It is not easy to serve man. First, we must cultivate a deep respect for life before we can honour brother man. In the absence of reverence for the ones we wish to serve how can we do justice to our mission of service to them? Service is not mere social work well-performed but it is an adoration of the divine in man, a veritable worship of the incarnation of divinity in the human form. Worship of the stone idol is easy, worship of the immanent being in Nature is also not so fraught with difficulty for in these there is no reaction of the worshipped that the worshipper has to absorb but the worshipful service of man is infinitely more cumbersome for one has to deal with all sorts of reactions, quite often adverse, from the served ones. The work may prove to be utterly thankless on the surface and even hostile to the server. In such a situation it is difficult to hold on to high idealism and cling to the concept that man is the visible form of God and ought to be served in the sublimest of spirits.
We all tend to react on the spur of the moment without giving due consideration to the circumstance or situation in which we awkwardly find ourselves. A stone or clay image of God does not react in a hostile manner when we offer it worship. It merely passively accepts our worship, so we feel. There is an advantage here in that we can fashion our fancies of godhead as we choose and thus pander our vanity in matters 'spiritual'. But the real test of spirituality comes when we are confronted with the living god, man. He is unsparing in his denunciation of many a fault in us that we can hardly bear when we have served him with all our devotion and naturally expect some sort of a return in terms of gratitude at least. Although work must be performed in a dispassionate manner without the slightest expectation of any earthly return, it is but natural that the unformed mind will revert to its age-old hankering for an immediate return for whatever service it may have rendered. And herein lies the trouble. So, it is expedient for the average man to reject the service of brother man as sufficient spirituality and to revert to the age-old easier practice of serving the stone god or the clay god from whom he fears no adverse reaction, criticism or comment. The stone image then takes precedence for the vast majority of men over the living human god and the latter is relegated to the background so far as receiving venerable service is concerned. This then is the age-old dilemma we face so far as the initiation of service to man as worship of God is concerned.
Into this scenario stepped Ramakrishna and with his famous pronouncement of service to the living being in the light of its immanent godhead altered the course of the spiritual thinking of man. His protege, the genius of a monk, Vivekananda activated his master's divine spiritual principle through the machinery he set up, the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission which now for over a century has been doing yoeman's service to the cause of national reconstruction and global peace and spiritual understanding for a better state of human affairs throughout the world. Opposition there is much that the Order faces from the vested interests of religious groups of Semitic origin even in India in the North-eastern belt where conversion rates are high and persecution of the Mission's activities pronounced but the spirit of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda and their liberal universal outlook is as yet carrying the day as the Ramakrishna Movement slowly and steadily is making ground and transforming the spiritual consciousness of India. At the world level the influence of the movement is more imperceptible but the discerning eye can detect slow but significant changes that are taking place in the psyche of the modern man although the progress of science must surely be given a large portion of the credit for breaking through the citadels of superstition and ignorance that has really helped the Vedantic cause as espoused by Ramakrishna-Vivekananda.
Anyhow, this then is the situation where liberal spirituality and science are in direct confrontation with retrogressive religious culture and the tension between these two opposing forces is consuming the life of man today. The tussle is on, this tug-of-war between the forces of progress and regress, of light and darkness that is tottering civilization by the edge of an abyss and making a nought of many a noble endeavour towards the spiritualization of the human race. And herein comes the role of the man of character who will struggle to change the order of things for the better, the man of tranquil wisdom, of iron will and indomitable spirit who will live the glorious spiritual life for millions to emulate. Such a band of heroes we need today to douse the flames of fanaticism that is burning the world, tireless, selfless workers steeped in the life of the Spirit where fear is not nor the shadow of low human craving that is the bane of religious movements across the world largely today. A great work, a mighty message, a monumental task awaits these soldiers of the Spirit whose shoulders must bear the burden of our fever-stricken world, our pregnant collective life seeking deliverance from the age-old tyranny of dead habits and mores. Come on my brethren, gird up your loins and lend yourselves to the mighty task of first nation-building and then the promotion of international peace and goodwill for the flourishing of the human race. Ramakrishna-Vivekananda expect no less from us and this is our true worship of them, this the worship of the vast body of man, the Virat. Awake, awake great souls and break the slumber of all with the thunderous roar of the Vedanta. May Mother Mahamaya be your support! May you be endowed with inexhaustible vigour, the fruit of your Brahmacharya (continence) and may your nerves be charged with the fire of purity and all-embracing love! Above all my friends, let your lives be full of the blazing light of realization that the world may find direction from, for after all, it is character alone that leaves its mark on the sands of time. I await in patient expectation for Vivekananda's heroes to emerge from the hills and the vales, from the forests and the seas, from the plateaus and the plains deluging the world with the message of the Atman, 'the fruit of a new autumn, the symphony of the soul'. Jai Ramakrishna! Jai Ma! Jai Swamiji!
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