Subhashita #0015

When a householder is blessed with financial prosperity by Krishna, he should not be a miser and should give sufficient charity to worthy people. This will ensure that he will be blessed with similar wealth in future lives.

If not charity, he should at least spend it for enjoyment so that he will be happy in this life. A miserly person who neither gives away a share of his money in charity nor enjoys it himself will end up losing that money to others by arrangements of providence. An example of this is the story of Avantī-brāhmaṇa in the 11th Canto of the Bhāgavatam. A subhāṣita-verse illustrates the same point:

dātavyaṁ bhoktavyaṁ sati vibhave sañcayo na kartavyaḥ

paśyeha madhu-karīṇāṁ sañcitam arthaṁ haranty anye

"In times of prosperity, one should either give charity or enjoy the wealth, but one should not try to save it like a miser. [One who keeps piling up money like a miser is sure to lose it some day]. Just see how the honey stored in the hive by the bees is taken away forcibly by someone else!"

— (Subhāṣita-ratna-bhāṇḍāgāra, Dāna-praśaṁsā, Page 69, Verse 17)

[Import: The honey-bees neither give away the honey stored in the hive, nor do they enjoy it themselves. It stays there only to be taken away some day by someone else forcibly. A similar fate awaits the miser who neither wishes to give charity nor wishes to enjoy his hard-earned money.]