Thus Spake the Divine - Service Is The Best Tribute To God

Thus Spake the Divine

Service Is The Best Tribute To God

Our birth as human beings is blessed with a lot of rewards. But above all the best reward is doing service to others.

Of course, all of us are doing service to our own families without even knowing that we are serving them. What I mean to say here is that we should do our best in also serving families not related or known to us, apart from serving our country and the world as a whole.

One may wonder, “We are already facing so many problems with our families, our work and various other things. In the midst of all these, how can we also serve the society?” Such may be your feeling. But the moment you start serving others, the intensity of your own sufferings will reduce! There is a proverb, “Take care of the neighbour’s child, your child will grow on its own”. God will definitely relieve us of our problems by His grace if we start helping others.

However, we should not help others with the expectation that we will get their help in return. By helping others, we get self- satisfaction and also purify ourselves internally. Thereby, we feel good and move further towards helping others. Service does not mean extending help to human beings alone. We should extend our helping hands to animals too. There were times when people dug wells or ponds for quenching the thirst of cows and other animals. Daily, we should make it a point to give a handful of grass or agathi keerai (type of green leaves) to cows. Even our Dharma Shastras have underlined this act of giving grass to cows, known in Sanskrit as “Ko grasam”, where ‘grasam’ refers

to one mouthful. The English term ‘grass’ may have the Sanskrit word as its root!

What we are doing in the form of Yagam, Yagnam, Tarpanam and Shrardham etc., in association with mantras, are all services not only for people living on this earth, but also for those who have died and left this earth and are living in the same or other worlds. Like-minded people should join together and form an association to jointly serve the needy. This way, a large number of people can be brought under the spectrum of service and more quantum of service can be done. One important point is that people who want to engage themselves in service of the society should be self-motivated with passion. They should not feel let down by external criticisms. Also, we should not waste our time in entertainment and fun. Rather, we must spend our time usefully in helping others. Soon, you will realise that service to society itself will turn into your happiness and you will enjoy doing it.

Lord Krishna, though outwardly appearing to be playful, inwardly alleviated the sufferings of many of His devotees. He lifted the Govardhana Hill with His little finger as though it was a game. But that was to only protect His society of herdsmen. He danced over the fierce cobra, Kalingan. Though it looked like an act of fun, He did it to retrieve the waterways for the benefit of his own people. Whatever He did, though it appeared externally as fun and playful, every act was a service or help to His people. Not only did He help the material world, He also transformed immense knowledge as a part of His service to Arjun, Uddavar etc. He did all these selflessly without any emotional attachment to anyone that He helped. That is why He could do even the toughest act with the least effort. This is how one must be when serving others.

Krishna’s incarnation is primarily for highlighting service to humanity. In Ramayana, Hanuman personified for service. Service to needy is equivalent to worshipping God.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.