The reason you may choose to go to a religious place to donate this amount; instead of donating it to any other place or person; is due to an important fact. Throughout your journey so far; you’ve learnt this fact again and again that there is someone called God and he judges each and every act of yours. There’re two options from here; where one of them says you don’t believe in God and the second one says you do.
Looking at the first option; you may not go to a religious place in this case and you may instead donate this amount to someone or some institution; to which you assign the maximum value deep down. It means if you feel deep down that donating to baggers is the best type of donation; you may donate money to a bagger or baggers; each time you engage in acts of selfishness; to pacify your subconscious guilt. This is because the guilt rising from acts of selfishness is your guilt; which means it lies within your mind and accordingly; the best way to pacify it is to do something which is the best choice for doing so; according to your own mind.
This is why different people engaging in the same types of negative acts may try to pacify the guilt through different positive acts. For instance, if two thieves steal from a house and subconscious guilt is formed; one of them may donate to a religious place and the second one may make such donation to an orphanage; depending on what comforts them the most. It means though the guilt may rise from the same act; different people may choose to balance it through different types of acts; depending on the interpretation of their minds; related to such acts of balancing out.
Due to the same reason; different people who engage in negative acts may choose to engage in different types of negative acts. For instance; one criminal may prefer to engage in financial type of crimes whereas another criminal may choose to engage in violent type of crimes; depending on their mindsets; which further depend on their journeys so far. You see, even the type of good and bad acts committed by us are connected to our experiences from past lives. This is why the journey of a soul is said to be continuous since whatever you do in one life or at one point in time; has influence on what you may choose to do in future.
Looking at the option which says you believe in God; you have this knowledge deep down that God is going to judge each and every act of yours; sooner or later. Accordingly; your ego finds a way to pacify your guilt in the best possible manner. It suggests you that if an act of kindness balances an act of selfishness and the final judgment is to be made by God; it is wise to develop friendship with God. This way; your ego fools you that since you’re a devotee of God; he’ll give you some favours while judging your acts; compared to how he judges the acts of the ones who don’t offer donations to religious places.
This is because you see most people giving favours to the ones who give them favours. It keeps happening in this material world and whether it is a judge, police officer, politician or anyone else for that matter; they may judge you favourably if you’re a devotee of theirs, which means you give them favours. This is simple mathematics and hence you learn and memorize it. When it comes to your acts which are to be judged by God; you apply the same formula. It means you start offering favours to God, at least according to your ego; and you start assuming that when he judges you; these favours will be returned.
However, this is where you’re making a mistake. People who have given you favours from time to time; have egos in significant quantum. When it comes to God; there’s conscience alone and there’s no ego. It means that no matter how many favours you offer him; he’ll always judge you fairly; if and when he has to.
As you may remember; ego lives in past or future whereas conscience lives in present or to be precise; in the moment. When an officer gives you favour; his ego visits past and it looks at the favours given by you to him; and these favours influence his decision. His ego then visits the future and it finds that his future image depends on his decision; which means you’ll respect or disrespect him in future; based on his decision. The greed or fear based in future also affects his decision and hence he ends up giving you favours; though the present moment is shouting that you’re guilty. Hence he partly or completely ignores the facts presented before him at that moment; and he delivers decision based in past and future.
When it comes to God; there is no past and there is no future; and all there is the present moment. Hence when your case will be judged; none of the favours offered by you will be considered since they’re the things based in past. Likewise; the fact whether you’ll continue being a devotee or not; will also not be considered since this fact is based in the future. All that matters is the moment of judgment and he’ll do that thing only; which is worthy of being done; according to that and that moment alone.
At that moment; he’s the judge and it is his duty to judge you fairly. This is all there is and this is all he’s going to do. Hence you’re not going to get any favours in return for the money that you offer to a religious place; when your case is judged. It doesn’t mean that those acts are waste; it simply means you shouldn’t expect them to work this way. Due rewards for all those acts will be forwarded to you and none of them will go waste.
Yes, the concept of repentance is there and it works also; but it may not apply in your case due to two reasons. The concept of repentance works on the basis of balancing out your negative karmas with positive karmas of equal quantum or more. When it comes to your case, you’re offering Rs. 10 to a religious place after earning Rs. 1000 through negative karmas; which means you’re trying to balance out a negative karma with a positive karma which is 100 times less in quantum. Hence it is not going to work much.
Looking at the second and bigger reason; repentance is meant for people who become consciously aware of their negative acts. It means that they may not only engage in positive karmas which are equal to or more in quantum than their negative karmas in question; they are also likely to disengage from such negative karmas in future. This reason is deeply related to the first reason; and this is why as long as you’re spending a small part of the money earned by you through negative practices; towards acts of repentance; it simply means your repentance is not true deep down.
It means your guilt is subconscious at this stage. Hence you simply want to keep it under control and you don’t want to remove the root cause of this guilt; which are your acts of selfishness in this case. Since there’s no true repentance; you’re not likely to qualify for the benefits falling under the clause of repentance.
This is because repentance is supposed to benefit those people only; who are consciously aware of their negative acts; though such acts may not be all of their negative acts and they may only be one type of negative acts; like all acts of selfishness in this case. Hence you qualify for repentance; only when your guilt becomes conscious. However when that happens; you may not need many favours from God; and this is why.
The moment you become consciously aware that you’re engaging in negative acts; you’ll get rid of all the money earned through such negative acts. For instance, you’ll donate Rs. 1000 to a religious place, if it is the first time you’re engaging in an act of selfishness. When that happens; you’ll naturally stop engaging in acts of selfishness because you know that you’ll end up offering all the money earned through acts of selfishness; to a religious place. It means you’ll lose the money anyway; so what is the point in earning it through the acts of selfishness.
Hence you’ll naturally move away from engaging in acts of selfishness as you see no benefit in them. As you stop doing so; the need to offer money to religious places in order to get favours from God during the judgment for such negative acts also goes away. This is because you’re not engaging in this type of negative acts now; and you don’t need to fear God accordingly. You only fear the judge when you know you’re a criminal and not otherwise; assuming the judge is a fair one like God.
This is why conscious guilt and conscious awareness are the most important factors; when it comes to get rid of a negative habit or stay away from it. Since you’re only offering Rs. 10 out of Rs. 1000 and you keep engaging in more negative acts of the same type; you’re not going to benefit under the clause of repentance.
Hence your acts may be judged fairly; and the donations offered by you may also be judged fairly; though they may benefit you in other ways.