Thursday, July 3, 2008
A Price for God's Blessings?!
I do not claim to be an expert on religion but it could be safely said that believers wish for God's blessings. But is God's blessings abundant or is it scarce? Any scarce commodity carries a price in the market.Price need not mean only the amount of money needed for a unit of a commodity. It could also mean the inconveniences or sacrifices one has to undergo to get what one desires. It was mentioned by one of my students that offerings of cash is a price for God's blessings. What is your opinion...?
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Not every believer pays for god's blessing either in terms of money or inconvenience, like say someone saying a two minute prayer in the comfort of her room.And hence,imo,blessing isn't scarce.As for the price of blessings,different people seek blessings in different ways.Money paid by someone is his or her idea of the value of blessings...it is not the price.
Although blessings of a god might give a devotee satisfaction and happiness, a 'blessing' is in no way quantifiable. Nor can one define it, for the simple reason that it means something different to each individual. It is meaningless to talk about the abundance or scarcity of something so undefined and subjective; just as attaching a 'price' to it is, even in its broader meaning.
As to why a devotee does contribute to religious institutions is a purely personal matter. He probably looks at it as some kind of vindication for some action of his, etc., but I would not call it a 'price' that he pays.
After all, if we could make deals with god this way, we'd be living in some entirely different world where all the economics we study today would be rendered ridiculous!
Firstly, I(a purely personal opinion) must remark that the concept of scarcity of God's blessings and the temple donations being meted out by the public aren't co-related as perceived by most of us. Scarcity determines price, not the other way round. By simply contributing(NOT PAYING)a c ertain amount, no matter how large, we aren't establishing scarcity of anything. We aren't PAYING a PRICE, we are making an attempt to QUANTIFY our faith and belief in monetary values, since there are only few other ways to tangibly express our faith(as in other practises are very much prevalent). This is merely one of the ways to obtain self-satisfaction. This has got nothing to do whatsoever with scarcity. Moreover, the question of God's Blessings can be answered with as many perspectives as faiths and beliefs. Not to mention, even atheists and agnostics live a life! The question would be of no relevance to them!
Every quantity has a unit of measurement and we wont be wrong if we say that there is no unit for gods blessings.Therefore the question of abundance or scarcity doesn't arise. According to me gods blessings are not subject to quantification.
As far as the money paid is concerned, it does not go to god! The person getting the money and god are totally different entities.
Gods blessings are a matter of faith but fortunately or unfortunately it doesn't have any economic attribute.
I think God's blessings cannot be quantified as abundant or scarce.When you pay something for a commodity,you get that commodity or that service performed.A devotee gives money to a religious institution probably believing that what he pays will in turn give him blessings but there is no way of making sure.And one doesn't always have to sacrifice to get what one desires from god,there are different ways of praying to him.I think the money one pays is of symbolic significance as an offering.
I believe in God and I do pray to him for his blessings.However according to me, it cannot be quantified.Monetary value cannot be attached to it.The concept of "blessings" differ from person to person.I do not think offerings(of any form) and blessings are very closely connected.One can never prove whether their offerings actually reach God.It is more to do with belief and fate.
In my opinion there is no relation between donations to god and his blessings its just to get satisfaction that people give donations. I say so because otherwise the blessings of god would be confined just to the upper strata of the society and this undermines the 'equality before lord' principle of all religions.
In my opinion,the money offered by devotees to an idol or at a Temple cannot be termed as a payment.God and religion in itself are vague concepts.Nowadays people rarely pray to a God,rather they maintain their faith in the RELIGION.The religion gives them direction and a path,not God.So i would term the offerings as an symbol of gratitude to the direction provided by the religion.and this direction is an unquantifiable one,just like all other emotions!So i do not believe it holds a value in monetary terms,and as such cannot be considered an economic concept..
People i know give money out of-
1.Habit/Tradition
2.Penance for some wrong
Sahil
I would say that god's blessings cannot be said to be abundant or scarce since "blessings" is a rather subjective concept and I think it depends on individual perceptions.
And as a few of the posters have mentioned, offerings of cash are probably a way of expressing faith or quantifying it.
So the two are not necessarily related and I don't think offerings of cash are the price of blessings.
*offerings of cash is a price for God's blessings. What is your opinion...?
