get it going. I came up with an idea that I called “Free-for-All” that would use a website to connect people who had needs with others who wanted to give. What ever came of that? Well, for several reasons, which I won’t go into here, that never manifest. But the idea of the gift economy must have been in the ether because there were many others who were thinking similar thoughts and were beginning to manifest their ideas successfully. One of them was Catherine Ryan Hyde’s ‘Pay It Forward’ that first came out as a book, then as a movie in 2000, which subsequently has given rise to a movement with this unexpected gifting idea. There was also Nipun Mehta who came up with a group called Charity Focus in 1999, which later generated the Karma Kitchen as an experiment in spawning the gift economy. 

The other day I spent some time looking again at the website of Karma Kitchen, viewing some of the videos, and visiting the links on the site of other people/groups who had started feeding others in the spirit of the gift economy. I noticed a glaring omission: there was no mention of, or link to, the Hare Krishna Food-for-Life program, or the Sunday Love Feasts held in more than 400 temples around the world each Sunday. So I wrote to Nipun Mehta, the founder of Charity Focus and the Karma Kitchen to suggest that the Hare Krishnas be added.

Before getting to his reply let me tell you a bit about him. This is one amazing fellow who has many great ideas for practicing and promoting the gift economy. Actually, let me have him introduce himself. Here is a bit of his story from his blog:

Manifesting Gift Economy

To know about the projects of CharityFocus is to first understand the values underneath it. To that end, Tao of CharityFocus is a published essay from 2007, this impromptu talk at Stanford in 2008 shares stories in video, and Generosity 2.0 is a published article from Winter 2009.

In April 1999, CharityFocus formally started with the idea of gifting our time. We built websites for nonprofits. Couple years later, we took on a for-profit dot-com (PledgePage) and a non-profit in India (ProPoor) and realized that we actually had institutional capacity. Soon, as websites matured, we stretched our capacity to include vertical portals -- like HelpOthers.orgthat spreads kindness. We also started gifting Smile Cards, our first entry into tangible goods. As our ecosystem evolved, in 2008, we adopted a magazine that profiled conversations with social artists -- works & conversations. Later that year, we also started running a restaurant (for Sunday lunches) called Karma Kitchen. As CharityFocus became an incubator for "gift economy" projects, it became clear that this wasn't the work of an organization, but rather an ecosystem with many interconnected parts. Today, with 300 thousand members, the CharityFocus ecosystem sends out 50 million newsletters every year and attracts millions of users worldwide.

Wow! Nipun, and the people he leads, are building a wonderful future. What I like about them is that they are doing things to make others think about giving forward. Not giving because somebody has given to you, as in giving back, or paying back, which is somewhat a normal part of our culture.  However giving forward shifts the focus to make us think about doing something nice for someone else as a gift. After all, that is the idea of a gift economy: what would you like to do for others? What can you give to others without being asked? Everyone has something to give. Hah, we have many things to give, and many ways in which we can give of ourselves. (Hence there is no such thing as poverty in a gift economy). If enough people in the same place simply focusing on giving their talents and abilities an entire economy erupts without even trying.

This was the way of the Kwakiutl, and other natives of Vancouver Island, and the Pacific Northwest. They celebrated the tradition of the Potlatch, which was a competition in giving. For months the members of the group would work to create and accumulate wealth, all for the purpose of giving it away—and not on a quid pro quo basis. There was no consideration of paying back, but only paying forward. Those who gave the most were held in the highest esteem. Not only were goods given, but sacred ceremonies, song, dance and other activities of cultural wealth were offered as well. The status of families was raised not by who has the most resources but by those who give the most resources. Wouldn’t you know it but the Potlatch was made illegal in Canada in 1885 and the United States in the late nineteenth century, largely at the urging of missionaries and government agents who considered it “a worse than useless custom” that was seen as wasteful, unproductive, and contrary to “civilized” values. It’s so sad to see how the European’s, so infected with the qualities of rajas and tamas (the modes of passion and ignorance) imposed their inferior ideas of cultural superiority on the natives. Fortunately the laws were untenable, although they remained on the books until 1951. Currently these indigenous people are working to restore their original culture and the traditions of the Potlatch.  

Back to our email, Nipun replied:

Dear Dhanesvara Das,

Thanks for your wonderful, and thoughtful note. 
I am indeed aware of the awe-inspiring work of feeding people that Hare Krishnas have done, around the globe.  Please accept my heartfelt gratitude and a bow for your selfless offerings.
Karma Kitchen isn't exactly in the same category of free kitchen, in the sense that there is an expectation for people to pay forward for the person after them.  But in doing away with the “me-and-mine” transactional orientation, the hope is that people will deepen in sensitivity and shift to “we-and-our” orientation.  Then, over time, such context can become the foundation for a society where people can give freely.

With smiles, :)
Nipun

Nipun’s reply is helping me to realize that the transition to a gift economy needs to be built step-by-step. It’s a lesson that I have learned in my own setting, with the Hare Krishna devotees in E. Europe over the past 5 years. One of the objections I hear about my efforts to build Gitagrad communities is that “Dhanesvara wants to build communities of pure devotees.” Well, yes that is true. Gitagrad is actually a place for those who are freed from the consciousness of “I and mine” and who desire to perform every action for the pleasure and satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. Gitagrad is also for those who want to go in that direction, recognizing that as the highest goal of human life, and qualification for entering into the highest realms of the transcendental world, Goloka Vrindavana. And I believe that the devotees can come to that wonderful standard if we create the proper environment for it. It is not too difficult for those who live in the temple ashramas, and many of us have done that. The idea of Gitagrad is to expand the ashrama to include all of the ashramas, especially the grihasta and vanaprastha ashramas. In doing so we free our members from having to live a life of fruitive work which is repeatedly condemned in the Bhagavad-gita. Without having an alternative economic system, such as is available from the earth, it is impossible to give up the ways of the dominant culture and the fruitive work and mentality that is part and parcel of it.

Nipun is also right in his evaluation of our Food-for-Life and Sunday feasts as being “free kitchens.” Although donations are welcomed there is no effort to make the guests feel that they ought to give, or are obliged to give. Or if there is a consciousness of that, it is in the spirit of reciprocation, of giving back, not forward. And in that change of words, from back to forward, lies a significant shift of consciousness. It is that shift in consciousness that is needed to create a gift economy and a culture. I thank Nipun for making me aware of the subtle difference, and the methods that can be employed to give birth to the gift culture.

Please visit the links from his blog to learn more about the activities of CharityFocus.