You are the best and honest judge of your own actions. Your dishonesty is always watched by you.
Nietzsche, the German thinker once said, “Ye shall someday love beyond yourselves, so first learn loving.”It was of this “loving”that Swami Tejomayanandaji talked about on 14 March 1996 at the PHD House. He was invited by a joint meeting co-hosted by four Rotary Clubs of Delhi. The Rotary theme of the year being, “Serve with Love and Integrity”, Swamiji gave a one-hour talk on the theme.
Swamiji began by questioning whether we live in a social milieu of a totally collapsed value system. He then very reassuringly said that for sure we do respect these values of integrity and honesty, but in others. We want our servants to be honest and demand a high sense of honesty and integrity from our accountants and employees. With characteristic humour Swamiji asked, “Does anyone want a dishonest security guard or watchman?” This squarely was a hit on our double standards. He insisted that we cultivate positive goodness as against passive goodness. Explaining passive goodness he gave the example of the man who came to Swami Chinmayanadaji and boasted, “Swamiji everyone in my office takes bribes, but I have never taken a bribe.” Swamiji then asked him jokingly as to why he didn’t take some bribes too. Pat came the reply, “Swamiji, I would, but no one has offered me one!” This kind of passive goodness falls as easily as a sand wall at the whim of a passing breeze. Integrity means that we honour our promises and commitments, not that smartness lies in never making these commitments.
Service, Love and Integrity, we are using these words of great depth and meaning. These three though analysed separately are interlinked and function in a beautiful rhythm of harmony. The cultivation and practice of one automatically entails the practice of the other two.
“Service is Love made visible”, said Swamiji. But how can one love all? One can only love all when one is totally convinced of the inherent oneness underlying the whole cosmos. You can only hate “another”, never yourself. Only when the other becomes (Swa) “our own”, is there real service. In his inimitable style, Swamiji asked the audience if there be a mother who had to be told to practise oneness and non-violence vis-a-vis her child. The very question is absurd. A mother never complains about exceeding her hours of work, or being underpaid, or overworked. She serves her child day and night as service with love never tires. It is a reward in itself, a joy, a fulfilment. The very idea of fixed duty hours for a mother is laughable. When we gain the vision of (Ekatvam), that we are all one, we will never be beggars for recognition, name and fame. True love and service never asks “what will I get?” It always asks “how will my service make my beloved happy?” If you crave a wage for your service, then it is not termed as service, it is called labour. Service should never be related to gain. Rank materialism gives birth to concepts like, “there is no free lunch”.
The grand vision of the oneness of all life is given in the scriptures. How foolish does it sound if the hand refuses to sooth a hurt eye! Does it question as to “why should ‘I’ nurse the ‘eye’?” In service one learns to go beyond the visible to the essence of existence. All forms are made of the same five elements and the same thread of life divine runs through them all. In this great scheme of oneness it is a law that you get back what you give. Love begets love, hate begets hate and a cheat begets a cheat. This is not just an intellectual concept but a cosmic law of cause and effect. This unity practised in deeds is service.
Swmiji’s talk vividly brought to my mind a question posed by a housewife to Poojya Swami Chinmayanandaji at Sidhabari. She asked, “What shall I do Swamiji? I am tired of looking after the house and the family. It is an endless and thankless task that I keep doing.” Swamiji answered, “First and foremost take this stupid idea out of your mind that ‘I do’.” The answer was a typical example of Gurudev’s loaded magnificence of style and dumb founding repartee. We have to understand that this thin veneer of selfless service that we cover our visages with, serves not its function. The change has to come from within. Here Swamiji made his point clear by narrating the story of a sage who gave a bird each to two students and told them to kill the bird at a place where no one should see them killing it. While one student hid in a cave and killed the bird, the other returned, saying, that no matter where he went there were always two people watching, the bird and he himself. So, you are the best and honest judge of your own actions. Your dishonesty is always watched by you.
Swamiji ended his speech by explaining what PHD stood for: Harmony, Progress, and Development. He said that only when true harmony of being is established will the world experience progress and development. Swami Tejomayanandaji said that instead of observing just a week of service with love, why shouldn’t we observe a lifetime of service with love, making it a lifetime of harmonious and joyous living?
Swamiji’s words , sparkling with wit and humour but arising from great depths of wisdom, left us all pondering and introspecting on how best we could measure up to this ideal of true service.
Prarthna Saran is President, Chinmaya Mission, Delhi.