Although blessings cannot be quantified economically, the fact remains that people, in general, end up quantifying them unconsciously. When someone makes an offering to a religious institution, s/he does it not with any conscious intention of securing more blessings, but more as a 'debt of gratitude' s/he owes to God. There are of course, some people, who in times of great desperation, make huge offerings to religious institutions in the hope that God will shower him/her with blessings. Whether these offerings do actually work is a matter of personal belief. However, I believe that even if they do, it is purely a matter of coincidence.
*But is God's blessings abundant or is it scarce?
As a believer, I believe that God's blessings are abundant. It is just people's ignorance that creates the impression of 'scarcity' in their minds.
*It could also mean the inconveniences or sacrifices one has to undergo to get what one desires.
One does not have to necessarily undergo any sacrifices or penance to achieve God's blessings. IMHO, it is sufficient if one leads a proper and righteous life and helps others or does good deeds without any conscious effort or thoughts to do the same (i.e. without having any expectations of recieving anything in return). God's blessings will always be there in abundance for such people.
~~~~
Manish
But is God's blessings abundant or is it scarce?
It is an established fact that any scarce commodity carries a price in the market. However the very question of whether God's blessings are abundant or scarce only arise if we look upon these blessings as a commodity. In my opinion, these are too abstract and personal to each individual in nature to be trivialized as a commodity.
Then why do people undertake all the real and nominal cost (in terms of trouble and cash) to obtain these? Why are blessings paid for?
When people make donations or do penance of some kind (fasting etc.), I do not believe that they have an absolute assurance of procuring these 'commoditized' blessings. While they may have full faith in God, we unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) have no proof of the priest actually delivering on his promises.
The point I would like to make is that this activity is carried out NOT to 'buy' blessings, but for the mental satisfaction of knowing that one has made a contribution of some kind . It is the same emotion that influences one to give money to a beggar, a purely self-satisfying process, not a purchase of a product. Whether the blessings are eventually showered on one is irrelevant because it is the sense of security in the hope that the blessing is forthcoming that is the paid for, not the blessings themselves.
First of all, one must separate religion, from faith in God. Going to the temple and putting money in the donation box, doesn't automatically mean that God is going to bless you more than the blessings he gave the person, who donated lesser money. Going for big pujas and yajnas doesn't mean that God will be happy with you and smile upon your wishes. Of course, though I wholeheartedly believe in what I just said, I am, after all, a human being. I do go to pujas. It just gives me peace of mind. I have personally experienced, that when you genuinely want something, just pray to God for it. It'll be granted, provided you've done good to someone. If you cannot do good to someone, atleast don't harm him. KARMA, I think, is a more important lesson, than sanskrit shlokas and mantras. Good deeds, and not currency notes and incense sticks, I believe, is the true 'price for God's blessings.'
Religion: An economic model.
My assumptions and definitions :
1) Religion - I mean ‘organized’ religion i.e. a religion where people need to perform some ‘rituals’ to satisfy their spiritual needs.
2) Religious persons – People who are willing to ‘pay’ for the rituals.( They pay because they attach ‘value’ to the rituals.)
3) Religious Service Providers – Entities which perform the rituals for the religious persons in exchange of ‘pay’.
4) Rituals – An act which leads to satisfaction of a religious person’s spiritual needs.
5) I assume that a ‘ritual’ is an ‘economic good’. My justification: The number of ‘Religious Service Providers’ and the ‘quantum of service’ they can provide is ‘scarce’. It is analogous to the practice of ‘motivational guides’.
The Model:
Religious Persons – Consumers
Religious Service Providers - Producers
The model gives the classic Demand-Price graph.
It also gives the classic Supply-Price graph.
Demand: Positive shifts in the demand curve will happen in case of
1) Increase in ‘paying’ capacity of ‘Religious Persons’.
2) Conditions which lead to increase in religious spending, like some ‘Religious Miracle’.
Negative shifts can be explained similarly..
Supply: Positive shifts occur :
1) When the ‘production cost’ of rituals decreases i.e. when ‘productivity’ rises in the Religious Market.
Negative shifts can be explained similarly.
The model also predicts the classic Supply-Demand Curve.
There are some interesting ideas here which I cannot explain now.(getting late for room-check!)
Note: I have deliberately abstained from focusing on the metaphysical or moral aspect of the question. I viewed the question as an economic problem.
I sensed some confusion in the above opinions with regards to ‘pricing’ an abstract ‘blessing’.
