HUMANITARIANISM
Hi friends, through this article, I would like to discuss with on the topic HUMANITARIANISM.
A social organization made a survey of the level of humanitarian qualities that exist in the people of various countries of the world. It has serially numbered the countries according to the level of humanitarian qualities of the people. India stands at 136th place in that list. Most of the Western developed countries come in the first twenty places.
What is known as the Third World countries find a place in the list below hundred. The countries at the top of the list are rich and developed, while the countries in the bottom are poor and backward.
Countries with more humanitarian qualities are rich, healthy and the people therein are endowed with good education, medical facilities and a good social order. In countries where there is less humanitarian qualities, there exists lot of poverty, disease, famine and starvation.
What is humanitarianism? It is respecting others, not inflicting pain on them, and relieving the sufferings of others. These are all the qualities that God respects, and these are all the things that give virtues to us. The man who has more humanitarian qualities stands high among men. He gets the mercy and blessings of God. If a country has a large number of such people, the country becomes wealthy and develops in all spheres.
“Service to the people is service to God”
- Swami Vivekananda
“The man, who sees God in the idols of a temple, is at the bottom level of devotion to God. The man who wipes the tears of a widow, the man who feeds a starving man and alleviates his hunger, the man who sees God in relieving the pain of others, is at the top level of devotion to God”.
- Swami Vivekananda.
We are very active and enthusiastic in building temples. There are more than two hundred temples in the town of Kumbakonam alone. But in the rich Western countries, they do not give much importance for building churches. In many big cities, you cannot find more than four or five.
The Christian community in the Western countries is service-minded. They start hospitals in the hilly and backward areas in the poor countries and render medical help to the poor. Even if there are only a few students, they start a school in a small house. These in course of time grow into big organizations, helping innumerable poor and suffering people.
The Christian community gives more importance to render service to the poor, not only in their own country but also all over the world. Though they have their own shortcomings and lapses, they have grown into a well developed, prosperous and forward looking community. The first twenty rich countries in the world, with the exception of Japan, are Christian countries.
Do you think God has helped such countries to be prosperous without valid reason ? We have a lot to appreciate, congratulate and learn from them. If good qualities exists even among our enemies, we should learn the good things and follow them in our life. Only then we can lead a good and enjoyable life.
God will give neither less nor more of punishment to any human being or even to the animals. In the same way, He will not give less or more of rewards to anybody. A man deserves whatever God has given him; he may be rich, or middle class or poor, he may be sick or healthy, he may be educated or uneducated whatever be his condition, it was awarded by God after perfect and meticulous calculation.
So there is no point in a poor man being jealous of the rich, the sick being jealous of the healthy, the ugly being jealous of the beautiful or the less fortunate being jealous of the more fortunate.
Because a good man has done many good deeds, God has given him a happy life. Every man should take a vow to this effect: “ I will also do good deeds and put myself in the good books of God. I will rise to a good position like him or even to a better position than him”.
“Even an atom cannot move in this world without the approval of God”. “God is the cause for all things and happenings”.
These words said about God, are hundred percent true. These are the words of great saints and rishis. The saints and rishis will talk nothing but the truth. They will not show the wrong path to the people. To their sayings, a lot of additions has been made subsequently. Like the legendary bird Annam (swan) that drinks only the milk, carefully avoiding the water; we should use our discerning powers, to pick up only the truths told by great men in their writings and speeches.
God has placed the rich people in a comfortable position. The rich people have the resources to help others and can get lot of virtues. The rich people, without doing any sacrifice, without giving up any of their comforts, without yielding to others, they can do service to the poor people with their wealth and strengthen their present position with the mercy of God or even enhance it.
In the corporate world of company executives it is said that “There is always room for improvement”. The same is true in spiritual matters also.
Don’t imagine that only the rich people can help the poor and obtain virtues. Please remember the story, which the mongoose narrated about an old poor Brahmin and Aswamedha yaga in MahaBharata.
