from a talk by Harry Belafonte excerpted by MSS Daya Singh Khalsa, Chairman of the Khalsa Council
At the October Khalsa Council meetings, we talked about community service, and looked for ways that we could plug into the various 'Avenues of Participation' of our Dharma, and its many activities. Since then, Prosperity Paths (issue 19) included information about the work of the various branches of Sikh Dharma and 3HO and a list of suggested ways that we could volunteer some of our time and energies to work in these areas, and to help make a difference. I continue to think about this concept, one which the Gurus called 'seva', and find that through seva my life is deepened and given meaning in ways which I could not have attained otherwise.
Harry Belafonte has spent much of his life in community service, and speaks in an inspirational manner about the benefits he has received from this service, and the dimension it has added to his life. I thought you would enjoy reading excerpts from a talk he gave at the 1996 National Community Service Conference. He speaks eloquently about the concept of seva, without calling it that!
"One has to look at what one has done. It is true that my life has been very full of service, but it was never a fact that was alien to me - as a matter of fact, I saw it as a way of life. I have never understood how not to be in service. In my youth, I understood poverty, I understood single parenting. My mother raised us almost single-handedly. She was poor, she was uneducated - a woman of enormous courage, dignity, and strength. She did everything that she could to protect and to care for and to endow her children with some sense of hope and a future."
"If I were not able to rely on the generosity of strangers somewhere along my life, had my mother not been able to rely on the kindness of strangers somewhere along her life, I'm not too sure how rewarding or how fulfilled our lives would have been."
"In some instances we felt suspicious of such kindness, but most of the time we felt lucky and greatly rewarded. It was those simple experiences with people whom I never knew, who intervened in the midst of pain and anguish, to give a kindness, to give an instruction, to give an assistance, that made me understand that this is the kind of service that every human being should be in."
"Once again there was the need to volunteer to do something about making a difference. And so I volunteered to participate in social response to oppression. And in that cause - in the civil rights movement - I found the greatest reward, which is one of the reasons I am addressing you."
"I've often said to people, 'Do not look upon my volunteer work as some act of sacrifice. I'm having the best time of my life. There is no sacrifice here, only reward.'"
"I would hope that in the time that is left to me I would be able to continue in service. I am having the best time of my life. Had I not been a volunteer, I would never have had the good fortune of getting to know Martin Luther King, Jr. or Eleanor Roosevelt. I would never have had the good fortune to sit and to talk to simple folk around the world who kept my eye on truth, because it was their struggle, their simple way of life that kept me instructed and kept me vital and kept me alive."
"I love to participate in volunteer work because it's the best work you can do. It isn't what party you belong to, it isn't what your class position may be, where you sit on the ladder, having or not having. It really is about what you think you were put here to do, and what you think you should give to life, and at the end of it all, what you can say you did to make the world a better place than when you found it."
I hope you have found some inspiration in the words of Harry Belafonte. Listed below are some 'tools' which were proposed at the last Khalsa Council meetings to assist in our own thinking about taking advantage of seva opportunities.
Tools We Can Use on the Avenue of Participation in our Dharma:
See the goal completed and take the steps in between.
Take small steps.
When it's time for a four-letter word, 'pray', and use the power of projection.
Trust that whatever God gives is the right thing.
Know that when it comes to manifesting and trusting in God's help, there is no 'no'. Anything can happen.
Look past the differences to see the Gursikh in each person.
Know that fear is the opposite of faith. Keep the faith.
Hassle or let things come. Let it be the Guru's project.
Everyone is a leader in some area of life. Recognize the leadership quality in each person.
100% participation begins with one person. Get 100% participation by going for whatever each person can give.
Call on Guru Ram Das for help with even the little things.
Relax.
God bless you all in your search for your meaningful community service work, your seva, your 'Avenue of Participation'