70. A commitment to serve people

Swami Vivekananda, the Eastern mystic, describes the motto for his mission as atmano mokshartham jagat hitaya cha – 'For spiritual liberation as well as bringing good to humanity'. He implies that without taking up responsibility for the good of the world, you cannot talk of spiritual liberation.

A beautiful story:

In a place called Pandharipur in India, there was a boy who served his parents very lovingly and with great care. Lord Krishna took the form of Pandharinathar and came to see him. It was raining that day while the boy was attending to his parents.

Krishna stood at the door of the boy's house and asked to be allowed inside. The boy asked Him to wait until he had finished attending to his parents. Krishna said that it was raining and slushy where He stood. So the boy actually threw a block of brick and asked lord Krishna to stand on it! Even today in that region, Pandarinathar is worshipped standing on a brick-block!

God Himself came down to see the consciousness and sense of responsibility of the boy. That is why I tell people, when you stand up with responsibility, energy will automatically flood you! Feeling that you are responsible is the greatest quality.