Someone Else Will Do It
Have you ever seen a piece of trash on the floor and there is trash can about 5 steps away that it could have been thrown in? We might think to ourselves that what kind of person is so lazy that they couldn’t take the extra 5 steps? In that moment we have a choice, either pick it up and toss it in the trash or do nothing. Many of us would choose the latter thinking that someone else will take care of it. We see something wrong and we think that someone else will do it. The reasons for this are many but the root is because we think that the work is beneath us. We have a complex of who we are in this world and what the world owes us.
“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” — John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961
Nobody Else Will Do It
In 1965 Sadhu Satyapriyadas saw with his own eyes how His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj would not look for someone else to do a task. This is the incident in his own words.
“Preparations were in full swing for the Centenary Celebrations of Shastriji Maharaj in Atladra. Pramukh Swami was enthusiastically engrossed in all aspects of the preparations.
Once, at 2.00 a.m., the youth volunteers were asleep after a hard day’s work. Just then a truckload of mattresses arrived. The driver was in a hurry to unload and return. I was with Swamishri. I suggested that the youths be woken up. Swamishri said, They must be tired after having worked all day. It’s not right to wake them up. There was nobody else awake who could be called to unload the truck. Yet Swamishri was undeterred. He said, Satyapriya, you climb onto the truck and throw the mattresses down one-by-one. I’ll stack them up.
But, Swami…
Why? Can’t I do it. You give and I’ll arrange, Swamishri interrupted and spoke with conviction. In this way, Swamishri himself readily stacked the mattresses.”
The thought of getting anyone else to do anything was always a last resort of Pramukh Swamiji. His life motto was always, “How can I help”?
Changing Ways
For me it is simple and easy to say the words, “How can I help?”. To live them is something entirely different. To live them in a way that His Holiness did I would mean to give myself wholeheartedly to assisting right until the project was done. It would mean giving a helping hand and holding on to help right until the end. This shift in my mindset and alignment to this value of Pramukh Swami will bring out the best in me because “In the joy of others lies our own, In the progress of others rests our own, In the good of others abides our own, Know this to be the key to peace and happiness” — His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj
