A life of service and care

THE 114th Jayanthi of Swami Sivananda is being observed all over India and in many countries abroad with programmes stretching over several weeks. It was on September 8, 1950, that Swamiji undertook a 60-day lightning tour of India and Ceylon, for the spiritual regeneration and revitalisation of the people of the two nations and with a view to inspiring and leading them towards God realisation through divine life.

In this golden jubilee year of the epoch-making tour of his, senior monks from the Sivanandashram, Rishikesh, have set out on yatra, adhering to the itinerary followed by Swamiji in 1950, visiting various places on the very days on which Swami Sivananda halted at these places 50 years ago.

They carry with them his holy Padukas from the Ashram to enable people to have the Darshan of the Padukas , recall and relive the experience they had 50 years ago. The party arrives in Chennai from Vijayawada on the morning of Saturday, September 30 and will halt in the city for four days. The pilgrimage commenced from Sivanandashram on September 8 and will conclude at the Ashram on November 8.

Swami Sivananda, whom Rajaji and former President S. Radhakrishnan hailed as a unique saint, attained Mahasamadhi on July 14 1963. But he is remembered even to this day as a very humble personality from whom compassion, empathy and love overflowed spontaneously towards all. As a fitting and lasting memorial for him, a 50-bed hospital has been established and is functioning for the rural and urban poor in and around the village of Pattamadai, his birthplace, near Tirunelveli.

``Serve all, Love all, Service of humanity is worship of God. There is no greater Yoga than service of mankind''. These are the sterling utterances of Swami Sivananda. He was a living embodiment of karma yoga. He served his parents and teachers and later his patients as Dr. Kuppuswami in the then Federated Malay States.Thus it was service all along. Even when he was a monk in absolute seclusion, without speaking to anyone, engaged in intense spiritual sadhana - penance, meditation, introspection, study, silence - he used to go and work for one hour or more daily at the Sadhu Sevashram, a small dispensary that he established at Lakshmanjhula. Being an embodiment of selfless service as well as a qualified doctor, he was an ideal servant of the suffering and the sick, the yatris and the sadhus living nearby.

One of the earliest books that Swami Sivananda wrote was ``The Practice of Karma Yoga.'' And from those earliest days till the very end of his life, he urged all to purify their hearts through selfless service. He said: ``Within is hidden God. Within you is Immortal soul. Within you is fountain of joy'', he adds the most significant words: ``Kill this little ``I''. He declared in one of his eighteen handwritten autobiographical epistles: ``I live to serve, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to raise the fallen, to console the distressed. This is my mission in life.''

Rare it is to find a parallel to the type of life - of lofty, sublime, selflessness and total, dedicated, selfless service of all God's creatures - that Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj lived. Throughout his life, he held aloft the twin ideals of Sanyasa: Renunciation and Service. To this embodiment of selflessness and selfless service, this great expounder of Nishkama-karma-yoga, who boldly declared: ``Service to humanity is worship of God,'' that we pay our homage.

SWAMI CHIDANANDA

President, Divine Life Society, Rishikesh

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Spirituality in serene settings
Next     : Simple living, high thinking