I think the price a consumer is willing to pay depends on the ‘value’ he ‘perceives’ in the product and what the producer perceives the value of his product to be.(Whether the product is abstract or physical is irrelevant.)
Shashank Sharma
When we talk of God's blessings as an economic entity,as a commodity in a market we fail to realise that the price of God's blessings(if any) is not decided by the interaction of the buyers and sellers.There are simply no two parties involved who are interacting to fix a proper price.
God's blessings are neither abundant nor scarce.Again they differ according to individual perceptions.
The offering of cash or the sufferings and inconveniences suffered by people to get God's blessings;all these choices are purely personal and differ according to individuals.
Hence the offerings to God are not a price for God's blessings but simply an individual choice.
The powers that be since time immemorial ( read the religious heads and so called human manifestations of god ) have tried to convince us that god's blessigs are scarce. that is the reason why maharajas performed elaborate sacrifices and people in india till today spend a months earnings on pujas they can ill afford.Churches in medieval england went to the extent of selling passes to heaven !! The idea seems like a joke because he highest form of hinduism is aaham brahmasti ie. god is within me. so therefore no genuine devotee would need to visit a temple and buy blessings in the form of huge donations.hence i believe that blessings of god are not scarce. if they were for sale as some mistakely believe then only a few elite in society would be blessed and frankly the idea of such a god doesn't really hold much appeal. as far as sacrifices and discomforts go in my opinion a person may roll down the hills and perambulate around temples till armageddon if it helps him or her to express devotion but that does nopt in any way reduce the devotion of a person who prays for a minute or lies his life respecting the dignity of his fellow beings . thus to sum up i believe that any devotee who believes that the b;essings of god are for sale is deluding himself fr the blessings of such a god are dispensable.
well...
economics is about use of limited resources to satisfy man's unlimited wants
first, let us look at the limited resource here: that is the devotee's donations, money for prayer, whatever
so, what is the want?
I am of the opinion, the want here is satisfaction, peace of mind...whatever you call it
we all want to be content, satisfied, it is one of our unlimited wants.
lets face it, you really dont want to be an unhappy, desprate person do you?
so, satisfaction is the want here
by going to the temple, giving a donation, and hoping for god's blessings;
In short, devotees try to satisfy their want of spiritual satisfacton (the want) by the blessing (meeting the want) through a gift to god's (the person who satisfy's the want) establishments, the temples (analogous to the market in this case)
so, our essesntial components
the consumer: the devotee
the want: spititual satisfaction
the producer: god
the market: the temple
dunno if that made sense
-suswagata
A price to be paid for God's blessings. No WAY. Had it been the case, the Bill Gates and the Mukesh Ambanis would have become virtually immortal. So quantifying his blessings would be incorrect. It all depends upon an individual's faith and his devotion as to how much blessings he can get. It's not possible to comment on whether it's available in abundance or it is scarce. So this is one of the few aspects of life where economics cannot be applied.
Sacrifice is always the price we pay for God's blessings, whether it be time or money. I suppose there do exist people who find no time to commit themselves to social service or humanitarian causes such a donating blood, so what's wrong if they contribute in the form of money? There's nothing wrong in quantifying the good we do and it's rewards(such as blessings); I dont think we ever have an issue with quantifying how 'wrong' people are, so why not good? We all pay a price, I suppose the real question is how much we actually pay.
When people go donate large sums of money, for some reason without any hesitation, I often thought about why someone [anyone] would do that. Especially when they know that once your note enters the 'daan peti', the priest is gonna use it for his own means anyway. So I asked around, and I got varied responses.
The Sympathy One:-
"This is the priest's living, man. He has to feed his family someway or the other."
The God's Grace One:-
"It's all given by God anyway, don't worry about it, just donate"
The Sacrifice One:-
"If we want something in life, we have to make sacrifices, money that way is a very small sacrifice to make. People used to sacrifice other people"
The Bribery One:-
"Pay more, Pray more - Simple as that"
The conclusion I drew from all this was that ignorant people donate money because they've been taught to. They were told by their elders to slip a note into the 'daan peti' without questions, and they accepted it without questions. Those who had some idea about why they were doing what they were doing, did it because they wanted to make a sacrifice, be it in terms of money.
What I believe is that while one cannot put a price on blessings, one can lead oneself to believe that some satisfaction or contentment is obtained from 'paying' God for his blessings.
The role of religous organisations were much more prominent in the ancient times.
