The Most Worthy Service

Swami Vivekananda

-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 16:49

Man is a constant hankerer of wants. Wanting in man is ingrained in him as an inheritance from his past births. 'Wanting' seems to want and haunt man pushing him into the groove of unending births and deaths. The irony is that both satisfaction and dissatisfaction of wants do not put an end to wanting.

In the words of Swami Vivekananda, physical help rendered to the suffering mankind is indeed a noble gesture. But it cannot be a permanent solution. For example satisfaction of physical wants like feeding a hungry man, relieving a person from emotional distress and sorrow etc will only provide temporary relief. The recurrence of the afore said factors show up again and one is exposed to encounter them time and again.

Intellectual help to mankind excels physical help as Swami Vivekananda puts in that 'Ignorance is death and knowledge is life'. It is far ahead of physical help as knowledge helps one to handle his physical wants. Further more it forms the basis for the supreme spiritual understanding that eradicates misery and pain that are outcomes of ignorance.

Turning inwards and realizing the true nature of oneself, the spirit is that which annihilates the endless wants of man. This can be achieved by spiritual help rendered by those enlightened souls who walk this earth freeing mankind from the eternal clutches of misery borne out of wants or desires. Mere bookish knowledge fails in serving the purpose as they only intend to feed the intellect. Experiencing the truth presented by knowledge is different from acquiring the same. Hence an enlightened person or a Guru's grace is required to experience and realize the truth. Lord Dakshinamurthy transferred the essence of knowledge to the sages not through books but through silence.

Swami Vivekananda terms the enlightened seers as the actual benefactors of mankind. It is they who lead mankind groping in darkness to the light of the spirit making them realize the all pervading essence of their true self as expounded in the teachings of Vedanta. This thus results in man to be satisfied beyond all wants. The recurring pangs of hunger, or the grip of the gruesome sorrow or emotional distress do not taunt or haunt man as he rises above the challenges of his body and mind. Hence Swami declares that spiritual help is the highest service and needless to say the urgently required aid to relieve man from the distressing effects of materialism. Hence it is the most worthy service!