Day: July 6, 2024

Swami ji said …

The epic – ‘Ramayan’ tells us that on realising that Ma Sita had been abducted, Shri Ram was distraught and worried. When His efforts to find Sita Ma turned futile, He was overcome with immense grief and sorrow. Surely, all of us can relate with such emotions ; with such a reaction. An occurrence such as this would paralyse any man ; make him feel beyond helpless.

Yet, the enormity of the situation that was being faced by Shri Ram at that moment – did not prevent Him from doing whatever He could do for those who sought His help ; wanted Him to fulfil their wishes – and it is this quality of His that teaches us greatly about service to others.When Shri Ram begins His search for Ma Sita, He comes across various beings – some demons ; some benign and saintly souls – and many of them have requests, wishes of their own – which they wanted Him to fulfil.

So touched was Shri Ram by the demi god – ‘Jatayu’s’ sacrifice to save Sita – that He personally carried out the funeral rites of ‘Jatayu’ – when he is killed by Ravan.
Similarly, the demon,
Kabandha, who initially had tried to devour Ram and Lakshman, also requested Shri Ram to perform his last rites to free him from this world – and Shri Ram did so dutifully. Sugriv needed Shri Ram’s assistance in killing Bali and becoming the King of Kishkindha.
Shri Ram stood by Him in his hour of need.

All these, and, many more such requests – which were just and fair – did Shri Ram try to fulfill – while He was still looking for His beloved Sita. Never once did He ask anyone as to what could they do for Him in return. He simply did whatever He could for all those who came to Him in need.

Can one imagine such selfless behaviour in today’s world ? Can we even think of ignoring an emergency at our or at our family’s end ; cause any delay in attending to them – and , instead put someone else’s immediate desperate appeal for help before our own needs ? Even, if, we did behave in such a way, would not our own family, friends and loved ones call us foolish for doing so?

Why then did Shri Rama do this? What made Him the way He was ? The answer to this lies in the fact that He knew that service to others is service to God. If we truly love God, we must also love His children. And, if we want to serve God, what greater service could there be for Him – than taking care of His children. Helping those who are weak ; assisting
those who are in need – is the greatest service to God. Shri Ram, thus, in His own eyes – was only doing His duty ; worshipping God through every sefless act of His.

We too, thus, must strive to see service to others through the lens of duty, There are many times when such opportunities to serve others present themselves to us. And, we , often, ignore these out of laziness, discomfort or by simply thinking – ‘ What good is in it for me? ’ When such thoughts come to our mind – we must immediately tell ourselves – ‘Our hands, our body are not meant only for enjoyment, but , to also assist others.’ We must tell ourselves – ‘God is giving us a specific task to do. He wants us to do something on His behalf and that in itself should be more than enough to give us the strength to do us. The bliss and joy that we experience on helping someone selflessly has a divine element to it.

‘ हम जब भी किसी की सेवा करते हैँ, तब हम में स्वार्थ का भाव बिल्कुल नही होना चाहिए’…’ The
entire purpose of serving someone -‘ किसी की सेवा करना , मदद करना’ – is lost entirely the minute we expect anything from them in return…’ सेवा सबकी करो , मगर आशा किसी से मत रखो , क्योंकि सेवा का सही मूल्य भगवान ही दे सकते हैं इंसान नहीं …’

We just need to keep serving everyone without expecting anything in return because the immeasurable
value of our service to anyone can only be determined by God – not by man. Let us continue to serve people selflessly with a pure heart and mind and feel His presence in us.