“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” — Mahatma Ghandi
I’m continuing to reflect on Parvati’s Sunday talk, which is maybe why I keep seeing quotes that seem to relate.
The reading for the week’s topic was Living in the Presence of God (from Rays of the One Light by Swami Kriyananda), which starts with these words:
In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Chapter 25, we read of a King – capitalized, for the reference is to God – who welcomes certain devotees to the divine consciousness, saying, “I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”
The elect asked him when it was they had served Him in these ways, and the King answered, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Listening to the reading a memory surfaced of hearing that scripture for the first time at Sunnyhills Methodist Church in Milpitas when I was just a little girl. I still find it profoundly moving today.
On Sunday I saw more clearly the difference between helping only the person as opposed to serving God through that person. Like what Mother Teresa said about each person being “Jesus in disguise.”
“I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper’s wounds I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?” — Mother Teresa
Each of us has to find our right way to serve. After all, we certainly don’t all have the exact same calling. But whatever we do, we need to do it in the full awareness that every person is a child of God, and that we are serving God through them.