The Art of Doing Good

OUR DUTY TO OTHERS means helping others; doing good to the world. Why should we do good to the world? Apparently to help the world, but really to help the world, that should be the highest motive in us; but if we consider well, we find that the world does not require our help at all. This world was not made that you or I should come and help it.  I once read a sermon in which it was said," All this beautiful world is very good, because it gives us time and opportunity to help others." Apparently, this is a very beautiful sentiment, but is it not a blasphemy to say that the world needs our help? We cannot deny that there is much misery in it; to go out and help others is, therefore, the best thing we can do, although in the long run , we shall find that helping others is only helping ourselves.

Yet we must do good; the desire to do good is the highest motive power we have, if we know all the time that it is a privilege to help others. Do not stand on a high pedestal and take five cents in your hand and say," Here, my poor man," but be graceful that the poor man is there, so that by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect.

We become forgetful of the ego when we think of the body as dedicated to the service of others- the body with which most complacently we identify the ego. And in the long run comes the consciousness of disembodiedness. The more intently you think of the well being of others, the more oblivious of self you become. In this way, as gradually your heart gets purified by work,
you will come to feel the truth that your own Self is pervading all beings and all things. Thus it is that doing good  to others constitutes a way, a means of revealing one's own Self or Atman. Know this also to be one of the spiritual practices,  a discipline for God-realisation. Its aim also is Self-realisation.

When you give something to a man and expect nothing-do not even expect the man to be grateful-
his ingratitude will not tell upon you, because you never expected anything, never thought you had any right to anything in the way of a return. You gave him what he deserved; his own Karma got it for him; your Karma made you the carrier thereof. Why should you be proud of having given away something? You are the porter that carried the money or other kind of gift, and the world deserved it by its own Karma. Where is then the reason for pride in you? There is nothing very great in what you give to the world.

Ask nothing; want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you-but do not think of that now, it will come back multiplied a thousandfold-but the attention must not be on that. yet have the power to give; give, and there it ends. Learn that the whole of life is giving, that nature will force you to give. So, give willingly. Sooner or later you will have to give up. You came into life to accumulated. With clenched hands, you want to take. But nature puts a hand on your throat and makes your hands open. Whether you will it or not, you have to give. The moment you say,"I will not"' the blow comes; you are hurt. None is there but will be compelled, in the long run, to give up everything. And the more one struggles against this law, the more miserable one feels. It is because we dare not give, because we are not resigned enough to accede to this grand demand of nature, that we are miserable. The forest is gone, but we get heat in return. The sun is taking up water from the ocean, to return it in showers. You are a machine for taking and giving: you take, in order to give. Ask, therefore, nothing in return; but the more you give, the more will come to you. The quicker you can empty the air out of this room, the quicker it will be filled up by the external air; and if you close all the doors and every aperture, that which is within will remain, but that which is outside will never come in, and that which is within will stagnate, degenerate, and become poisoned. A river is continually emptying itself into the ocean and is continually filling up again. Bar not the exit into the ocean. The moment you do that, death seizes you.

Wisdom, knowledge, wealth, men, strength, prowess, and whatever else nature gathers and provides us with, are only for diffusion, when the moment of need is at hand. We often forget this fact, put the stamp of "mine only" upon the entrusted deposits, and pari passu, we sow the seed of our own ruin!

Mahatma Gandhi"s Principle of Trusteeship depends on this concept. The man is not here to accumulate but to earn & transfer. He has just to keep the minimum for his needs & keeps the rest as the trustee of the society. He is not the owner of the possessions. They have come from the society & need to go back to the society. Otherwise they would destroy him in the long run. Earlier in our society, Education & Health were the service oriented fields. Service was the main component of the sectors. Possession & Accumulation were not the aim of the sectors. In return, society use to take care of the Acharyas & Gurus & they were the most respected personnels in the society. But with the decline of the value systems & ethics, these fields have just become the money making shops. The disintegration of the society is largely contributed to this decline in the value system. Hope this situation would soon be improved & again our country would become JagadGuru.

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