The good serve their families, the saintly serve the world
In a companion blog, I described the story of a friend
from college – Alok Sagar – who after a great education, a doctorate in
Engineering from Rice University in USA and a faculty job suddenly dropped it
all, to take to the forests as a hermit and began service to forest Tribals, wild life and
forests of Central India. He is now known as Maharishi Alok a title of great
respect for the spiritual and the educated. In the comments to that post a
family friend expressed disappointment and said the family had tried to
convince him not to take that road.
Good men and women of the world strive to succeed in their
worldly careers and serve their families through that success while reserving a
portion of their time, effort and money to serve the world, others in need, quietly, anonymously whenever possible for a deed of compassion does not emerge from a desire for worldly rewards.
However, the
saintly serve the world instead. Buddha and Jesus abandoned their families
(although after ensuring that they are provided for) as do many other lesser humans, still encumbered with human weaknesses, but who take to the
spiritual path seeking purification. In a few cases, the wives of some spiritual persons such as
Gandhi and Kabir became their companions on the spiritual path, giving up the
worldly and material wealth along with them. The world needs them, for they
serve many families of the world not just their own. The world needs the likes
of Alok Maharishi who has helped restore some of the forests of Central India.
There are a variety of other situations, where good
humans may find themselves trapped in where, despite their best intentions,
they are unable to be of much service to their families. Such persons, rather
than viewing this as an adversity, must view it as an opportunity to serve the
world at large, for while selfish persons are born to feather their own nest
and fatten their behinds before they may be pushed into the bottomless pit by
circumstance and Universe, good humans are born to sing the song of a joyous
universe in which all life is parts of a single whole. Through this they shall
attain unto sainthood even if they did not start of as that.
The demonic on the other hand seek profit from the world without
caring for the harm they may bring to others in their pursuits. The foulest of
them wear the garb of hypocrisy, that they are performing a public service.
They do carry out some charitable acts but they announce it to the world, shout about it from roof tops and ask the world to place them on a throne of honor, a throne broad enough to fit their generous behinds, for while compassion dwells in the upper cavities of a human, greed dwells in its lower ones. They may share the profit with their families, they often do, but in reality they only harm
themselves, their families and the world. These demonic persons are born for the destruction of the world.
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