The guru comes in many forms and in many areas. Besides the obvious spiritual gurus, every other person is a guru for us when he leads us or we follow a certain aspect of his life.
When Agathiyar asked me to come to his path he showed spiritual gurus to me and I took up their teachings. Supramania Swami and Tavayogi guided me well. When asked to come to do charity I was shown several gurus too. Sri Krishna and his wife Sri Dewy, Bala Chandran and his team at Thondu Seivom, Vinthamaray and Stan and many others at ATM were gurus to me too.
Browsing the net we come across many Samaritans whom we admire for their stand and commitment. Their stories motivate us to follow in their paths. They too become our gurus.
Johnson Khoo Chong Sheng writes about his involvement in street feeding and jots down his observation and thoughts as he serves the homeless.
You will be reminded of how fortunate you truly are, It suddenly makes all your troubles seem small and insignificant, You open your eyes to what's really happening in your city, You'll realize that there's a whole different world out there, It helps you stay grounded and contented, It reminds us that success is fleeting, It reminds us that true happiness comes from being content, You learn not to judge, You learn to be humble, It renews your hope and faith in humanity, and finally you shall meet some awesome people,
he says of his experience.
Can you even imagine having to wait until the shops close before you can “go home” because your “home” is actually a busy street by day? Sleep on nothing but cardboards and hard cold floors on sidewalks, exposed to the wind, noise & street lights and always be prepared to shift when it rains or take a trip on a truck in the middle of the night when the authorities come raiding? Once you start realizing that, that’s when you truly start to understand and be thankful for how lucky you are to at least have a proper roof over your heads.
But when you find out the troubles the poor and homeless face every single day, you’ll suddenly realize how trivial and insignificant our problems are compared to theirs.
I have always thought that what they really needed was food because that was more expensive and water should be quite easily available to them. But then I realized that I was wrong. I suddenly realized that they din’t have a home, and hence no tap to collect water from to drink, let alone find the utensils to boil it. They probably get the bulk of their water supply from the tap water in public toilets.
But the reality is that most of us are living in a protected bubble, one that is built by society’s natural class system and social dynamics. Your life probably revolves around your comfortable home, offices, malls, restaurants and the occasional vacation. The poor & homeless seem to be living in another universe altogether.
Because society has already labeled me as hopeless, I have no other alternative, no access to education, help, and no other way to survive. My life would probably be no different than theirs if I was born into their circumstances. It is easy to say what we would do today with the exposure and knowledge that we already possess, but if we were really to be born into their situation, our lives, choices and attitude would probably have been exactly like theirs or even much worse.Johnson describes his feelings as he walks the streets handing out the food and drinks.
I don’t know how to describe this. But as you walk the streets and back alleys carrying boxes of food and distributing them to the poor & homeless, you’ll just feel happy, a sense of quiet joy that stirs in your heart, although you’re sweating from all the walking and carrying, you somehow just feel happy that you’re doing something meaningful and making a difference.Finally, he has a sound piece of advice for us, "Learn to be grateful for what you have today and not take things for granted."