Loka-sangraha Gita 3:20,25
loka saṅgraham-evāpi saṁpaśyan kartum arhasi || 20 ||
“One should engage in work with a view to benefit the world. (loka-saṅgraha)”
In the dictionary among the various meanings we find for the term sangraha are:--
elevation, kind-treatment, entertainment, protection, holding together, benefitting, favouring.
And the word loka refers to the whole world and the human race.
What Krishna is enjoining us to do is to work for the benefit and upliftment of the whole world and the whole human race.
While Krishna teaches this and we talk about it, the Catholics actually DO IT! All over the world we find nuns and priests who have dedicated their lives to the service of the masses.
I began my spiritual journey with the Divine Life Society of Paramahamsa Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. He and his disciples all embodied this ideal and one of the major focuses of the Ashram is running schools and the serving of the poor and the sick. There are free clinics and meals are distributed everyday to everyone who turns up. The Ashram also runs a leper colony and the monks themselves serve the lepers, changing their dressings and feeding them.
In South Africa the Divine Life Ashram runs free clinics and food and clothing distribution centres as well as schools for the poor Africans.
The Ramakrishna centre is also at the forefront of charitable work as are numerous other Advaiti organizations.
But what of the Vaishnavas? The Hare Krishnas were the first to really begin this sort of outreach program but they concentrated mainly of “food for life” and the distribution of Prabhupada’s books in order to gain converts.
Chinna Jeeyar Swami is today the only Srivaishnava monk of note who actively pursues charity work and he is to be highly commended for it.
The rest of the Srivaishnavas are primarily concerned with attending festivals and enjoying the alankaram of the deities. They then fight and argue about who stands where in the temple queue and who gets the “prathama tirtha” first dispensing of holy water! God help you if you stand on the wrong side! Most of the time they spend congratulating themselves on the good fortune of being Srivaishnavas and arrogantly disparaging others (especially the other “kalai”!)
We are told that the essence of being a Srivaishnava is to empathize with the suffering of others and to work to alleviate their suffering (Nanjiyar)! How many of us actually do this? How many of us perform act of charity, help the poor and work for the benefit of others? Of the major schools of Vedanta the Srivaishnavas are the most status-conscious and bigoted! More concerned with window-dressing than actually delivering the product. The tilak that we wear, the size of our topknots, the orthodox practices of ’purity’ (madi-acaram) are all frivolous, tinsel and trash! What really matters is the degree to which we have attained self-mastery and developed the qualities of compassion and kindness and the amount of service we do for others.
loka saṅgraham-evāpi saṁpaśyan kartum arhasi || 20 ||
“One should engage in work with a view to benefit the world. (loka-saṅgraha)”
In the dictionary among the various meanings we find for the term sangraha are:--
elevation, kind-treatment, entertainment, protection, holding together, benefitting, favouring.
And the word loka refers to the whole world and the human race.
What Krishna is enjoining us to do is to work for the benefit and upliftment of the whole world and the whole human race.
While Krishna teaches this and we talk about it, the Catholics actually DO IT! All over the world we find nuns and priests who have dedicated their lives to the service of the masses.
I began my spiritual journey with the Divine Life Society of Paramahamsa Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh. He and his disciples all embodied this ideal and one of the major focuses of the Ashram is running schools and the serving of the poor and the sick. There are free clinics and meals are distributed everyday to everyone who turns up. The Ashram also runs a leper colony and the monks themselves serve the lepers, changing their dressings and feeding them.
In South Africa the Divine Life Ashram runs free clinics and food and clothing distribution centres as well as schools for the poor Africans.
The Ramakrishna centre is also at the forefront of charitable work as are numerous other Advaiti organizations.
But what of the Vaishnavas? The Hare Krishnas were the first to really begin this sort of outreach program but they concentrated mainly of “food for life” and the distribution of Prabhupada’s books in order to gain converts.
Chinna Jeeyar Swami is today the only Srivaishnava monk of note who actively pursues charity work and he is to be highly commended for it.
The rest of the Srivaishnavas are primarily concerned with attending festivals and enjoying the alankaram of the deities. They then fight and argue about who stands where in the temple queue and who gets the “prathama tirtha” first dispensing of holy water! God help you if you stand on the wrong side! Most of the time they spend congratulating themselves on the good fortune of being Srivaishnavas and arrogantly disparaging others (especially the other “kalai”!)
We are told that the essence of being a Srivaishnava is to empathize with the suffering of others and to work to alleviate their suffering (Nanjiyar)! How many of us actually do this? How many of us perform act of charity, help the poor and work for the benefit of others? Of the major schools of Vedanta the Srivaishnavas are the most status-conscious and bigoted! More concerned with window-dressing than actually delivering the product. The tilak that we wear, the size of our topknots, the orthodox practices of ’purity’ (madi-acaram) are all frivolous, tinsel and trash! What really matters is the degree to which we have attained self-mastery and developed the qualities of compassion and kindness and the amount of service we do for others.
RSS Feed