Ramana Maharshi About Social Service

[Guest guest]

If one tries to see everything as God before realizing the true nature of

self by surrendering the mind to him, all one’s efforts will be a mere act

of imagination by the mind.Without knowing God as he really is, how to see

everything as his form? If you want to see this pen as a tiger, by an act of

imagination you may do so: this end is its head, this end is its tail, here

is its mouth, there are its eyes, and so on. Because you have seen a tiger,

you can imagine like this. But if you have never seen a tiger and if you

have no idea what a tiger is,you cannot even imagine this pen as a tiger. If

you say, “I see this pen as a tiger: here are its wings, there are its

wheels”, and so on, is it not clear that you have never seen a tiger? Equally

meaningless and laughable are the claims of those people who have not

realized self but who say, “I see everything as God; I see this stone as

God; I see that table as God; I see God in every object and in every person;

I see God in the beggars and poor people; I love all people as myself”.

 

The ideal of the karma yogi is to see, to love and to worship everything as

the form of God.But so long as he tries to achieve this ideal while still

retaining the mind, his seeing, loving and worshipping everything as God is

a mere imagination and cannot be real.Therefore in this verse Sri Bhagavan

teaches that if the karma yogi is truly to see, to love and to worship

everything as God, he must first surrender his mind to God. Only after

surrendering his mind can he know God as he really is, and then only can he

see and love everything as God. That is why Sri Bhagavan used to say, “An

atma-jnani alone is a true karma yogi”.

 

Nowadays there are so many people who claim, “We are karma yogis. We have

surrendered ourselves to God. We are able to see God in everything, and

hence we love all people.Since we see all people as God, who is the form of

bliss, we are doing social service to remove their sufferings! For us work

is worship, and therefore we are busy building schools and establishing

hospitals. If any areas are affected by floods or by drought, we have to do

relief work by taking food packets to the afflicted people. Doing such

activities is truly loving all people as God. Doing such social service is

the best means to attain moksha (liberation)”. People who talk in this

manner are not only cheating others but also cheating themselves.Not knowing

what God is, they imagine that they are able to see God in everything. When

they cheat themselves wantonly in this manner, a subtle egoism begins to

grow in their mind making them feel that they are right in all their actions

and even that they are spiritually more advanced than other people. Only

when death comes will they receive the proper whiplash –then they will be

made to feel, “We have been cheating ourselves all along. What will become

of us now? Where are we going now?” Without being able to understand

anything clearly, they will end their life in a state of mental confusion.

If a state of clarity is to come at the time of death, now itself they

should give up cheating themselves.

 

Source: SRI ARUNACHALA PANCHARATNAM book

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram