How Do We Serve the World?

How Do We Serve the World?

These days, there are many who want to save the world, but where do we start? Do we eliminate poverty first or starvation? Do we secure human rights or end disease? Do we teach scriptures or teach self-sustainability skills?

What is it that we are really trying to eliminate?

Is it poverty, hunger, injustice? No, what we really want to eliminate is suffering. But instead of focusing on suffering itself, we get distracted by the many causes of suffering.

To a degree, one can choose not to suffer, just as two doctors did in a Channel 4r documentary, Medicine Men Go Wild - World of Pain. In researching tribal pain rituals, one doctor experienced during one of the more painful rituals that, eventually, he reached a point where he no longer experienced pain.

Equally, with a clear understanding of our situation within the global picture, we can go beyond emotional suffering. The clearest example of achieving this is the liberation of India from British rule.

Liberation

Gandhi liberated India by giving the country a sense of purpose and teaching them an elevated lifestyle. With purpose they didn't mind a little suffering for their cause - a little hunger, a little less wealth, a little hardship for a temporary period - in order to bring about a greater benefit. Gandhi empowered the Indian people to face their hardships.

Gandhi's principles of self-sufficiency and living by independent means is what eventually freed India. While they were dependent on British products, they were slaves to the British government. When they removed that dependency, they became free - the British had no power over them.

We are trapped by the dependencies we create for ourselves - job, status, family. Yet if we really want to liberate the world, we first have to liberate ourselves.

"I don't think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as sombody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself and I had to make good."

~ Oprah Winfrey.

Thank you for reading. For more information on Raja Yoga philosophy see www.bkwsu.org.