From the oracle of Delphi to the Pope, and it is a fact that religous decrees could be bought for individual pardons or even for interpretations of signs that would guarantee victory in wars.
so yes a price for blessings existed.
But with time, the immense power and influence enjoyed by such institutions has been reduced by a great extent.
Therefore it is my opinion that the notion of religous blessings being bought is defunct now.People give of their own volition and what they want to.If there were truly a price that could be paid,that would guarantee that you would be blessed by God..Then i think all the problems of the world could get solved..Everyone would pay the price(those who could not afford it will take a loan,I mean if you are going to get blessed ,you would probably get the money to pay back the loan!)
The value of an offering is for an individual to identify for himself. It is human nature to be thankful for any good fortune that benefits us and according to the resources and our individual beliefs we may contribute a certain portion of it as offerings.
The reason why affleuent people contribute more is simple because they can.
God is supposed to be the superbeing an entity above all else if you are offering him something wouldn't you want it to be the best possible.
Gods blessings in any manner whatsoever cannot be weighed on the same scale with money, these are two completely distinct and unrelated entities. thus the students opinion in class is in my opinion incorrect to some extent. it is however correct to say that gods blessings are scarce and thus one needs to pay a price for it and that price is the extent of one's purity of soul which is attained by his good deeds of charity etc. and even when offering cash, god seeks the feeling behind the donation and not the amount.
thus the blessings are not proportional to the amount of cash or property you donate but rather to the good intention and selflessness behind that offering.
Most Economics textbooks give this definition of price:
"Price of a commodity in a market is determined at the point where the positively sloped supply curve intersects with the negatively sloped demand curve"
The premise that offerings made to temples etc. are the "price" paid for God's blessings is ridiculous, because:
1.There is no market for buying and selling of "God's Blessings", as it is not a commodity/good/service, and hence the question of its demand and supply does not arise.
2.It cannot be satisfactorily established that only the people who visit places of worship are blessed, or the blessings received by them, or for that matter anyone, are directly proportional to the offerings made by them.
Last Word:-(A personal opinion)
The beauty of faith is that despite defying logic it is inspirational. It is neither possible nor desirable to reduce something as priceless as God's blessings to the status of a commodity.
When one talks about the market for God's blessings, the questions arises , Why ? Why do people donate their hard earned money to temples , churches and so on . Do we recieve an immediate benefit in terms of a job promotion or a good exam result ? Or does it contribute to a general evanescent feel good factor ? Or maybe it's simply a way of booking one's ticket to Heaven . And this is where the problem lies . Since there is no way to conclusively dtermine what we are 'buying' , we cannot quantify and objevtively pinpoint the commodity being sold.
Also, if Money can fetch us God's blessings , would we be bribing our way into Heaven by donating large sums of money to the priest ?
Another point that I have come across while disucssing the topic is the seemingly unlimited chain of supply of God's blessings . And in furtherance of the fact that we cannot objectively quantify this commodity we are 'buying' , it would be irrtational to attach a price to it .
In my view , although a market system cannot be established in this situation .. At the end of the day , paying those 20 or 30 rupees does give a sense of inner satisfaction and relief , and in regards to the general public , it is a price they are willing to pay .
God never asks for price of his blessings.It is our ego that says this.Actually God does not know our language, He just understands our internal feelings, so we can not say that god asks for prices of his blessings. If really we want to give price of god's blessings, it will be in the form of public welfare and to help the poors, downtrodden and forgotten peoples in theis need.God is great, He is the supreme authority of power.Every power emergss from god and ends at the god.It will be of no use if we do not live for others.Everyone takes care of oneself, no one thinks about others.One who realises importance of his life and devotes it for others is a true human being.So it will be in vain if we say that we pay god for his blessings in the form of offerings.
Many would think putting a price on the blessing as a sin in itself, and it is actually available in abundance. But I would like to say that, the price is actually something that gives mental satisfaction to the devotee, that he has done something that is solid or tangible enough to make sure he has the right to receive the blessing. we can't say exactly say it as a price but something more like a proof to god like "I have done this so I can get his blessing".
Scarcity as a concept is basically associated with a resource. The whole question if blessings are scarce or not,is completely dependent on our point of view. Reason being if we consider blessing as something that can be used effectively or utilized to our benefit then yes it is a resource,on the other hand if we do not share the same point of view then abundance comes into the picture and the question of price is out of question.
