I have heard singers say that if I get only one bhajan, I won't sing. Or active workers say that I was offended, so I will stop coming. We have the Sai Niketan orphanage of Trichur just two rows behind our house. When I was there this time, I saw two orphans left. And during our visit, one of the children was being taken away to his adopted parents. The only one left was a girl with cerebral palsy. And she was asking me to lift her (she cannot walk) and show her the butterflies. I paused to ponder how extraordinarily foolish we are, and how much we insult Krishna who has given us legs to walk, hands to fold in prayer, families to belong to, and parents to pray to.
One need not be weatlthy to be charitable, but definitely intellectually impoverished to consider it beneath him.
Some of us regularly insult the Avatar by calling ourselves Sai devotees. Imbued with the imbecility of status and inebriated with the impertinence of our positions, we fail to see a world beyond, a world that is suffering.
One day, the prana will leave this body, and it will start rotting. The coroner will never mention that he drove a BMW and studied in the US. But he will pray that this soul be elevated by the benedictions of the hands that he helped.
I was in Guruvayoor last week, specifically on Diwali day. I saw one sweeper engaged in his craft, as intense as Leonardo da Vinci would have been when doing the Mona Lisa. I thought to myself, not one Sai youth has ever given his name to clean the Mandir. Yet, many are less than 10 kms away. When we don’t help others, we hurt ourselves. We hurt ourselves by the many opportunities of redemption that we forefeit. Every day is a microcosm of our life, ever hour of ever year.
Brilliant post, Praveen, especially the "Imbued with the imbecility of status...." bit- can make quite a few guilty!
ReplyDeleteThree approaches to make Youth clean the Mandir
a) Clean it yourself and let the joy of cleaning become contagious. The joy and happiness of Seva is Seva itself![As to rewards, My Dear Watson, the profession is its own reward- Sherlock Holmes!]
b) Make a clarion call to fellow youth members in a sweet loving requestful manner- Can I pick you up from home today, shall we clean today, is there any way we can team up together to clean the Mandir..... Create a sense of belongingness of the mandir and its cleanliness to the youth. People will always long for what they feel belongs to them! Also the joy and fun element of Seva
should become conspicous
c) Make a rule- If you do not clean the mandir 29.764% of the days- you will not be an active youth member!
Swamy says "Never criticize or condemn anyone! How can you know the commitments or the inner workings of another mind? The best way to make a line short is by drawing a longer one"!!