Sri
Ramakrishna used to say that the currency in vogue in Mogul times is not valid
during British Rule, meaning thereby that religions practices of the past are
neither applicable nor effective in producing results in modern times. Yajnas,
elaborate ritualistic worships, severe physical austerities which were practiced
earlier are now obsolete. Vivekananda has formulated a new religion suited for
the present age. To bring Vedanta of caves, forests and hermitages to the busy
markets and streets of the cities was Swamiji’s special mission and the actual
technique by which this can be done is called “Worship of man as God, Siva
jnane jiva seva”. This seva-dharma is indeed the Yugadharma, the religion for the
present age.
Let
us first try to understand the meaning of the two words dharma and seva and
study their relationship.
What is Dharma?
Derived
from the Sanskrit root ‘duri-to support,’ this word dharma is denied as the
factor, force or element which sustains a society or an individual.
“dharanat
dharmamityahuh,
dharmo dharayate prajah”.
The
English word for dharma is religion, which, according to the dictionary is ‘a
system of faith or belief in a super-human controlling power, specially a personal
God etc.’ Now, this faith is a God or messengers of God is a tremendous
integrating, sustaining force and it is no wonder that almost all the major
religions of the world are based on faith. But this too is losing its efficacy
in the modern times of science and technology dominated by reason and a spirit
of inquiry.
At
the same time, the need for integration had never been more acute than it is
today. There are signs of disintegration and instability at all levels:
personal, social, national and international. Increasing use of psychotic
drugs, addiction to narcotics, rising number of persons suffering from mental
illness and psychological break down are sure signs of the disintegration of
personality. Man today is hazy about the purpose of his life, vague about the
means and equally uncertain about his own ability to achieve it. Modern
scientific advance and technology have made things worse. Advertisements on
mass media made multiplied man’s needs artificially and competition gives him
no rest. The result is increasing anxiety, tension and mental confusion.
Luckily
there are factors other than faith which could help to integrate a person and
sustain a social group and seva is such a one.
Seva
not only sets a goal to strive for and infuses idealism into the person
undertaking it, it also provides means of achieving it. Secondly it integrates
various mental faculties of the individual engaged in it. To be able to serve,
one must first of all be able to deeply feel for the suffering. Then one must
formulate a plan of action, and must have an intellectual prospective as to how
to execute it. And finally there must be a determination and effective means to
achieve the goal. Thus seva integrates head, heart and hand of the server.
Seva
integrates the society too. A bond of love and friendship, of understanding and
goodwill grows between the served and the server. Today the old bonds are
breaking. Even the joint families of the past are disintegrating into small and
still smaller units. In a society plagued by class-struggles and caste-wars,
seva is a sure way of brining social groups together. In a complex modern
society where all are interdependent and none can live in isolation, seva is a
very effective link to unite human souls. Thus seva is a dharma in the sense of
a force in social integration also.
What is seva?
But
what after all is ‘seva’ Translated as ‘service’ it has come to mean employment
or a profession, a means of earnings one livelihood. When used in such phrases
as “Health services”, “Defence service” etc. the word denotes nothing but the
employing agency.
Each
service or profession has certain ethical codes in the absence of which,
although it may still earn a livelihood for the individual, it fails to
contribute anything to the welfare of the society and cannot truly be termed
service. The chance of such degradation of service into merely a means of
earning bread and in every profession. The nobler is the profession, the
greater are such chances.
According
to ancient Indian ethical code, doctors and teachers never demanded fees or
payment for their services and subsisted only on what was voluntarily offered
as gift (dakshina). Yet in that society no teacher or doctor suffered any want.
Moreover this practice added dignity to the profession. Even today there are
doctors, though rare, who follow this ancient code.
A
still higher approach could be not to accept anything whatsoever for ones
services and to serve without the least desire or expectation of any return.
The highest ideal is service done in the spirit of consecration considering the
served as God Himself. Hindu child from the very infancy is taught to consider
his father, mother, preceptor and guests as gods and to honour and serve them
accordingly. Now Swami Vivekananda has taught us to consider the poor, the
sick, the suffering, the miserable and the ignorant as gods and to serve them
in that spirit. To the ancient Vedic chant of: “matri devo bhava, pitri devo
bhava, acharya devo bhava, atithi devo bhaga’, he has added ‘daridra devo
bhava, rogi devo bhava, murkha devo bhava etc.” To serve the needy is this
spirit raises service to the status of a spiritual discipline, a worship and a
religion ritual.