However,theres is a gray area here where we can consider blessings as just another service and god as a provider whose "service" is as relative for a consumer as a doctors' service to a patient and that gives him the discretion to demand a different price.
Although as sufficiently established above, god's blessings are difficult to be quantified, i am inclined to believe that there is an implicit quantification in the fact that god's blessings are PERCEIVED to be scarce, which is perhaps what drives people to expend large amounts of money and time at religeous sites. As long as this perceived scarcity and the price ( which is defined as something which satisfies desires- something an offering to god presumably does) exist, i think that this situation has most qualities of a market and can be classified as a unique one.
When the poor go to worship,they cannot afford to donate money. This does not mean that they are denied the blessings of God. The people who do pay do not do so to equate it to the worth of His blessings as that in itself is priceless. Also,we cannot say that the blessings are scarce because whoever prays will receive the blessings irrespective of any payment.
I think God's blessings is something both abstract and practical at da same time.It depends on the way a man perceives it.I am not of the opinion that we need to really pay something,be it in terms of money or sacrifice to get the blessings of God.For instance,a poor man who hardly has the means to survive doesnt go and make offerings to the Almighty every second day.But that in no way means that he is deprived of God's blessings.I guess people who make large donations,do so out of gratitude to God for having given them all that they have.People who fast or make any other sacrifice may do so to thank God or as a mark of penance.But then there are atheists who i am sure rarely go to a place of worship but that doesnt mean that God doesnt bless them.God's blessings isnt a quantity that can be measured as such.So there is no point in attaching a price tag to it.If we have a clear conscience,God will lead us through every darkness.
As the Student who posed the Question, I Feel the need to define my logic.
1. According to economics, every amount of money paid is a price for something.
2. People going to a temple offer money, in other words, pay money to the temple.
3. The only product that can be had out of a temple(apart from some highly overpriced sweets,(although Tirupati's are rather good)) is God's blessings.
4. Therefore, people go to a temple to buy God's Blessings.
I am not out to hurt anyone's religious feelings or faith. For the record, my belief in God is absolute. But I don't believe in Donations to the temple.
So, logically we pay for God's blessings.
And the higher the price, the scarecer the commodity.
So, when Amitabh Bacchan pays 6.5
crores at Tirupati, we must logically conclude that God's blessings are scarce indeed.
In my opinion, human beings have not come up to the level of perceiving God's blessings in the right manner. Otherwise, there would not be people who actually 'paid' for the various pujas being conducted in religious places. God, no doubt, would shower his blessings incessently on man. But man comprehends them wrongly and further goes ahead to attach a price-tag to something which is invaluable- there are some things money cant buy...
Let us assume that God, as referred to in general religious beliefs, does exist. Once we do that, we are left with the core question at hand, that is can God's blessings be bought for a price? The answer is tricky, and everybody of course has a different answer, but mine is in fact both yes and no.
I say no, they cannot be bought for the very reason that it contradicts the very basic teachings of every faith. If one returns to the fundamental tenets of any faith, they all try to turn us towards the path of righteousness, etc, etc, but none of them has ever quoted a price to be paid for the same. Though some here would quote the performance of yajnas, sacrifices, et al, I would remind them that these are created through interpretations of priests, not God himself. Until one can get a receipt from God specifying the date, time, place, price, object, and terms & conditions of the transaction, I think even such rituals are probably not the smartest thing to do. Of course, everyone has their own opinion on the same, and I would like to appreciate their views, and not impress my own upon anyone, so please remember that this is just an opinion. To those who do not believe that it is a matter of existing faith, I would like to remind them that such payments are always at shrines, places of worship, etc, and thus not independent sources, thus falling under the purview of the above statements. To those that say that their payment is not through any such establishment, I would love to hear from them how exactly they arrange the money transfers, & currency conversions.
Then of course, if you remembered, I did also say that yes, blessings do have a price. Here, I shall have to be a little controvesial, and take the liberty of assuming God's point of view, in a sense. Firstly, after everything that our faiths teach us about the nature, character, and lessons of God(s), can we actually think that God would desire monetary wealth? More importantly, why would he even need monetary wealth? To those who say that he wants it from us, since we value it so much, I ask, do we honestly think that he will be happy with us only if we cough up some dough?
