Freebies

[JUSTIFY]Is getting something for free an opportunity for us to celebrate? Does it really make us happy? Do we prefer a product for its quality or for its affordability or for the ability to get something for free? In some countries, during holidays, the products are sold at a discounted value to clear some of their inventories so that new products could be brought to the market. In retail market, as we all know, how many times the investment in products are cycled in a year determines how successful the business is. In retain businesses, the profit margins are not extraordinary and they need to sell high volumes in order to make decent margins.

In developing nations, the tendency for the manufacturers, distributors and retailers is to sell the product by giving something for free to promote rather than purely based on branding the products. They believe this type of promotion has magnificent effect primarily because the consumers are always very interested in freebees. If you carefully analyze the background of such promotions, it is very easy for the consumers to understand that every company includes its product cost, inventory cost, branding & marketing costs, selling costs, freebies offered, etc. already in the cost of the product. It makes no economic sense for someone to sell a product with a freebee without any benefit. Even if they do, they would do it only for a specific period to have an introduction in the market and later the cost of such freebies will be added back into the price of the product.

Looking at it from the consumers’ point of view, does it make sense to aspire for getting something for free without paying the price for it? If we look back into values that were inculcated by our elders historically, no one would accept anything for free whether it is product or service from anyone for free. They always practiced that we should not expect others to do something to us what we won’t do to others. They always believed accepting a product or service for free as a householder is a sin. Only the Sanyasis are allowed to beg for food that too only once every day. If they were not donated food, the Sanyasis will not eat for that day. Even today, if we go to the Himalayas region, in many houses, the householders won’t have their lunch until such time they give food to a Sanyasi. Frankly, even though it appears as though the householder is not getting anything back from the Sanyasi, it is Sanyasi’s constant meditation that increases the overall consciousness of the world. Moreover, many householders believe that the blessings from the Sanyasis would help his family to lead a peaceful life.

In real life, let us assume someone else takes away something that rightfully belongs to us. We always think that they have to pay the price for their attitude sometime during their life. Even if they don’t pay for it in the present life, they accumulate karma and needs to pay for it sometime later in another life. We should also avoid taking anything for free from anyone, if we can afford to buy it out of our own effort. We should avoid gambling with a hope that it would turn around our life overnight as most losers in gambling are people who are finding it difficult to make both ends meet.

I am not suggesting through this blog that we should not give anything away. I am only suggesting that we should not take anything for free if we can afford to get it ourselves. We should always remember that giving away for the benefit of the people in need and providing services or financial help to the elderly people and children should form part of our spiritual discipline. We have to believe that helping people who are undergoing their negative karma would help us to get the Grace of the Lord to eliminate some of our past negative karma. After all increasing our positive karma and reducing our negative karma is what we need to accomplish during our life time, if our objective is to reduce our cycle of birth and death.
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Dear Anu,

Thank you for your response. I always felt that if anyone is betting on the horse races or on a lottery ticket, it brings a lot of karma.

Viswa

 

Maalti,

Thank you for visiting this blog and for your kind comments.

Viswa

 

Dear RGS,

Thank you for your response, as always. Thank you for sharing the incident that happened in Mahatma Gandhi's life. I never knew that before and thanks for sharing it.

Viswa