Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
In order to commemorate the anniversary of the passing away of Mother Teresa 5th September is celebrated as International day of Charity. “Charity begins at home”, is the famous phrase which completely suits to those people who have forgotten the real preferences in their life like family, closed relatives, society, community or their own country. We all are aware that poverty persists in all countries regardless of their economic, social and cultural situation, particularly in developing countries. Every year, charities all over the world help to save and improve people's lives, fighting disease, protecting children, and giving hope to many thousands of people. To honour the important work that these many charities do, in 2012 the United Nations decided to nominate an annual International Day of Charity as an official day of recognition and celebration. Charity is an attitude of kindness towards others especially suggesting generousity as it pertains the goods or money to the needy.
“Charity begins at home” is a famous phrase having a deep essence of life. A person who is willing to help others should first assure the wellness of his or her family members. First priority of a person should be always his or her family and friends, if they are not in well situation then the helping and kind nature towards others of that person is useless and unworthy. 5th September is the selected date as it commemorates the anniversary of the passing away of Mother Teresa who worked tirelessly to overcome poverty, distress and suffering of the poorest in the world.
To celebrate this special day every year, the work of different charities all over the word is publicised and celebrated, and people are encouraged to donate money and time, to carry out charitable works.
Charity is not easy to practice. Man is by nature egotistical. Whatever is most unlike him naturally rouses his ill will. That is why there is so little of tolerance and so much of faultfinding in the world. A true person who is in favour of charity will always take care of his loved ones first and then help others physically or financially. Being polite, humble and generous to your family is the real meaning of charity begins at home. Good person has always left good impression on others and their good actions like charity are counted as noble act and an inspiration for others. Feeling of real charity means a soft desire of a person, who wants to offer something to the needy people, while meeting the needs of his family first.
A country's primary responsibility is its own people .It can do good to the whole world only after it has met the requirements of its own people. If our society needs us and we are going to help people of other society or other city then our all the efforts are useless; for example, in current time most of the youth generation prefer to go foreign countries for job purpose in spite of doing service for their own country from where they got education. This kind of self-centred nature of people needs to understand the real meaning of “Charity begins at home”.
Charity is important as it allows us to reach out into wider society, and help those that are in need of our support. One must be charitable to the whole world, because as Upanishads say “Udaracharitanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam”; i.e., For those who're known as magnanimous, the entire world constitutes but a family. Helping others instead of taking care of your loved ones is just a nature of selfishness which requires to be improved. A true charitable person always helps others including understanding the need and demand of his family and friends too.
