Venus and Human Values: Generosity

Planet Venus as Hindu God

Gayatri Mantra for Venus

Om Aswadhwajaaya Vidmahe
Dhanur hastaaya dheemahi
Tanno Shukra prachodayaat

Translation: “Om, Let me meditate on him who has horse in his flag,
Oh, He who has a bow in his hand, give me higher intellect,
And let Shukra illuminate my mind.”

The Planet Venus is known in Vedic Astrology as Lord Shukra, the celestial poet, son of Lord Bhrigu (var, Bhrugu), and is dispositor or karaka of artistic grace and beauty, refinement and contentment, and is concerned with harmonious relationships.

Venus rules wealth; Venus is generous when wealth is shared in the habit of selfless giving to others. Attitudes which give expression to generosity are a willingness to share time, talents and resources for the betterment of others around them; Venus seeks an amiable atmosphere around, a a satisfied, festive environment where goods and appreciation of beauty is shared all round, to the happiness of others. Venus is not petty in character nor mind; generosity is a form of creating that environment which forfends goodness, beauty and truth for others; it has the quality of being warm-hearted, considerate, humane and sympathetic. There are elements of sharing and sacrifice in the generosity of Venus.

Human Values

Our values are our guides to action. Values are our codes of internal conduct, the principles upon which we run our lives and make our decisions. Our values are first parlayed to us by our parents, and these are developed, expanded, tested in experience. Other people impress values upon us, such as those values given to us by our childhood friends, our teachers, the wider community. Our moral values can often come from our culture and faith systems. The strongest impression we ever get of human values is the example set by another person.

Our values include universal values – truthfulness, peace, love, right conduct and non-violence. These principles are within us at birth and need to be elicited and put into practice; they are often essential for our human excellence. We can often work out what values are present in a situation or an event or a reaction (our own)(someone else’s) when we analyse the actions of ourselves or others, for actions are based on choices, and choices show what our values are.

In Vedic Astrology, Venus is the giver of truth, goodness and beauty, in Sanskrit, Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram. Truth, goodness and beauty are expressions of what is within the human being, the aesthetic sense, the creation and appreciation of objects of beauty, inspiration and that which makes the human spirit soar. It could easily be said that Venus takes humanity to the beautiful things of heaven, on Earth. This occurs when we follow and practice the five human values, Truth (sathya), Right Conduct (dharma), Love (prema), Peace (shanti) and Non-violence (ahimsa) in our lives.

So here we may explore the role the of the Planet Venus in our lives, and how Venus disposes is to live our life with Truth (sathya), Right Conduct (dharma), Love (prema), Peace (shanti) and Non-violence (ahimsa) in our lives.

Venus and Generosity

Generosity is a sub-value of Love. Love (one of the five human values) has sub-values of kindness, friendship, forgiveness, generosity, compassion, tolerance and selflessness. A person who practices the human value of love is loving, kind, considerate of others, gentle and compassionate. Being generous, they have an understanding nature and are dedicated persons. They know how to generate and multiply their inner wellspring of love, joy and harmony. They are capable of managing their personal and social lives.

What is Generosity?

Generosity is the trait of willingness to give of your personal time, talents and resources; it is the quality of being warm hearted and considerate, humane and sympathetic. It is quality of not putting yourself first but being willing to give your time or effort etc., for others. It is a personal readiness to give and share unstintingly. Generosity embraces a life of willingness share what you have so you can be at One with all in your relationship with the Divine. Generosity is unselfish; it is the selfless habit of giving freely without expecting anything in return. Generosity is the individual’s pure intentions of looking out for society’s common good and giving from the heart. It is being open-handed and being kind to others

What does Generosity look like?

Generosity is being more caring, more helpful to others, spending time and service to the needy. It is benevolent and big hearted, sharing resources and donating to charitable causes, working at charity events. It is charitable to others in need, seeking their benefit and their happiness. Generosity is repsonsiveness, it is caring, it is having a heart filled with concern and fellow-feeling. It is action which reveals empathy and sympathy for those who are in any kind of need.

What are the Fruits of Generosity?

Selfless generosity bestows self-worth and personal inner value to oneself, leading to improved self esteem and confidence. It is an incentive to personal dignity, as it looks out and raises the dignity of others, in behaviour and manners. It makes you feel satisfaction, humility, empathy, trusted, helpful and useful. All these are characteristic of Venus. Generosity gives self-esteem, self respect and trust to others. It makes them feel worthy, valued and cared for. Selfless generosity empowers others, and fills them with the incentive to practice good manners and behaviour toward others. Other people feel appreciated, grateful, motivated and inspired. These also are characteristics of Venus.

What does Generosity feel like?:

When you are generous, you feel a loving bond of friendship; you have calm, peace and respect. When you do generous things for others in a selfless manner, you raise your self-esteem, you overcome your ego, and you become more unselfish, more accommodating of others. Generosity helpss you to relate well to other people; it creates a calm and peaceful environment, it helps you to see beyond yourslef and be less self centred. Generosity helps you to understand others and have an awareness of their emotions.

Venus as karaka (disposer, energiser, motivator) of generosity shares its largesse and enjoyment of the good things in life with others. Venus shares happiness, exhilaration, enjoyment and contentment with others. Venus has many beautiful things in its environment creating an aura of charm, artfulness and serenity. Venus shares its appreciation of life by helping others to appreciate life toward their personal happiness and benefit. By being bountiful, charitable, disinterested, forgiving, free, impartial, kind, liberal, noble, open and open-handed, Venus raises others out of their containment into the creative urge to participate in all that life has to offer.

What Generosity is not:

The feeling of being taken advantage of, of feeling over-committed, a fear of rejection and a fear of what others will think of you and how they will see you are not any dimensions or aspects of Generosity. You do not take up activity under the flag of generosity if you lack the skill and capacity of being generous. If you are ignorant of others needs, you are not being generous; you may be hurting them, or worse, patronising them. Generosity understands others and their needs, without any fear of being manipulated or cheated. Acting in a generous manner with expectation of reward or recognition is not generosity. Generosity is not donating money to noble causes in order to feel noble. Generosity is not lack of time, resources or talents.

Generosity and Health:


Man suffers from two types of ills, physical and mental; the one caused by the disequilibrium of the three tempers of wind, bile and phlegm and the other caused by the disequilibrium of the three basic impulses to action: qualities of serenity, passion and inertia. One peculiar fact about these two types of illnesses is that the cultivation of virtue cures both. Physical health is a prerequisite for mental health and mental health ensures physical health! An attitude of generosity, of fortitude in the presence of sorrow and loss, a spirit of enthusiasm to do good, to be of service to the best of one’s capacity — these build up the mind as well as the body. The very joy derived from service reacts on the body and makes you free from disease. The body and the mind are closely interrelated.

Sathya Sai Baba, 9 September 1959

Generosity as signified by Venus

Venus rules wealth; Venus is generous when wealth is shared in the habit of selfless giving to others. Attitudes which give expression to generosity are a willingness to share time, talents and resources for the betterment of others around them; Venus seeks an amiable atmosphere around, a a satisfied, festive environment where goods and appreciation of beauty is shared all round, to the happiness of others. Venus is not petty in character nor mind; generosity is a form of creating that environment which forfends goodness, beauty and truth for others; it has the quality of being warm-hearted, considerate, humane and sympathetic. There are elements of sharing and sacrifice in the generosity of Venus.

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