How must we respond?

[Guest guest]

ideals for which they lived are not remembered and followed. If you do not care

to follows their teachings the celebrations lose their meaning and become

artificial observances. It is not doing justice to the good people whose

birthdays are being celebrated. Christ taught people to love all beings and

serve all with compassion. It is only by practising these ideals that one can

truly celebrate His birthday. The Divinity within should be reflected in every

action... Worship means loving others with your full heart. You must live in

love and lead a life of selfless service based on love. This is the only right

way of celebrating the birth of Christ. - Divine Discourse, 25th Dec 1992.

Help Ever - Hurt Never - Baba How Must We Respond? Loving Sai

Ram and greetings from Prashanti Nilayam. Today, hundreds of millions of people

around the world would be celebrating Christmas. One wonders how many of them

would take a minute off to ponder over what Christmas really means. Instead,

most likely, over 90% of those celebrating Christmas would be preoccupied with

matters that hardly relate to Christ and his eternal message of love and

compassion. Time there was hundreds of years ago when the world was not

supposed to be so advanced; but then, and people had all the time to think

about the teachings of Christ. Few realise that if today there are over a

billion Christians all over the world, it was because many in those distant

days were drawn to the Son of God by the message he preached and lived by,

before he made the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of humanity. People were

drawn then to the message of Christ, because it is the universal message of

Pure Love and Compassion. It is a message with an

eternal appeal that can touch Hearts even in the darkest of times; and it is

that very same message that is drawing millions to Swami, including for the

celebration of Christmas here. No, Christmas is not about going on shopping

spree, not about sending cards in thousands, not about marketing, not about

opening attractively wrapped gifts and not about grand Christmas dinners or

parties. It is all about Love and Compassion. Preoccupied as we

are these days with matters relating the material world, it is not easy to

follow the message of Christ, or for that matter that of Swami. Indeed, even in

earlier times it was not easy, which is why Christ once exclaimed in

desperation, “Why call ye me Lord, when thou doest not follow what I say?”

Swami too has expressed similar disappointment via the words, “Aacharanam

ledu,” meaning people do not put into practice His teachings. Once a speaker

asked some devotees whom he was addressing, “How come we force Swami to express

dissatisfaction in this manner? If we really love Swami as we all claim, then

why does such a serious lapse arise?” There was then a lot of discussion until

one person hit the nail on

the head. He said, “May be, perhaps unknown to ourselves, deep in our Heart we

are not convinced that following Swami’s teachings would do us any good.

Possibly, we ask, ‘What’s there in it for me?’ and brush aside the teachings.”

This was an honest answer. The speaker then narrated the famous parable of the

Good Samaritan first told by Jesus. Just to recall, there was a traveller going

along a lonely desert road who was waylaid by robbers who not only took away

everything this unfortunate traveller had but also beat him up and left him

badly wounded. There he was lying helpless and in pain when along came a

Levite. He saw the man and just kept on going without bothering even to enquire

whether any help was

needed. After some time came a priest but he was no better; he too couldn’t care

less about the hapless, wounded wayfarer. And then came a man from Samaria who

stopped, applied balm to the wounds, bandaged them, placed the injured man on

his donkey, and took him to an inn in a village. There he arranged for the

victim of robbery to be accommodated and fed. And next day when he left, the

Samarian left some money with the innkeeper to take care of the expenses of the

injured man. That roughly is the parable narrated by Jesus. The speaker then

asked his audience: “Why do you think the Levite and the priest walked away

without attending to the wounded and dispossessed man?” The audience had no

difficulty in giving the answer. They all said, “These two people did not offer

help because there was nothing in it for them.” The speaker said that is right

and then asked, “In that case, what was there in it for the man from Samaria?

What did he see that the other two who went before him didn’t?” After some

hesitation, one member of the audience said, “Probably this man from Samaria

felt he would feel happy inside if he extended help.” That answer is indeed

correct. The first two passers by sought an answer to the question “What’s

there in it for me?” from the Head. The Head saw no benefit and that is why

those two went their way without bothering to help. The man from Samaria also

asked the same question but addressed it to his Heart. And the Heart said, “If

you show love and compassion to the wounded man and help him, you will

experience Bliss or Ananda.” The man accepted the response and did exactly what

his Heart asked him to. That really is

the central point about the message that Christ gave then and Swami is teaching

us now. In the world that we live in, we are a constant witness to all the

things that happen there, especially the suffering of hundreds of millions. How

must we respond? If the question is addressed to the Head, it would say, “Don’t

bother.” When people do not bother they would turn to merrymaking and wasting

money on unnecessary luxuries, money that could be used for alleviating pain

and misery. Indeed, such people might, in the pursuit of their ambitions even

inflict pain and cause hurt. However, if one listens to the Heart, one would do

all one can to reach out to those in distress. Even if one is not able to

physically help, one can at least pray to the Lord. Incidentally, it is

interesting how often the Heart is portrayed along with pictures of Christ.

On this sacred day, let us who are blessed by the Lord to enjoy comfortable

circumstances in life, take a moment off to think of hundreds of millions who

are suffering from the aftermath of various natural disasters, who are in the

clutches of poverty, and are facing a miserable end to their lives caused by

diseases that could have been prevented if humanity had more feeling for the

suffering. Instead of dreaming of shopping sprees and wild parties, let us

ruminate on the teachings of Christ and His Father who is now very much with

us. Let us spend some time reading the Discourses given by Swami at Christmas

time year after year, to help us place the message of Christ in a modern

context. Merry Christmas and Jai Sai Ram. With

Love and Regards, "Heart2Heart" RadioSai e-Journal Team, In Sai Service.

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