Charitable thoughts do not come from reading books or hearing discourses. Agathiyar explains that the thought of doing charity only arises if one has sufficient merits. He adds that one need's to have God's grace and his parents and ancestors and their lineage need to have accumulated sufficient merits, to help others or to even have the thought to perform charity.
One can continuously pray, chant, do libation (abhisegam) and light the sacrificial fire (yagam) but if he does not help another it is impossible to gain Gods grace. Agathiyar says it is still acceptable to him if one does not perform prayers (puja) or does not even believe in God, provided he does service to others and is charitable. He does not need to seek God, instead God seeks him out. To one who does lots of charity, and helps wipe away the tears of others, even God comes to him to receive alms from him as depicted in the story of Karnan.
The amount of charity one does molds his future. When one keeps giving, in the days of his needs the merits are given back to him, or come to his aid.
