This article was published in Akhand Aanand, a Gujarati monthly. Originally written by Gunvant Shah.
A tiger would not be sinning if he eats away a goat. It is not fair to tell a serpent a sinner when a man dies of snake-bite. When a beast gulps down her own new born baby out of sheer hunger, she is not a cruel mother at all. There is no word called 'sin' in the Nature's dictionary. In the Nature's kingdom the truth prevails. There is no king in the jungle. A lion has no connection with the false stories rumored by men. When a lion hunts a deer, he too is acting as per his nature. In the jungle everything goes on as is natural. In the Nature's world sin can not be. Sin is the product of 'culture', and is born only after the Nature is relinquished.
For sin to exist, the men's being is essential. Man is the youngest child of Mother Nature. In Bhagwad Gita Krishna explains Arjuna the meaning of word 'natural'. Without knowing the meaning of the word all the philosophy is incomplete. As the Nature's influence lessens, culture is said to have developed. And the disorders come hand in hand with the cultures. Humans learned some decent words under the influence of culture as: sainyam - self control, Maun - quiet, dharma - duty, upvaas - fasting, ahinsa - non voilence, karuna - compassion, satya - truth, manav adhikara - human rights etc. But in the stream with disorders too, came some words as: paap - sin, hinsa - violence, krurta - cruelty, jooth - lie, traswad - terrorism, balatkar - rape etc. It is the learned man who has to save himself of sin; in the jungle there is no place for sin or benefaction. Benefaction is invented only after sin is born.
Donation earned importance only after tendency to possess grew. Infatuation grew, so non-attraction got weightage. The greed has given the act of giving up the label 'greatness'. People carry out good deeds as a remedy to soothe themselves of possible wounds of their misdeeds. As a result a builder or a politician is not reluctant to carrying out corrupt deeds. Their donation saves them of feeling of guilt arising from badly earned money. Black money thus goes the way of donation, and is said the act benefaction.
Some philosopher has said, you have got to do something out-of-the-way to commit a sin; but to commit a good deed you just have to act naturally. Africa's jungle dwellers do not do the acts of benefactions, as they act naturally. Their violence is not unnatural if they are non-vegetarians. They do not know sin. Where there is no sin, the need for benefaction is inexistent. Breastfeeding a child is not an act of benefaction, because the act is a part of mother's being. There is no need of a priest to teach this natural act. The gist of all the religions lies in being natural.