as your ability allows; . . . 43
(ii) In the cultural tradition all over the world, charity has repeatedly been praised as a noble act. A
German proverb, for example says that charity gives itself rich; covetousness hoards itself poor.44 Henry
Ward Beecher, for example, felt that “Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven”.45 James
Stephens made the following observation:
Let him who gives without a care
Gather rubies from the air.46
Sri Sri Thakur did approve of charity as an act of service to the environment.
Help the needy
with active hope and charity
in the time of need
before they shrink.
Message, 3.204.
But he never supported the idea of service to the environment as an absolute end in itself. Charity as an
end in itself creates vanity and arrogance but service to the environment rendered as an act of oblation to a
living and inspiring Ideal softens the heart. This is evident from his expressions like the following:
. . . serve thy Beloved the Great;
and that service
will bestow on thee
the tendency to serve the people
for their existential uplift
with heavy sympathy. 47
Do serve everybody
in the name of thy Lord . . . 48
43 Message. 3.228.
44 Quoted in The World’s Greatest Quotations. Compiled by Tryon Edwards. New Delhi: Crest Publishing
House 2005. p. 69.
45 Orient Book of Quotations. p. 43.
46 Orient Book of Quotations. p. 44
47 Message, 3.215.
48 Message, 3.207.
Perform any humanitarian service
with solemn regard
to the Love-Lord; . . . 49
(iii) Another significant aspect of Sri Sri Thakur’s vision of service to the society is that it need not be in
the traditional form of charity in terms of money and material. In the Gita Lord Krishna says that a
devotee’s most humble offering, an offering in the form of a leaf or a flower, for example, was as readily
acceptable to him as any other offering more valuable in a worldly sense. In a similar vein, Prophet
Mohammed said that charity to the poor and the needy could be in any humble form.
Your smiling in your brother’s face is charity; an exhortation of your fellow
men to virtuous deeds is equal to alms giving; your putting a wanderer in
the right road is charity; your assisting the blind is charity; your removing
stones, thorns and other obstructions from the road is charity; your giving
water to the thirsty is charity.50
In a similar manner, Sri Sri Thakur said that service to the environment could be in numerous forms, each
form being equally valuable in its own right.
Encourage, console, and sympathize with him to whom you give. . .
Money, sympathy, encouragement, consolation, or sweet words; give any you
can.51
(iv) As is well known, service to the environment can be of two kinds, remedial and preventive. Remedial
service provides a temporary solution by giving away money and material to the poor and the needy.
Preventive service strikes at the very root of poverty and creates and develops in the poor and the
downtrodden the ability to help themselves. Sri Sri Thakur emphasized that though remedial service was
important, we should give proper attention to service of a preventive nature.
Service is service
when it elevates Being
and Becoming, . . .
Message, 1.268.
49 Message, 3.198.
50 Quoted in The World’s Greatest Quotations compiled by Tryon Edwards. New Delhi: Crest Publishing House 2005. p. 70.
51 Satyanusaran, p. 53.
Just as space has, from time immemorial, been conceptualized in terms of four main directions,
north, south, east and west; just as the havana kunda, the sacred pit of fire for offering oblations, has to be
in the form of a square having four corners; just as the swastika symbolizing peace and prosperity52
consists of four right angles; and just as Lord Vishnu supposed to be the preserver and sustainer of
existence appears in Indian mythology as a divine figure with four arms, Sri Sri Thakur’s vision of
religion unfolds itself in terms of four basic concepts: being, becoming, Ideal, and environment. But as the
concept of the individual subsumes, in a sense, the concept of both being and becoming, his vision of
religion may well be understood in terms of a perfect harmony between three broad entities: the
individual, the Ideal, and the environment.
When Ideal, individual
and environment
fulfil one another
in a concord
with an uplift of exuberance
that moves the life
onward
with an easy
intelligent flow.
Perfection resides
There indeed!
Message. 1.230.
Dr. Damodar Thakur
Professor and Chairman
Department of English
Faculty of Arts, Sana’a University
Republic of Yemen
Tel +00-967-1-464559 (Home)
Cell +00-967-7326455
52 It may be pointed out here that Hitler used the symbol of swastika as the national symbol for the Nazis. But
in the Indian tradition of spiritual pursuits, as in many other cultures at different times in the history of the
world, it has been a sacred symbol of peace, prosperity, and sublimity. Chinese use it as a letter in their
ideographic alphabet and there also it denotes abundance, prosperity and long life
(ii) In the cultural tradition all over the world, charity has repeatedly been praised as a noble act. A
German proverb, for example says that charity gives itself rich; covetousness hoards itself poor.44 Henry
Ward Beecher, for example, felt that “Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven”.45 James
Stephens made the following observation:
Let him who gives without a care
Gather rubies from the air.46
Sri Sri Thakur did approve of charity as an act of service to the environment.
