Milind Thatte's speeches in 'karyakarta' trainings

When I was a novice karyakarta, we used to ask our seniors some basic questions like "can I wear T-shirt" etc. my senior would always reply: "Be normal". He never explained what was normal. He would always say, "Be normal".
We gradually learnt that "normal" is decided by the community with which you work. Whatever they wear, they eat is "normal". If they have two pairs of clothes, you can have three. That's the margin of comfort we allowed ourselves. This further became a yardstick to measure our every action and every possession.

When we do Seva, there is no time limit. No division of work-time and personal time. Every pulse beats for the community, none for us. You cannot close doors on weekends and say that this is my personal time. There is nothing like that for us. Even things that we do as personal are watched by the society. We can not have double standards. Advocate simplicity of life when in work-area and then treat yourself with an extravagant meal when you are away, this does not work.

While coming back from the tribal trek; we ate at a restaurant in Vikramgadh. I ate missal-paav and told you guys that you should not eat because it wasn’t safe. But some of you did and got sick. When I told this to my father (who is one of my teachers in Seva), he asked me why in the first place did I eat. You should not eat when you want others not to eat, he said. (to use Gandhi's words: My life is my message.)
Our seemingly small actions are also watched by others and are often followed. Actions should never contradict what we speak. It does not work that way.

Lal Bahadur Shastri, who later became the Prime Minister, was a full-time volunteer (karyakarta) of the Indian National Congress before independence. As a full-timer, he was given some meager stipend by the organization. One day when Shashtri-ji was not home, a poor worker of the Congress came asking for money. The poor man's daughter was ill, and he needed money. Shastri-ji's wife gave him some money from her savings. After a couple of weeks he came back to return the money. Shastri-ji was home. The poor man returned the money and thanked Shastri-ji and his wife for the timely help. As the man was gone, Shastri-ji asked his wife where did she get the money from. She said she saved one or two paisa every month from Shastri-ji's stipend. Next day Shastri wrote a letter to organization saying he was getting more stipend than what he actually needed and requested the stipend be cut down. He also returned the money that his wife had saved. This is the ideal of a Seva-worker. This is not only for money, but also for time. If you have time saved for your personal goals, you are not doing justice to your work. Every heartbeat in this year is reserved and dedicated to the society.

Swami Vivekanand said, "One life, One mission". Let us make this mild for you. "One year, one mission". Don’t waste your time; do not divert your energies to anything except you mission.

11/05/02 Last day of Retreat (Ahmedabad)

This may seem contradictory to what I said in my last talk. But it is not so. Now that you are completely immersed in your projects, you can have some breathing time. I am pretty sure that this breathing is also going to be for the project. Your project, your community, your kids etc. is already occupying the space in your dreams. Now you have some right to personal space. Our personal time is when we are forced to be alone. When everyone around is busy in his or her daily chores, it is our personal time.

Try and meditate in early morning hours. That is a time when there aren't even noises that can distract us. We are completely free to have an internal dialogue. Meditation will help you concentrate better, reduce your stress, and help you look beyond your immediate targets. This longer vision helps the karyakarta to plan better.

There was a mass awareness campaign by Ekal Vidyalaya and I was leading it in certain area. I appealed to the young teachers of Ekal schools to devote ten days to this campaign. And many of them gave up home for 10 days. One of them was Vijay. He was the only son in his family and had a big share of family responsibilities. This tribal boy left home for a week and went campaigning in neighboring villages. When he came home, his mother broke down to tears. All the families in the village had already harvested their fields. Only Vijay's fields still had standing crops. His old father alone could not do much work. There was a risk of losing the yield if harvesting was delayed. Vijay's colleagues then told him to stay home and they continued the campaign. Later on, they went to his house and helped him harvest within two days. They told me about this incident. I used to think that I had done a big sacrifice by leaving my home and my job for three years. Vijay had only left his home for ten days. But his sacrifice was greater than mine. My family did not suffer because I left my job. But Vijay's family did, and still he did such sacrifice for the cause. He had done so on my word. So I went to see his mother. I touched her feet and asked for her forgiveness. I said it was not her son's fault, they had to suffer because of me.
Many such apparently small people are great. They make greater sacrifices. Feel their greatness and have highest respect for them.

