Daan: Its Significance & Types

In an article I shared some time ago, I talked about the power of daan. Today I will talk about the same in detail and how you can benefit from it.

The greatest dharma in various yugas was/is as follows:

Satyuga(also called as krit yuga) - Tapasya

Treta yuga - Gyaan i.e. wisdom (not the same as knowledge)

Dwapar yuga - Yagya

Kali yuga - Daan or Donation

In Kali-yuga, Daan is the most powerful and quickest in showing results. That is why one should donate every day. 

Kali-yuga is the yuga of karma. Anything did by you, positive or negative quickly shows its effects on your life in this age. Many say that there are people in powerful positions who are doing crimes or awful deeds yet nothing is happening to them. However, in reality, they definitely pay for their deeds very soon after doing it. But it won't necessarily be visible to the world. 

Whenever you will try to go away from a truthful and honest way of living - either by trying to cause loss to others or by sacrificing your own self - you will have pain. This is what bad karma really is. To do good karma is to say, do and think what is true & honest - nothing more than the truth, nothing less than the truth. If you say/do/think more than what things really are by exaggerating it - it will cause pain to others and in turn, you will feel the effects of this. If you compromise with the truth and say/do less than the truth - you will betray your own self and get hurt in life. Life is about balance. Anything in excess - including love, power, strength, money, food, medicine - are all bad. 

This way sadhaks, every person suffers from their karmas. It is my experience, that no matter how many angles the outside world may look at, it is always someone's wrong actions that lead him to pain. Wrong actions don't mean just criminal actions, but anything that is opposite to the laws of nature and wellbeing of the people influenced due to that action - and this includes you yourself. 

It is mentioned in purans that at any given moment, we are carrying sins of not just few births, but of billions and billions of Kalpa. One kalpa is equal to 4.32 billion years. So, how many years in crores of kalpas? And what would be total number of sins? Uncountable. Yet, there is one good aspect of sins. That the moment a person accepts his deeds, he is quickly forgiven. But, since the number of sins are practically uncountable, even if one simply goes on and on asking for forgiveness, his entire life will be not suffice.

By chanting mantras, you can speedily remove all your sins. Yet, they are still not that fast to burn sins of crores of kalpas and need decades of continuously chanting that one mantra alone. Havan is more powerful than japa, yet, doing havan with thousands of aahuti every day for even a few days is not feasible. Vrats are way more powerful than mantras for burning sins. Yet, even they require you to fast on every specified tithi for atleast one decade for complete freedom from sins.

However, daan is the most powerful out of them all. When you give away even simple things like just 1kg of rice or other similar grains, you burn every single sin of dozens to hundreds of births instantly. Those who donate with belief in the power of God, will physically experience like a weight has been lifted off your head, and instantly feel relaxed.

Donation doesn't just burn sins, it increases punya, increases sukh, makes you attractive, creates saubhagya, gives courage and victory. That is why sadhaks, do daan. Donate as much as you can. 

Shastras have mentioned various daan according to a person's wishes. Whatever you want, you should donate it first, then it will come to you. This is the rule. For wishes where donating something first is not possible, shastras have mentioned what should be donated instead. Today I will be mentioning them all. Only certain things can be donated for burning sins. All others are for specific wish fulfilment. Sadhaks, whatever we donate in this life is what we receive when we die. I won't mention this benefit in the paragraphs ahead and should be understood for each item. Also, burning sins doesn't automatically increase your punya. So you should be specific about what you want.

1. Grains & Water - The most powerful daan among all is the daan of grains and water. Grains should always be donated with water. Donating grains and water removes our sins of hundreds of births, increases punya, gives strength and radiance, gives saubhagya and fulfils all material wishes.

2. Salt - Donating salt increases appetite and gives good health. When a person on death bed is not dying and unnecessarily suffering, then salt should be donated for him. That will give him swarga or moksha very soon.

3. Jaggery - Donating jaggery gives vigour and sweet foods in life.

4. Ghee - Donating ghee gives physical strength, improves the wellbeing of your entire kul and gives sadgati to pitrus.

5. Black sesame - Donating black sesame gives strength and removes the fear of death. It burns the sins of thousands of births. It pleases all the navagrahas and brings their blessings.

6. Money - Donating money will attract more money. 

7. Clothes - Donating clothes give beauty and saubhagya.

8. Bells - Donating bells remove laziness, dumbness and build intelligence, sharpness and understanding.

9. Khadga - Donating the weapon khadga gives victory and success. Especially, it brings the blessings of Rahu.

10. Books - Donating religious books increase punya, gyaan and devbhakti. Donating educational books increase punya, knowledge, fame, patience and remove addictions.

11. Gold - Donating gold increases Shri & aishwarya.

12. Silver - Donating silver gives beauty and increases sperm count.

13. Rudraksha - By donating Ekadash mukhi Rudraksha to the right person, he/she for sure achieves moksha after death.

14. Bed - Donating bed gives love/marriage. 

15. Medicines - Donating medicines gives good health and ensures that your family will never face any big health issue.

16. Kanya daan - Kanya daan is done only during marriages. Kanya daan burns away sins of crores and crores of births and gives great punya. Now, shastras say that one should not do kanya daan again. But, in case the husband dies or they both divorce, then kanya daan should be done again. Shastras say kanya daan shouldn't be done at many people i.e. she shouldn't be marrying multiple men at the same time. But it doesn't mean she can't marry again if the ex-husband dies or gets divorced.

 17. Bhumi - Donating land has the power to burn sins of crores of kalpas. In that, if a person donates a fertile land then even better. The person who donates land to the needy will never go to narak. But a barren land should never be donated.

18. Cow - Donating cow is one the only daan which has the power to wipe out almost all your sins of crores and crores of kalpas. The moment of donating a cow should be considered as a moment of reincarnation of the sadhak. The person who donates a cow wipes out all his sins, gets the punya of feeding thousands of brahmins. After death he surely goes to swarga or gets moksha. Also, after death, the cow donated by him comes as a vehicle for crossing the vaitarini nadi, and instead of taking him to narak the cow takes him to vaikunth.

In this, if the sadhak donates a cow with his calf, then its punya is infinite. It will same as doing pran pratishtha of hundreds of shivling, donating hundreds of acres of land, feeding millions of brahmins and donating lacs of kanya daan. The person who has donated a cow with a calf has truly freed himself all the chains and shall live happily thereafter.

19. Diya - One of the easiest things to donate are diyas. Deep daan cures diseases, increases eyesight and radiance, attracts Lakshmi maa, and gives victory over enemies. Use ghee when you want to attract wealth. Use sesame oil when you want to cure diseases, increase eyesight & radiance, getting victory over enemies.

Other than this, whatever you want, you should donate it and it will come to you. Do this and you will see the magic happening. But don't doing by being attached to the outcome. Donate it with gratitude. Thank god that even though your condition is bad, it is not bad as the person you are donating it to. And donate so that the needy person gets support. By doing this, God will support you. Sadhaks, I have seen huge miracles through donations. Things that could take months to happen, happened in just a few weeks when people started donating.

The benefits I mentioned above are the list of benefits. Donating, say foodgrains, is not going to automatically give you all of the listed benefits. Depending upon your wish, you should take the sankalp and do a donation for that specific wish/es.