If you
can inspire even one person in this lifetime to serve and be caring, you can
claim to have lived a productive and useful Life. And Swami Dayananda, who
passed on earlier this week, touched and inspired so, so many people.
 |
| Swami Dayananda (1930 ~ 2015) |
I have never met Swami Dayananda. My parents-in-law Venks and Padma
were both long-time followers of Swamiji. Their children, including my wife
Vaani, too knew Swamiji pretty closely. In the 14 years that Venks stayed with
me and Vaani, after Padma’s passing in 2001, he would diligently make an annual
contribution to Swamiji’s Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Anaikatti near Coimbatore. I
knew this because Venks depended on me to ensure that his contribution, via a
postal money order, reached Anaikatti. As my spiritual evolution progressed,
Venks and I would often have long conversations and he would share anecdotes of
what he had learned from meeting Swamiji or from attending his discourses. So,
in several ways, Swamiji’s teachings found their way to me. But I never got the
opportunity to meet him – the one time in recent years when he visited Chennai,
much before his health began to fail, I was traveling.
But Swamiji touched my Life, and my precious family’s, in the most
profound, yet in the most inscrutable, of ways.
Seeing my daily blog posts, three years ago, one of my friends on Facebook,
a lady who I had never met back then, reached out to me. She is related to someone
we know. And because she liked reading my blogs, I had added her as a friend.
The post that had prompted this lady to reach out to me dealt with an episode
during our grave, ongoing financial crisis, our bankruptcy. In that post I had
talked about how I was learning to be calm in the eye of the storm. A criminal
complaint had been filed against me for cheating and I was likely to be
arrested. We had no money to run the family. So, there seemed no way out but to
go with the flow. Seeking bail or remedial legal measures were out of the
question – given that everything cost money! Besides, this complaint had been
filed against me in a different Indian state – where we knew and had no one. I
had written about how it is important to let go, especially when you don’t know
what to do.
The lady, who lives in the US with her family, pinged me on Facebook
Messenger and asked me if she and her husband could speak to me and Vaani. I
thought she wanted to discuss the learnings from on my blog post – there are
many people who reach out to me seeking and sharing additional perspectives; so,
I agreed. Over the call, the lady’s husband asked me if I would mind if they
wired us some money. I was flabbergasted. We had just a couple of thousand
rupees on hand at that time; Vaani and I were in fact wondering how we were
going to get groceries and keep the kitchen going, when this generous,
completely unexpected, offer came our way. I thanked the gentleman profusely. In
fact, I broke down as I expressed our gratitude, while accepting his offer.
But I soon gathered myself to ask him, “Why, why Sir would you want
to help someone who you don’t even know personally? After all, Vaani and I are
just rank strangers, you know us only through someone we mutually know. Also, I
can’t really say when I can commit to repaying you.”
“No, no, don’t even talk about repayment. Please don’t embarrass
us,” protested the gentleman, saying, “We are followers of Swami Dayananda. We
are doing this because he has taught us and inspired us to practice seva – the art of serving others with no
expectation of any returns. You are good folks going through a rough patch. We
are happy we can be of some help.”
That money which came in from this couple lasted us a few weeks. It
helped me and Vaani brave the onslaught on the criminal complaint front,
because the home front was taken care of with this inflow.
Yes, all spiritual teachers share what they have learnt with their
followers. Often they distill the essence of the scriptures, which they have
mastered, in their teachings. But very few teachers will have the ability to inspire
people to imbibe and practice the spirit of service. Swamiji, I understand now,
did that not once or twice, but all his Life. And he managed to do that to a
lot, lot many people.
From that couple who selflessly touched our Life, we have learnt to
carry forward this spirit of seva,
service. Someday, we hope we too can be angels in disguise to someone, just the
way this couple has been to us. When that day comes,
hopefully soon, we will look up at the sky and thank Swamiji, yet again, for
teaching us that the true meaning of Life is ‘seva’!
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