A woman supervisor in my factory has a little daughter and she is studying in the eighth standard. She has heard of my charitable activities from her mother. She goes daily to the school with lunch packet for the midday meals. On some days if any girl in her classroom has not brought lunch this little girl gives her own lunch to her. Please note that she does not share her lunch, but gives it completely. This is an excellent kind of help one can give. She is ready to starve, but wants to feed another starving girl. There is a real sacrifice in her act. I have done a lot of help to others, but there is no element of sacrifice in them. I am giving away to the suffering people only the excess of what God has given me. God will consider as supreme only the help given by that little girl, rather than the help that I render to the people.
There are many poor people who render meaningful help to the suffering people. There is an old social worker, about 60 years old. He brings patients from his village to the Eye Camp that we conduct regularly. He stays with the patients all through the day and leaves the Camp only after seeing off the patients to Coimbatore for further treatment. A sixty year old woman goes to the government hospital in Dharmapuri once in a week, and does little things to the poor patients there. Another woman takes free evening coaching classes to the children of poor parents in a slum. There are so many avenues one can do service, without spending much money, like helping the miserable people, organizing blood donation and eye donation camps, comforting those who are in agony, guiding those who are confused and bewildered. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Let us grade different difficulties. A leaves on a trip in his car with his wife and children. He himself drives the car. On the way, one of the tyre is punctured, the stepney tyre too is deflated. He and his family undergo suffering. B is a factory owner and a certain amount of money has to be paid in the bank, to clear a bill on a particular day. He is short of money. If he does not pay on time, his prestige and business will suffer and cause him mental agony. C is a college student and he has no money to pay his college examination fees.
D’s wife is bedridden. He has no money to buy the drugs that the doctor has prescribed. E is the mother of a child. Her husband is away and has not come home for a long time. The child cries for milk. The mother has no money to buy the milk.
Whose suffering is very acute? Suppose you have the choice of relieving the suffering of only one of them whom will you help? With the natural instinct of sympathy, you will try to help either D or E. Of course it is the right thing to do and God will love you for that. Always we should give preference to relieve the pains of the poor suffering people.
The help we give to children, women and old people is a good help. If these categories of persons happen to be poor also, it is doubly good to help them. That perhaps is the reason why it is said in the Bible that “The help that is given to one of my poor brothers is exactly like helping me (God)”.
Actually we Indians are fortunate in a way. We have a lot of miserable people here to be helped. We have full of opportunities to help them and to accumulate virtue. But in the rich Western countries, it is difficult to find people who are really suffering. Suffering poor people are very less in those countries. Even if there are some people, the government readily goes to their help.
In a big office, nearly 100 people are employed. The Office Manager is an honest, impartial, hard worker and very efficient. He has the following 5 qualities which are very important to come up in life. 1. Truth 2. Honesty 3.Hard work. 4. Not hurting others (Except on duty) 5. Relieving the sufferings of the poor.
The salary of each of the 100 employees is Rs. 5000/- per month. The Manager is asked by the Management to select 10 among them, for promotion to five different categories of posts with different salaries. For the first category, two persons are to be selected and they will be paid Rs. 10,000/- per month. For the second category, two persons at Rs. 9000/- per month. For the third category, two persons at Rs. 8000/- per month. For the fourth category, two persons at Rs. 7000/- per month and for the fifth category two persons at Rs. 6000/- per month.
The Manager has all the relevant details of the 100 individuals with him; like date of appointment, their qualifications, the time of coming to the office, the time they leave the office, the number of days of leave taken in an year, their efficiency and involvement in their work etc. He himself has been in the office for 5 years and has observed these men closely and recorded his impressions. With all the details on hand and with his own observations of their conduct, he calculates and compares their efficiency, sincerity and their worth for the higher posts and makes his selection.
