Vivekananda Kendra Patrika
Why do we do good work? Because it is a blessing to ourselves. Swami Vivekananda calls
upon us to serve God in man, and gives the key to blessedness in the following
words:
“We may all be perfectly
sure that it will go on beautifully well without us, and we need not bother our
heads wishing to help it. Yet, we must do good; the desire to do good is the
highest motive power we have, if we know all the time that it is a privilege to
help others. Do not stand on a high pedestal, and take five cents in your hand
and say, ‘Here, my poor man, ’but be grateful that the poor man is there, so
that by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the
receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of
benevolence [ jUk rpe;ij ] and mercy [ fUiz ] in the world and thus become pure and
perfect….
“No beggar whom we have
helped has ever owed a single cent to us: we owe everything to him because he
has allowed us to exercise our charity on him. It is entirely wrong to think
that we have done, or can do, good to the world, to think that we have helped
such and such people. It is a foolish thought, and all foolish thoughts bring
misery. We think that we have helped some man and expect him to thank us, and
because he does not, unhappiness comes to us. Why should we expect anything in
return for what we do? Be grateful to the man you help, think of him as God. Is
it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship God by helping our fellow
men? If we were
really unattached, we should escape all this vain
expectation, and could cheerfully do good work in the world.”
Compiled by T.S. Prem
Kumar, Madurai, India.
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