Service as a Worship:
The
commonest form of worship prevalent among the faithful of all religions,
specially of Hinduism is ritualistic worship in which a picture, pitcher, image
or some other object is worshipped as a symbol of God. After formal
installation, life is imaginatively infused into it (prana pratistha). Worshipper
then purifies himself and the articles of worship and after preliminaries
finally offers five, ten or sixteen items to the deity. All these are done with
the help of symbolic ritualistic acts accompanied by chanting of verbal
formulas (mantras). Comparable acts are performed while serving a human being
considering him an embodiment of divinity. Instead of flowers and incense,
tablets and mixtures are offered; instead of bath (to the deity) the patient is
sponged with medicated lotion. Application of ointment or dressing a wound is
comparable to offering sandal paste to the deity. An amiable conversation with
the patient and reassuring words of hope are like mantras of ritual worship.
There are a number of deities and while
the general outline of worship is the same, the items offered and mantras
chanted vary from deity to deity. The mantras and items of the worship of
goddess Kali, for example, are not the same as that of Shiva. Similarly, while
the general outline of the service in the form of treatment of patients
suffering from typhoid, meningitis and intestinal obstruction, for example, may
be the same, they differ widely. Indeed a surgical operation can be compared to
an elaborate Durga Puja. The operation theatre is the puja-mandapam of such a
worship, where the chief surgeon, playing the role of the chief priest does the
solemn ceremony of operation with the help of a team of assistants. The
elaborate preparations and planning, the solemnity, perfect methodical
procedure, all are comparable to those of a Durga Puja.
Thus
the service of a suffering human being as God is quite comparable to a
ritualistic worship. That is not all. It is even superior. While one has to
imagine or ritualistically infuse life into the stone image, no such thing is required
in case of service to God in man, for he is already a living being. There is a
far greater manifestation of divinity in a living human being than in a stone
image. Secondly, service of God in man helps both the server and the served,
while a ritualistic worship helps only the worshipper. Finally, service of God
in man requires greater intellectual, moral and spiritual training than
required in ritual worship.
The difficulties:
But
seeing or feeling the presence of God in a miserable, poor and ignorant patient
is not easy. We have become so accustomed to see divinity in pictures or images
of gods, prophets and saints by paying homage to them for centuries that we
naturally bow down before an image the moment we see it. In human beings,
however, we only see man or woman, rich or poor, saint or sinner, Brahmin or a
low caste. Moreover, the charming expression of the face of the image always
remains unchanged irrespective of the quality of our worship. But the human-god
growls or complains. He gets irritated, weeps, shouts and at times becomes
violent. On such occasions we are driven to wonder whether he is really a god
or a devil !
The
service of a living gold, therefore, demands great patience, forbearance and
perseverance. Repeatedly we shall have to remind ourselves that the being in
front of us is not a man or woman but God Himself. We shall have to overcome
our reactions of disinterestedness, irritation, annoyance and repulsion.
Disinterestedness because as a patient he does not present any fascinating
clinical problem, irritation at his verbosity, lack of consistency and clarity
in giving history; annoyance because the patient does not follow our
instructions or because the disease does not respond to our treatment as
expected; and repulsion because of lack of cleanliness and culture and absence
of intelligent cooperation on the part of the patient.
The
service of God in man, therefore, is a training in itself, a process of
character building and a spiritual practice of the highest order. It demands an
intelligent combination of technical skill, human understanding humility and a
religious outlook. And no other person is more fortunate or blessed than a
doctor to get this opportunity of serving God in man. “No greater opportunity,
responsibility or obligation can fall to the lot of a human being than to
become a physician. In the care of the suffering he needs technical skill,
scientific knowledge and human understanding. He who uses these with courage,
with humility and with wisdom, will provide a unique service for his fellowmen
and will build an enduring edifice of character within himself. The physician
should ask for his destiny no more than this; he should be content with no
less”. (Marrison et al. Principles of Internal Medicine 1962).
But
a doctor inspired by the ideal of seeing divinity in man, as taught by Swami
Vivekananda, aspires for something even higher. He wants to experience that
Supreme Reality, which is immanent in all the living beings. It may be that he
may repeatedly fail in his attempts to see God in his patients, to control his
emotional reactions and to rise to the highest spiritual perfection, but let
him not despair. Let him persist in his attempts till he able to see God in a
least one of his patients and to serve him accordingly. Let him then widen his
vision to encompass the whole humanity.
This
task of service of God in man has to be done not only by the monastic members
of the Ramakrishna Mission, who have dedicated themselves to the fulfillment of
Swami Vivekananda’s mission, nor merely by few doctors of Vivekananda Swasthya
Seva Sangha, but all doctors and devotees who are inspired by the ideals and
teachings of Swamiji. Let this ideal of service to God in man penetrate so
deep, spread so wide and extend so long into the society that it may become a
part and parcel of our culture and the thought-life of our society.
