Veyyavacca Kusala (Meritorious Deed of Service) & Related Story

Veyyavacca means helping others in performing good deeds.  Attending on those who are worthy of respect in a small way or in a big way, helping one’s friends in their affairs, offering one’s seat and helping persons worthy of respect while one is travelling, helping the sick and the aged, cleaning monasteries, houses, localities, pagodas and Bodhi Trees, repairing roads for the welfare of passers-by, building bridges, placing water-pots on stands for everyone to drink, and building rest-houses, etc., are called Veyyavacca.

Helping or giving service in the good deeds of other people is known as veyyavacca.  We should offer our services willingly so that the donors may feel at ease, free from worries and the charity be successfully accomplished. We should also help the sick, the infirm and the old.  We should offer assistance to people carrying heavy loads, help to remove heavy burdens of our parents and elders, helping in preparing foods for Samghas, sweeping at the pagoda to keep the floor clean for the sake of public, etc. Thus, all forms of voluntary service given to others (provided the deeds are not evil) are listed as veyyavacca-kusala. So, there is no need to feel sorry because of incapable to donate things; for those who are too poor to donate material requisites to Triple Gems or anyone else.

If you have goodwill and true cetana in giving voluntary service, benefits may be greater than those of the actual donor who donates lack of or weak in volition. For instance, in Buddha’s time there was a governor named Payasi, who was a heretic but became a believer of the Dhamma due to the teaching of the Venerable Kumara Kassapa Bhikkhu. This Payasi performed charity and alms-giving regularly. But he did not do the good deed himself. Instead he delegated Uttara, a young lad to offer alms-food to Bhikkhus. Although Uttara was acting on behalf of the governor, he put all his heart and soul in the alms-giving. When both the governor and the servant died, the former (the governor) was reborn in Catumaharajika, the lowest of the six celestial abodes while the latter (the servant) was reborn in Tavatimsa, which is higher than Catumaharajika. That’s why it’s of vital importance to make sure or keep your volition keen and pure before,during and after donation. Moreover, It’s the best to donate ourselves with our own hands if we are not too old or weak or feeling strong diseases.

Related Story : The Story of Uttara and the Governor of Payasi

Source : By Ye' Thu Aung (Buddhism for Beginners)