CARRYING NOBLE THOUGHTS & SERVICE

Reading my piece in the last post, 

"On a personal note although we have kept to the dictates of Agathiyar to feed and serve the poor, it brings sadness to me to see fellow humans go hungry and without a home and family. I do not rejoice at having to increase the quantity of food distributed, for it only means more are ending up on the pavement. My prayer is "Let there not be any single man on the street, dear Lord!", that there should not be even a single soul stranded, abandoned or plying the streets for food and without a home. Everyone deserves a roof over their heads, a job that brings them some income and food on their table. Would Agathiyar who has given us so much, also help take these poor souls off the street? Meanwhile we being the fortunate ones would continue to care for the unfortunate",

Gayathri Muraleedharan from Kerala messaged me, "Dear Aiya maybe u hv already read this. While reading ur last post, I felt like sending this.. Book on Swami Vivekananda.." and sent a snapshot of two pages from the book "Swami Vivekananda", that carried an equally beautiful prayer of Swami Vivekananda explained to his peers.

"When a young man complained that he was not having peace of mind in spite of long hours of meditation with doors shut and eyes closed, the Swami told him: "My boy, if you take my word you will have first of all to open the door of your room and look around, instead of closing your eyes. There are hundreds of poor and helpless people in your neighbourhood: serve them to the best of your ability. My advice to you is that if you want peace of mind you shall have to serve others to the best of your ability."

"To a professor who thoughtlessly said that the Swami's ideas of service and doing good to others were all in the domain of Maya and that Mukti alone is the goal of life, he said: "Now I have no desire for Mukti, I do not care for it as long as a single individual in the universe remains in bondage."

Swami Vivekananda reminds four new sannyasins who were ordained of their priorities. 

"Remember, for the salvation of one's own soul and for the good of the world, a sannyasin is born. To sacrifice his own life for others, to alleviate the misery of millions, to wipe away the tears from the eyes of the widows, to console the heart of the bereaved mother, to provide the ignorant and depressed masses with knowledge and the power to stand on their own feet, to preach broadcast to one and all the teachings of the Shastras - the sannyasin is born."

I always had great regard for Swami Vivekanda and Mahakavi Bharathi for their dynamism and their thoughts and actions breaking conventional thinking. During the days when we conduct prayers I invite the devotees to fill their stomach first and then take in the presence of the Divine. The extracted pages from Gayathri reminded me again of the saint's words.

"When some of his brother disciples criticized his ideas of service, preaching, and the like as being of foreign origin and not in accordance with the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, he reminded them of Sri Ramakrishna's words: "Religion is not for empty stomachs," 

"Thereafter Swami Akhandananda went to Murshidabad to organise famine relief work, and later to Sargachi to begin a school for orphans" while "Swami Ramakrishnannanda who had never stirred out of the Math since its inception, left for Madras to found a monastery there." The brother disciples Swami Shivananda and Trigunatitananda went to Ceylon and Dinajpur to preach...."

I was introduced to do charity and feeding through the Nadi initially as a remedy for my past karma. Soon Agathiyar made me do it regularly and at every possible opportunity. Later I came across like minded souls who took to charity, feeding and service. What started as a means to fulfill the asking of the Siddhas as a means of eradicating one's karma, soon took a turn towards selfless service, with all sense of individual gain or purpose lost in the midst of servicing the poor souls who turned up or walked up to us to receive the food, clothing and toiletries. Soon all sense of purpose faded into oblivion. What remained with us was the grin on the faces and the tears of joy in the homeless receiving our handouts. 

This whole process set me thinking. When the Siddhas advocated doing charity, feeding and service as a means of reducing or removing one's karma, we could carryout their dictates for we had the means. How would these poor abandoned souls relieve themselves of their karma? They had not food nor money for themselves, as it was finding it a nightmare trying to stay alive, how are they to alleviate their hunger and their karma, much less help another with food or cash? Are they then the forgotten kind, non existent even in the eyes of the Siddhas?

Dr VN Jayapalan of the Agathiyar Mei Gnana Sabai, Sri Agathiyar Universal Trust, Bangalore during his meditation was gifted with the following revelation of a miracle that took place at his center.  

A guardian angel of the forest, Vanadhurga that was cursed to roam forever for being egoistic and not showing respect to Agathiyar in the woods, was given a remedy by the most compassionate Siddha, where she would be freed of her curse once she accepted food served by a devotee of Agathiyar with love and kindness. 

She took the form of a person and appeared at the Dr's center in present times. After partaking the food she was freed off her curse.

I learnt from this episode that the karma of both the giver and receiver is struck off in this noble service.

As Suren and I discussed further on this topic last evening it dawned on us that what started as an effort to rectify our past faults and karma, soon brought us to carry these noble thoughts and find ways to execute them solely for the sake of the hungry and homeless. Compassion slowly set in. Love built in us. The heart opened out to the suffering of countless fellow humans.

We are lucky to have food on our table and a roof over us. Countless people do not even have this basic needs. Just as Swami Vivekananda dropped the desire to attain the much sought after state, that of Mukti, for that of bringing his fellow humans out of bondage, should not we reach out to them too?