Title: Dāna - Wikipedia
Headings: Dāna
Dāna
Contents
Hinduism
Dāna in Hindu texts
Dāna in rituals
The effect of dāna
In historical record
Hindu treatises on dāna
Buddhism
Jainism
Sikhism
See also
References
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links

Content: that food – I speak the truth – shall be his ruin,
He feeds no trusty friend, no man to love him. All guilt is he who eats with no partaker. — Rigveda, X.117,
The Upanishads, composed before 500 BCE, present some of the earliest Upanishadic discussion of dāna. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, in verse 5.2.3, states that three characteristics of a good, developed person are self-restraint (damah), compassion or love for all sentient life (daya), and charity (dāna). तदेतत्त्रयँ शिक्षेद् दमं दानं दयामिति
Learn three cardinal virtues - self restraint, charity and compassion for all life. — Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, V.ii.3,
Chandogya Upanishad, Book III, similarly, states that a virtuous life requires: tapas (asceticism), dāna (charity), arjava (straightforwardness), ahimsa (non-injury to all sentinent beings) and satyavacana (truthfulness). Bhagavad Gita describes the right and wrong forms of dāna in verses 17.20 through 17.22. It defines sāttvikam (good, enlightened, pure) charity, in verse 17.20, as one given without expectation of return, at the proper time and place, and to a worthy person. It defines rajas (passion, ego driven, active) charity, in verse 17.21, as one given with the expectation of some return, or with a desire for fruits and results, or grudgingly.