Help the needy
with active hope and charity
in the time of need
before they shrink.
Message, 3.204.
But he never supported the idea of service to the environment as an absolute end in itself. Charity as an
end in itself creates vanity and arrogance but service to the environment rendered as an act of oblation to a
living and inspiring Ideal softens the heart. This is evident from his expressions like the following:
. . . serve thy Beloved the Great;
and that service
will bestow on thee
the tendency to serve the people
for their existential uplift
with heavy sympathy. 47
Do serve everybody
in the name of thy Lord . . . 48
43 Message. 3.228.
44 Quoted in The World’s Greatest Quotations. Compiled by Tryon Edwards. New Delhi: Crest Publishing
House 2005. p. 69.
45 Orient Book of Quotations. p. 43.
46 Orient Book of Quotations. p. 44
47 Message, 3.215.
48 Message, 3.207.
Perform any humanitarian service
with solemn regard
to the Love-Lord; . . . 49
(iii) Another significant aspect of Sri Sri Thakur’s vision of service to the society is that it need not be in
the traditional form of charity in terms of money and material. In the Gita Lord Krishna says that a
devotee’s most humble offering, an offering in the form of a leaf or a flower, for example, was as readily
acceptable to him as any other offering more valuable in a worldly sense. In a similar vein, Prophet
Mohammed said that charity to the poor and the needy could be in any humble form.
Your smiling in your brother’s face is charity; an exhortation of your fellow
men to virtuous deeds is equal to alms giving; your putting a wanderer in
the right road is charity; your assisting the blind is charity; your removing
stones, thorns and other obstructions from the road is charity; your giving
water to the thirsty is charity.50
In a similar manner, Sri Sri Thakur said that service to the environment could be in numerous forms, each
form being equally valuable in its own right.
Encourage, console, and sympathize with him to whom you give. . .
Money, sympathy, encouragement, consolation, or sweet words; give any you
can.51
(iv) As is well known, service to the environment can be of two kinds, remedial and preventive. Remedial
service provides a temporary solution by giving away money and material to the poor and the needy.
Preventive service strikes at the very root of poverty and creates and develops in the poor and the
downtrodden the ability to help themselves. Sri Sri Thakur emphasized that though remedial service was
important, we should give proper attention to service of a preventive nature.
Service is service
when it elevates Being
and Becoming, . . .
Message, 1.268.
49 Message, 3.198.
50 Quoted in The World’s Greatest Quotations compiled by Tryon Edwards. New Delhi: Crest Publishing House 2005. p. 70.
51 Satyanusaran, p. 53.
Just as space has, from time immemorial, been conceptualized in terms of four main directions,
north, south, east and west; just as the havana kunda, the sacred pit of fire for offering oblations, has to be
in the form of a square having four corners; just as the swastika symbolizing peace and prosperity52
consists of four right angles; and just as Lord Vishnu supposed to be the preserver and sustainer of
existence appears in Indian mythology as a divine figure with four arms, Sri Sri Thakur’s vision of
religion unfolds itself in terms of four basic concepts: being, becoming, Ideal, and environment. But as the
concept of the individual subsumes, in a sense, the concept of both being and becoming, his vision of
religion may well be understood in terms of a perfect harmony between three broad entities: the
individual, the Ideal, and the environment.
When Ideal, individual
and environment
fulfil one another
in a concord
with an uplift of exuberance
that moves the life
onward
with an easy
intelligent flow.
Perfection resides
There indeed!
Message. 1.230.
Dr. Damodar Thakur
Professor and Chairman
Department of English
Faculty of Arts, Sana’a University
Republic of Yemen
Tel +00-967-1-464559 (Home)
Cell +00-967-7326455
52 It may be pointed out here that Hitler used the symbol of swastika as the national symbol for the Nazis. But
in the Indian tradition of spiritual pursuits, as in many other cultures at different times in the history of the
world, it has been a sacred symbol of peace, prosperity, and sublimity. Chinese use it as a letter in their
ideographic alphabet and there also it denotes abundance, prosperity and long life
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