The reasoning behind the affirmation of the price of blessings, lies in the fact that God does ask a price of us. That price is to be a good human being, ie to do the right things at the right time. Though this may be quite ambiguous, one can know what is right and wrong by simply being rational, and listening so to speak, to that irritating voice inside our head that can be called a conscience. In a sense, this does make God's blessings a scarce commodity, since we rarely find any person able to do this. Of course, following this is not easy, and that indeed is what God wants, and therfeor become the price that he quotes us. If you dont believe in God, though, you should be doing the same thing because it is the right thing anyway. Coming back to the issue of paying God (for those who believe in Him/Her/It), some of the worst characters of history have been pious men, and paid a great dela of money to religious institutions as a result of the same. Do you thnink that God would bless them for this, despite their other actions? If indeed that is your opinion, then I guess that only one question is left, and that is,do you think that that is a God you want blessings from?
God's blessings have very little to do with this 'market' that seems to have been set up. The sellers of this ambiguous product (if I may) are not relying on the scarcity of blessings, but are instead creating the impression of scarcity by attaching these tangible prices (in terms of money) to their non-tangible commodity. This arises from the perpetual need of believers to satisfy personal desires that will, in actuality, never be entirely fulfilled. Religion is a specific area of this desire that has the greatest scope, in my opinion, for this sort of manipulation. The typical consumer of this commodity would not hesitate to accept any price for God and the infinite blessings he may bestow upon them.
I believe in a super natural force that is beyond our control. Some people may call it GOD, while others remain non-believers. The fact that certain things, which cannot be understood by us, happen on a daily basis, to me, explains this force. When events that don't seem to suit us occur, we turn to this so called unknown force. We look upon it for blessings just to rid our own minds of the fear, or sadness the event brings. i think , to answer the question, when such an event occurs, one is willing to do almost anything, or pay anything to rid oneself of the guilt, unhappiness etc. so i think the ultimate price of gods blessings is a measure of how affected one is by the event that is beyond ones control. be it in money terms, or any other sort of blessings.
well...when someone donates money to a temple he just does it because it gives him peace of mind,a feeling of happiness and devotion and satisfaction...
people pray to get blessings but do not donate to get someones blessings...
in that case there are hundreds of good people in this small world who donate to oldage homes,orphanages and shelters...
what do they expect in return??
blessings from the poor???or is it from the animals???
no its none of these...they do that bcos of the satisfaction,the feeling that they are doing something good in a world where goodness and immaterial values of love and generosity are being wiped away...
it is this feeling that makes them donate money...people pray to be blessed by the almighty but donate money becos of their devotion...
blessings are incalculable...you can't buy blessings in exchange of money...if it was that way then everyone who is blessed to live on this earth would be theists...
it doesnt work that way...does it???
It would be completely inappropriate to try to bring economics into one's beleif in God. Praying to God is a question of faith. like has been expressed by others, even i beleive that one cannot quantify blessings in any way. And a devotee offering money does so primarily because it is a practice that has been followed for centuries and i do not beleive that he does it as a "price" for the blessings he has asked. Many people do not get what they pray for, so that does not mean that they stop praying or stop seeking blessings. Like i said, it is a matter of faith and trqadition, nothing else.
GOD'S BLESSING QUANTIFIED????
when we learn the concept of market it is usually through the scarcity and price of the commodity in concern....
now the question that arises is, is our act of donation a price for the blessings???
the belief in god is based on faith... to quantify the blessings and measure them in money is a little difficult to manage or ny person..
when a devotee donates a sum of money, he knows that it will either be utilized for maintainence of the place of worship or used to help the needy...
we donot realise that our act actually turns into a blessing for the needy which is sseen as a gift from god...
gods blessing are not a commodity ...we can never count our blessings in terms of money.. so
man has a way of expressing his gratitude or happiness in the most scarcely available, desired for and revered commodity he knows- money...
People who pray with a view of receiving immediate returns may be able to put a price to god's blessings. For others who pray and believe in a higher power just as a means to relieve themselves of their troubles god's 'blessings' are invaluable. They wouldn't be able to and more importantly wouldn't want to determine its value in monetary terms. However there are certain people who give money to religious institutions and the like, only for their own satisfaction and not to buy god’s blessings. Also I don't think it's possible to classify something as abstract as god's blessings as scarce or abundant simply because the idea of it is different to different people.
It is totally absurd to think that the blessings of GOD or an universal force as i put it ,can be bought or sold. IN MY OPINION the money that is put in the donation box in a religious place , is meant for the upkeep of that place. Atleast i put it with that feeling. The objective is to give members of the society a place to pray and also a place where they can seek peace and tranquility.
