Service To Man is Service to God

Service To Man is Service to God

Rabindranath Tagore in his Nobel prize winning book, Geetanjali writes-

“Leave this chanting and singing and telling of the beads,

Whom does thou worship in this lonely dark corner of the temple?

Open thy eyes and see thy god is not in front of thee!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path maker is breaking the stones.

He is with them in sun and shower and his garment is covered with dust.

Put off thou holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil”

A very good afternoon to everyone present! Myself Devashish Palkar, an intern doctor working in Shree Krishna Hospital and I am here today to speak on the subject- SERVICE TO MAN IS SERVICE TO GOD!!

The search for the existence of god has perennially perplexed the human mind but in this beautiful poem, Rabindranath Tagore explains it succinctly that GOD RESIDES WITHIN EACH HUMAN BEING!!

Gandhiji had said, “Happiness resides in a poor man’s cottage and god in his heart! So, serving the man was equal to serving the god!”

If we abide by the ideology of Vedanta, every man is a reflection of his soul or atman which in turn is a reflection of Brahman , the creator himself.

A famous saint Rang Avadhut, conveyed the message of serving God amongst the human being by saying: “Paraspar devo bhav!”

If you classify animals by any classification, the list always ends with homo sapiens or in common parlance, we the men as the most evolved anatomically and physiologically.

And what better than serving the god’s most evolved creation?

Let’s turn the clock back to that era when Swami Vivekananda gave us this wonderful message.

It was a time when India’s greatest enemy, poverty was at its zenith which gave birth to blind faiths, discrimination, casteism and other forms of social evils.

It was a time when famines were more frequent vistors than rains a time when adulteration in all walks of life knew no bound and when landlords owned every piece of ground.
But as they say,''Cometh the hour, cometh the man!''
And thus it was the same time when metamorphosis of a prodigious boy Narendranath Dutt was taking place. The world came to know him as Swami Vivekananda.
Swami ji criss crossed the length and breadth of the country and discovered that though blind faith and false religious beliefs had left the masses downtrodden, they still had the same faith in God.
With this same faith, he attempted for spiritual unification as he believed- ''Just like all the rivers merge into one ocean, all religions lead to one god!''
He was a believer of the saying- ''Paropkaray punyay, papaay, parpidanam..'' meaning- ''Benevolence leads to bliss, malevolence leads to curse!''.
With this ideology of serving god by serving mankind, Ramakrishna Mission was founded on 1st May 1897.
It is only by the development of masses can India regain it's lost glory..
Sometimes, a poor man doesn't require sympathy, all he needs is a helping hand.
A hand that helps is better than the hand that prays..
So, if you really want to serve God, don't just sit in temples chanting mantras, and offering sweets and milk to the idol, instead feed it to the beggar outside the temple and god will be really happy.
Just like the electric current flows from higher to lower potential, similarly the people who have higher status in the society must come up and serve the lower sections of the society.
If the current just accumulates at the higher potential, then the bulb can't glow. Similarly, if all wealth and knowledge accumulate at hugher sections, the bulb of enlightenment will not glow and darkness will prevail.
We have many examples of people who dedicated  their lives to serve the mankind- Swami Vivekananda, Sai Baba, Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi and many more.
Internationally too, we have had Melvin Jones, the founder of International Lions Club and how can we forget Henry-the Red Cross hero!?
These illustrious personalities taught us that- a candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle.
But in this era of highly competitive world, somewhere down the line, virtues of humanity and compassion have been overshadowed by ego and selfishness.
We say we are MANKIND, but are we really KIND to each other?
A famous Gujarati poet Meen Piyasi has beautifully written-
''Parmatma to pehlu puchhse
Koi nu sukh dukh puchyu'tu? 
Aa dardbhari duniya ma jai ne,
Koi mu aansu luchyu' tu?''
Mother Teresa said- ''In the end you will be judged not by your degrees and diplomas but by the question-''I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me.. I was homeless, you took me in..''
Friends- it's up to us how we answer this question, how we carry the torch of enlightenment and message of service forward. The onus is upon us.
And I believe, we, as doctors have an amazing opportunity to put these words into practice..Let's serve the mankind, let's heal the wounds and thereby let’s serve the god himself..
Thank you for reading.