Service as the highest Worship - Part 3

Kalyanananda and Nischayananda became legends. They extended their work, many more people came under their service ambit, the operations of the Sevashrama expanded, they began providing services among the community of scavengers and other backward people who did not have access to education, trained and educated them, provided clean drinking water to the locals and undertook many other philanthropic and charitable work. One great feature of selfless work is that it never requires any advertisement. Help always comes to sustain and grow the work and that happened for the Sevashrama work as well It is now one of the largest multi specialty hospitals in that region with more than 250 beds and catering to poor people from all over India. But two monks had sacrificed their body, mind and soul for this establishment. Yet they never solicited donations, never asked for name and fame, never sought to become great. Their only guiding principle was a strict adherence to their Guru’s philosophy, of serving God in human forms, in every possible way.

These people, and many more, have silently sacrificed their life for others, caring little for recognition. They had no selfish ambition. They were never sought by media, nor did they care. They never received big grants and donations. They simply did not bother because they knew in their heart that they were doing God’s work and God would provide for them as He proclaimed in Gita, “Those who serve Me and worship Me steadfastly without any selfish consideration, I take care of them (9.22)”

It seems that any great work requires great sacrifice by one or many selfless people who are ready to sacrifice themselves in the altar of accomplishment of a vision or a mission. The story of Dadhichi that we read in Puranas is an allegory of such tremendous sacrifices that fulfillment of noble purpose calls for. The stories of the modern day Dadhichis are no less fascinating. However one thing is for sure. Name, fame and recognition are not necessary for a great work to succeed. Even if the work of some person(s) get recognized a lot, he/she gets a lot of praises and accolades and money flows in, the work may not endure in the long run. The institution may crumble into pieces because of rivalries and petty jealousies and the flow of money ceases once that person is no longer at the helm or has passed away. That happens in organizations where the person is a towering figure. He/she overshadows the organization. However in the cases where the person silently sacrifices himself and never projects himself above the organization, the organization flourishes and endures for a long time. Even when the person is not there, his selfless work continues to hold good, his legacy remains and that serves as the fuel for the organization. It is anyway good, because undue attention and recognition brings in controversies and jealousies in its wake. Therefore it is probably a divine ordinance that works of true sacrifice will be recognized slowly and silently, in terms of actual work accomplished, i.e. impacting the life of a large number of people for a very long period of time.

Therefore even if there is no recognition for the above great men and their organizations, their work will be lasting, acting as blessings for millions of men and will inspire thousands of others to do similar or even better work, while those, that are attracting undue attention, will fade into oblivion. Time is the greatest and the most powerful recognizer. It is time that our intellectual friends learn that. In the language of Swami Vivekananda himself - Generally the uneducated minds, the vulgar minds of every nation, like the vulgar mobs in every big city, cannot grasp, cannot see, cannot understand, any fine movement. The causes, the real movements in this world of ours, are very fine; it is only the effects that are gross and muscular. The mind is the real cause of this body, the fine movements behind. The body is the gross, the external. But everyone sees the body; very few see the mind. So with everything; the masses, the brutal, ignorant masses of every race, see a triumphant procession, stampeding horses, arms and cannonades, and these they understand. But those fine, gentle workings that are going on behind — it is only the philosopher, the highly cultivated man or woman, that can understand.