“Service of humanity”–Daily Metta

December 26:

“I am endeavoring to see God through service of humanity, for I know that God is neither in heaven nor down below, but in everyone.”

–Gandhi (Truth is God, p. 5)

Never mind what religion we profess, we cannot escape that we are part of a human family. Do not think about serving God, Gandhi says realistically: Think about serving those around you. Nonviolence provides the way, since violence always inflicts injury either on the person who offers it or on the person who receives it, and usually both. Conversely, nonviolence ennobles all involved.

When Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, she humbly stood before an elite audience and spoke of the realities of the poor to whom she and her sisters had dedicated their lives. She shared the following story: One time a man came knocking on the door of the sisters’ home and asked Mother Teresa to help a Hindu family not far from there who were starving. She immediately put some rice in a container and headed over to the house where she found a woman and her children. The woman took the rice and then divided it into two and went away while her children were eating. When she came back, she asked the woman, “Where did you go?” and she replied that she had gone to the neighbors next door, Muslims, “who were also hungry.” Mother Teresa was so moved by this experience, and pointed out that this woman, even when she had nothing, even while suffering hunger, was still able to think of others. Call it whatever you want, to her it was the expression of love at its highest. She went on to make this point: “How can we claim to love God whom we do not see if we cannot love those right in front of us, whom we do see?”

Sounds like our man, Gandhi, doesn’t it?

Experiment in nonviolence:
Want real empowerment? Look to be of service to those around you today.