Hindu Dharma

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To Serve Others Is To Feel Blessed from Hindu Dharma

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A man can be fortunate in many ways. But there is nothing that makes him more

fortunate than the opportunity he has of serving others.

When we serve our family we are not conscious of how we help it. We must learn

to help people who are not our kin - other families, our village or home town,

our nation, indeed all mankind. We have so many problems ourselves, we suffer

so many hardships, and we have so many worries and cares. We must not, however,

mind serving others in the midst of all our difficulties. We will forget our

problems when we are immersed in the work of helping others. There is a saying

:"Feed milk to your neighbour's child, your child will be nourished. " The Lord

will raise us up from our troubles as we do good to others. However, it is not

with such considerations of profit that we must try to help people in

difficulties. We must not worry about how others will benefit from our work,

but consider how we will become naturally pure. Also, we must think of the

happiness we will experience by serving our fellow men.

Service should not be confined to mankind but must be extended to the animal

kingdom. In the olden days ponds were dug exclusively for cattle and stone

pillars were installed here and there for them to scratch themselves. Everyone

must feed at least one cow every day with a handful of grass. This is called

"go- grasam" and this act is extolled in the sastras, "Grasam" means a mouthful

and the English word "grass" is derived from it.

Conducting sacrifices, offering oblations to the fathers and performing sraddha

must be regarded as an extension of the service we do in this world to the

denizens of other worlds. These rites must be gone through with the intoning of

mantras.

There must be many others like us, many groups, who want to be engaged in social

work. It should be ideal if the efforts of all were brought together under one

body of like-minded members. Care must be taken that associations so formed do

not break up; they must be managed honestly with a proper enforcement of

discipline. Those who do philanthropic work must be men of courage and

enthusiasm who take praise and blame equally.

You ought not to waste your time in eating places displaying appetizing fare nor

in establishments where alluring objects are exhibited. Instead, you must spend

your time in helping others. You will ask whether it is wrong to spend a little

time in gaiety in the midst of life's worries and hardships. I should like to

impress on you that the happiness you find in helping others is not to be found

in anything else.

Krsna Paramatman was playful, wasn't he? But all his playfulness was an outward

phenomenon for inwardly he served others all the time. How sportingly did he

save people form trouble and how many were the men who were helped by him. To

protect the cowherds the child Krsna lifted up the big Govardhana mountain.

And, again, as a little child he danced on the hoods of the dreaded

Kalinga(Kaliya) that poisoned the Yamuna. It all seemed play, all the heroic

acts he performed to save the people of Gokula. Nobody sported like Krsna but

at the same time nobody served mankind like him. It was not worldly service

alone that he did. He served mankind by imparting jnana. As a preceptor of

Arjuna and Uddhava alike he taught great truths. All this he did with a smile,

spreading serenity everywhere. What he did he did with utmost ease. Those who

have taken up the work of serving humanity must be inspired by his example.

Among the various incarnations of the Lord, the service rendered to humanity was

the greatest in that of Krsna. During the avatara of Rama, Anjaneya appeared as

seva (service) personified. We must be inspired by their example [of Krsna and

Hanuman] as we work for others; we must be unselfish like them and shun

publicity.

We keep aloof from the outside world when we are ritually impure. We must regard

any day on which we fail to do any service to others as a day of impurity.

Paramesvara is the father of all creatures. By serving our fellow men we serve

the Lord. This is the message of Tirumular in his Tirumantiram;

Nadamada-k-koyil nambar-k-konriyil

Padamada-k-koyil Bhagavarkadame

It means :Serving people is worshipping the Lord.