Dr. Rajesh Bhola
India
Feb 15, 2013
India
Feb 15, 2013
Malls have come to define Gurgaon. Our City boasts of huge malls and a number of them still continue to come up. The City has moved at a clip so rapid that it has long outstripped other towns in India. But amidst the growth of malls is a story related to another landmark for which Gurgaon outshines other towns of India – the nicely-laid-out and well-maintained cremation ground in the old part of the City. A group of my friends has been working silently and tirelessly for its upkeep and maintenance. It is the result of their painstaking efforts for the last many years that Gurgaon boasts of a neat and organised cremation ground; their third generation is into this job now. This group often shares with me that “this is the last place a body visits during the journey on this planet. Here people bid final adieu and lay their loved ones to rest – many old, and some young”.
There
is another such story. A person, in the early hours of the morning,
spends one hour everyday in feeding all the stray dogs he comes across.
These dogs have developed a bond with him. Hundreds of them wait
everyday to get their share of bread and biscuits from this Good
Samaritan. If any dog dies, he arranges for its burial at an identified
place. As a small child I would treat this ‘uncle’ as a monomaniac,
obsessed with his passion for canines. But as I grew up I realised that
these are great stories, not trivial ones.
It
is not just the story of an individual. Social work develops in the
blood for some. Nature provides everybody an opportunity to become a
part of bigger stories, of helping other beings, but many neglect this
and remain trapped in their little stories. Modern society tends to
operate in ways that isolates us in our littleness. We are encouraged to
become economic units, and start believing that individual indulgence
is all that matters. Therefore, despite our inborn natural nature, only a
few persons learn to live for others, without considering that they are
doing anything special or out of the ordinary.
Social
work enables us to make connections with other people, and be aware of
the oneness of all creation, and the brotherhood and sisterhood of
people. We are all spiritual beings; we all have a divine spark and an
inner light. Cultivating our spirituality, or reaching for spiritual
strength in other people, helping them in coping, is helping us and them
get in touch with that inner light and sense of wholeness. This
includes sitting in silence, as well as praying, talking, and doing
social work in unison. Each individual should focus on becoming a redeemer of other beings, and thus a virtuous and socially responsible citizen.
We need to contribute to the growth of personal, familial and social
aspects of human life. It should include mass awareness and education on
cultural values, through small and large scale collective projects of
social transformation, with the people’s voluntary participation. They
should work like the strands in a web, all woven together in a net of
beauty. Hinduism talks of the interconnectedness of all, by using the
image of Indra’s net. In this cosmic net, every strand is
interconnected, with resplendent jewels at each connection point. Every
being is a jewel in this wondrous net. Compassionate concern for all
beings naturally arises from such a soulful awareness of the beautiful,
sacred interconnectedness – of one’s own self and all others being
inseparable. The benefit of one is the benefit of all; the harm to one
is the harm to all. We are part of one another – the crime of one is
the crime of all; the virtue of one is the virtue of all. All beings are
brothers and sisters, and should reach out lovingly to help those in
need.
Individual
fulfillment has the potential to make us realise our wholeness, not
only as individuals, but in communion with other people and the entire
cosmos. Therefore, there is growing interest in transpersonal
theories of social welfare, that identify the possibility that human
fulfillment means developing a clear sense of self identity and
integrity. For some people, transpersonal experiences are described
in religious terms – such as enlightenment, cosmic-consciousness,
harmony with the universe, or communion with God. All cultures have
systematic ways of compassion, justice, and helping. Traditionally,
these were based on spiritual ways of living. Spirituality is just
the way of life; it is the way people find meaning, moral guidance, and a
proper relationship between themselves – all fellow beings, and the
great Mystery that infuses all. One might say that spirituality is
soul-full living. Soul-full awareness and living naturally yield a sense
of compassion, the underlying motive for social service.
Jesus
said – feed the hungry and relieve the poor. Someone asked Mother
Teresa how she could tolerate working with lepers, the destitute and the
dying in seemingly insufferable conditions, without complaint. She said
that this was no problem as she saw Christ in each one’s eyes. Mahayana
applies this ideal to all beings through the image of the Wisdom Being
of Compassion, known in Chinese as Kwan Yin. Sometimes Kwan Yin is
depicted as having a thousand eyes – in order to see the suffering of
all beings, or a thousand hands—in order to reach out to help all
beings, or eleven heads—depicting the myriad responses of compassion. Natural compassion is our human birthright. It
is our natural response, our original nature, arising from our sense of
fundamental connectedness and commiseration with all else. That is also
the heart and soul of social work. Transpersonal awareness inspires a
sense of mutual responsibility. Individual well being is then not
separable from collective well being. Individual fulfillment must
ultimately be linked with social justice on a global scale.
Dr. Rajesh Bhola is President of
Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working for the cause of children with
autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and multiple disabilities
for more than 20 years.
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