Why Serve?

Swami Chinmayananda

oi-Priya Devi

By Priya Devi

Friday, May 7, 2010, 16:57

Why should we serve the society and the nation? Why should I share my earnings with the downtrodden? The answer, as discovered by our rishis of yore, is because action is inevitable, we cannot for a moment keep quiet without undertaking some action. Every living organism must work. When we apply for casual leave and stay at home, we do a lot of work such as scolding the children, quarreling with the wife, etc. Even when lying in bed, our mind wanders every-where, seething with activity. When we are asleep, we are dreaming, breathing, pulsating with life. There is absolutely no escape from work. But we have a choice in selecting the nature of work, either good or bad. It is here we have to exercise our faculty of discrimination.

There is a difference between inanimate and animate beings. Stones are inanimate. Plants sprout, blossom and bear fruit; they are active. Animals are more active. Look at the web woven by spiders or at the neatly prepared bee-hive. How beautiful do they look! But yet, alas! animals are not capable of independent action as man is. Man being rational, he can chalk out his plan of action. In the light of the past, the present can be moulded into a covetable future.

Take any society. The minority produce and the majority consume. The minority should share their produce with the rest as happens in all developed countries. All such countries were poor once; they progressed only by hard work. When a rose plant has flowers, it sheds its fragrance in all directions, not expecting thanks from anybody and irrespective of whether it grows in a public garden or in the seclusion of a forest. Let the rose plant be your adviser as regards service. Do your duty without expecting any reward or publicity.

Our rishis considered the whole cosmos as one, and all things in it as limbs of this cosmos. This is what all our scriptures declare. Though all of us belong to different castes, colours, states and nations, and though we are physically, intellectually and emotionally different, there is the presence of life in everybody. So when we serve others, we are merely serving ourselves! What we do to others will be paid back to us.

A certain king, dressed in all his regal splendour, went inside a mirrored hall. There hung a thousand mirrors. Mirrors were hung on all sides. The king looked into them, bowed, smiled and nodded at them. As expected, a thousand kings looked, bowed, smiled and nodded at him.

The king departed. A short while later, the royal dog entered the mirrored hall. He saw a thousand other dogs staring at him. He grew extremely annoyed, bared his teeth, growled and menacingly jumped at them. To his rage, the thousand dogs did likewise. The dog dashed against one mirror, then another, with all fury, until, bleeding profusely, he lay down and breathed his last. We behave just like this dog, when we should, as rational beings, behave like the king.

To be continued