Some of his relatives are working in the office. They are not efficient. Some of the staff are really humble and faithful and some others pretend to be so. Some of them try to flatter him speaking high of him. All these people are not really efficient.
The Manager ignoring all the above, select the really efficient and talented people for the promotion.
Some of the selected candidates may not show any undue humility towards him. They may not even try to meet him in the office. Some of the selected candidates have even talked bad of him on some occasions. He ignored all these insignificant points. But these really efficient persons are honest and will be involving in their work whole heartedly. The Manager intelligently selects only such people for promotion and for the efficient working of the office. His aim is only to give promotions to the really efficient and really deserving persons.
When an ordinary office manager ignores flattery, false humility, rejects any kind of recommendation and nepotism and selects only the honest and hard working efficient persons; don’t you think, God, with his immeasurable intelligence power and wisdom, will be very meticulous and careful in selecting the right persons to bestow His blessings on? There is a saying “A good atheist is better than a false devotee ”.
God does not mind even if an atheist talks bad of Him. Neither God’s greatness is diminished by his bad talk, nor is elevated by the praise of a devotee. God is least bothered about tributes of his devotees or abuses of the atheists. He is above all such things and is unaffected by the people’s judgements.
Just as the good Manager in the office judges his subordinates on their efficiency and not on their ability to flatter him, God judges us only on how we conduct ourselves in our daily life and not on the basis of our regular visits to the temple and doing pujas. Let us realise that God is immensely talented and intelligent.
There are many atheists having good character, they are honest, sincere, and good hearted doing many good things in life and leading a happy life with a good wife and children.
You might have seen such people or heard of such people. Why does God bless these atheists with such a good life? God takes into account their good qualities and charitable deeds in judging them, and He ignores the fact that they do not worship Him or go to the temples. There are many devotees who lead an undisciplined and selfish life, committing many wrong deeds while regularly going to the temple and worshipping God. God will give only punishments for these devotees. God knows that they are cheats, “Tigers wearing cows clothing”.
Nobody can cheat God. Those who try to cheat Him will be ruined. Suppose two persons commit the same mistake. One person commits the mistake without any intention. Another person commits the mistake with the intention of cheating. Will both of them get the same punishment? Never. God always gives more punishment to those who try to cheat Him. These cheats dig their own grave.
“Those who think to cheat, get cheated”
- A Tamil proverb
This proverb states the mere thought, on our part, of harming others will evoke the displeasure of God and will get punished. One common way of earning the displeasure of God is by hurting others and committing sins which brings in punishment. The other way is the thought of cheating others and inviting punishments due to one’s bad thoughts. God knows about our bad thoughts and registers sin for that and subsequently gives punishments for the sins.
You might have heard some people say, “I was caught in a big problem. I prayed to God X and the problem disappeared. There was another difficulty and I prayed to God Y and it also disappeared, God Z has more power and willingness to help us than God W. You had better approach God W, he is the most powerful”. If some God has the powers to relieve your problem; then whom do you think gave you the problem originally? Please think. Is it not the same God who had given you the problem originally? Through some people, through diseases, through accidents, in whatever manner it comes it was given by God only and He gave it to you as a punishment for the sins you had already committed.
“Good and Bad are not given by others”
- Tamil scholar - Kaniyan Poongundranar.
The punishments and the rewards, we get in life are not given by others. God gives all these things based upon our previous sins and virtues we have committed. God who gave you the punishment, knows when to relieve you of it and the time of relieving you of the suffering has been already decided by Him. He does not releive of your sufferings only on the basis of your prayers.
As far as possible do not make appeals and requests to God, particularly unreasonable ones. God is all-wise and all powerful. He knows what to give you and when to give and how to give He has developed a perfect justifiable system. Let us not interfere with that beautiful flawless and foolproof system. If you are always going on demanding, God may be irritated by your nagging behaviour. If you leave everything in the hands of
God and wait, God perhaps may give you more blessings.
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