Putting a price to God’s blessings would also mean that there are different packages of blessings, for people with different types of economic background. A rich man for example can buy a gold package with X units of blessings and a poor man would only be able to buy ‘X subtracted by Y units’ of blessings because he can’t afford the gold package and would buy the bronze package instead. Imagine this situation. This will be the height of commercialism to which humans beings could go.
The essential requirements for there to exist a market in the economic sense of the term are buyers, sellers, the existence of a good or service and the exchange of that good or service.
God's blessing are in no way a good or a service, but are in fact a subjective assessment by an individual( who bellieves in the existence of God) of the satisfaction he/she receives when he/she communicates with God, at any given time, in whatver way.
Also, there is no distinct buyer or seller in this case or even producer or consumer, owing to the lack of a commodity or service to sell or buy.
In addition to that, the blessing of God, if considered a service of any sort could be a sort of transfer payment, likened to a welfare act of the government for the poor , or in otherwords a unilateral exchange for which nothing is received, or at least expected back in return.
On the other hand though, the donation of an individual to God could also be considered unilateral, as, practically speaking, nothing is received in return. the utility of the commodity in question is not quantifyable. Moreover, there are individuals who donate for the genuine good of society, not expecting or wanting anything in return.
Hence the existence of a market here doesnt seem feasible.
I am not really very sure about whether God's blessings are scarce or abundant. In large temples, it's perfectly possible to control the number of darshans or blessings, controlling supply. It probably matters more on the religious place you choose to visit. In some temples, it costs a lot for a blessing. Plus, what each person perceives as a lot may be very different. Keeping these in mind, I think God''s blessings are what we make them out to be, the price we pay is one aspect of that. If religious institutions choose to limit blessings and charge a high price, the exclusivity of the blessing may lead to greater merit being attached to it. This could also work the other way.
I do not think that there is a market for God's blessings,for apart from the fact that 'blessing' is an ambiguous term,there are no real sellers.
No religious head will tell you,in this day and age,that paying money to an organisation will ensure benevolence of a higher power.You may do it out of gratitude,worship or because you believe it is a religious duty,but you do not usually pay keeping in mind that it will get you tangible commodities-blessings.
like most ppl on the blog just said,the concept of god being a matter of faith and belief, the blessings can be neither commodified nor quantified.
i dont imply here that man expects nothing in return for this act of donating money(or whatever).he DOES expect something in return...and it s a sense of SATISFACTION, a feeling of happiness.
BUT temples are NOT markets where u pay money and get things done.it s ultimately u, the individual, who does things and maybe u may feel guided by the faith u have. so as someone earlier said , in a way it's a sense of gratitude that u show to ur belief for having directed n guided u.
it's services of the intermediators/maintenance of the temple building that is being paid for....not god's blessings per se
Firstly,the most fundamental question.. who or what is god..?? is he a being, does he really exist..?? personally i believe that god is the force driving the entire universe. it is god who has created us and granted us an audience in this mortal world.
someone who is the basis of life, the alpha and the omega, the bestower of everything that a being is characterised by, can not be compared with the mundane thought of being satiated by a gift or gratutous payment, howsoever hefty be the amount.
therefore, the concept of buying blessings holds no ground because HE[God] is above all materialism and to quantify his blessings is not a mainainable proposition.
Though a little (too) late i nevertheless want to put across my views here..
the "object" in question here is the mercy (or the blessings ) of God.the question would get obsolete here itself because God's blessings cannot and should not be objectified.
People who give donations in temples and do charity in the name of religion are not looking for God's blessings in any case.It's their idea of giving something back or their idea of penance.Or in some cases merely to gain some status in the eyes of the society.So,in any case they are not going there to pay for the blessings of God.
In the few cases where they are actually doing it keeping in consideration God's blessings in return are mistaken.Because even if u claim to pay a price for it.God's blessings are not for sale.
God is your own faith and your faith can never be given a material form.This is a very philosophical take on a question of economy.But i dont think the sanctity of a temple should be insulted by comparing it to a market.
offerings of cash is an individualistic perception of seeking god's blessings. from my own experience, its the amount of sincerity and honesty that matters and if something is going to happen, it will happen irrespective of the cash offerings.
U can bribe anybody but can u bribe ur own conscience and it is this conscience that helps u in connecting with the Supreme Power i.e. GOD.
Jyoti MAheshwari
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