Every night before you sleep, sit silently and think of the day that has passed. See if you have hurt someone in your conversations. We are often in hurry and do not care for others' sentiments. We may not intend to hurt or insult someone, but it happens. Reflect on all your interactions in the day when you are alone. You are talking to yourself and then, you can not lie. If you find that you did hurt somebody, then go to that person next day; and say, "I was wrong. I made a mistake. Please forgive me." This requires lot of courage. That person may be small, may be younger. Still you have to say this. You start doing this, and your ego will stop you from making mistakes. Your ego does not want you to ask for forgiveness from smaller persons. So it prevents you from hurting someone. You become more and more cautious about the use of words and your tone. I have done this and it helped me a lot.
For next few months, make this a regular practice: the reflection at night

This retreat has been a lot relaxing than the previous ones and we all have had time to share experiences and reflect on ourselves. This was very good. But at the same time it was unfortunate that we had the least interaction with the villagers, with the community served by our fellows. Are we taking for granted that we know everything? Have we decided to turn our switches off because this is a retreat? I smell a stoppage of learning in this. It seems like we are assuming that we know everything about Indian villages. We have been eating at the homes of these villagers, sleeping in their homes, but even after spending these many days, we do not know about their family life, their economics… practically nothing. Are we so engrossed in each other? Is it so important to spend time with each other that we forgot to know about these people? Are we going to be happily locked in our worlds? It's fine to be away from our projects, our worries… but have we stopped learning? The day before retreat began, I went with Jayeshbhai to see some of the neighboring villages. I could have said no. I was tired, and there was apparently no reason why I should go to these villages whom I don’t know. But I did go. And I found Jayeshbhai having wonderful relations with many villagers. I saw him soothing the rough hands of old men, patting the backs of teachers for their good work. I learnt something there. There is no pre-scheduled time for learning Seva. We already have such a short time, and in that we are wasting some by turning off our switches. Many of us have only one year. We must always keep our switches ON. Learning never stops.

We saw this Jain nun the other day. She cited a line from a sanskrit shloka. The full text of the shloka is:

Amantram Aksharam nasti| Nasti Mulam Unaushadham||
Ayogya Purusho nasti| Yojaka: tatra Durlabhaha||

Meaning: "There is no alphabet from which a mantra can not be made. There is no herb from which a medicine can not be made. There is no person who is incapable. What is rare is the one who can organize."
A seva-worker alone does not and can not change the society. His greatest capability is to organize, to find where to fit which alphabet and make a mantra. Look for something in every person; believe that no person is useless. We lack capability if we can not utilize someone. Believe; firmly believe that every alphabet has the ability to make a mantra.

The toilets have a vertical pipe behind them which releases all the bad gases up. Instead if we close that outlet, and open the door into our living room. What happens? It happens when we communicate our negative feelings about colleagues and seniors to the people around. If you have a problem with a colleague or a senior, then straight communication is the best thing to do. If that does not work, then go up. Talk to someone who can cure the problem. Do not gossip your frustrations to people around, that vitiates the atmosphere and does not solve the problem. In all organizations, there are groups and lobbies. Never fall into the internal politics. Make sure that you are not identified with one group in the organization. Try and keep good relationships to all.

In a small tribal village called Baripada in Northern Maharashtra, I met a young man called Chaitram Pawar. Chaitram has done masters in commerce. That is a very high standard of education as compared to his fellow villagers. Chaitram has not left his village in search of job. He chose to continue being a farmer and has reformed his village. He has worked out many schemes of rural development in his village. I had been there to see his work. He mentioned that they invite good government officers in their annual function. I asked him how does he manage to get "good" officers as they are generally seen as corrupt or inefficient. He said, "we do cross-check a little bit, but to tell you frankly, in every person there is a good corner. When even a corrupt official comes here and sees the good work, that "good corner" awakens and that helps us."

I found this to be the secret of Chaitram's success. He believes in the goodness of every man. It is for us to find that "good corner" and then we can utilize every individual that we come across.

We have a proverb in Marathi, it says that even if you drink milk sitting under a Toddy tree, people won't believe you. (Toddy is local liquor extracted from that tree.)

Your intentions may be pure as milk, but it is people's perceptions that matter. We, the Seva-workers have a stricter standard of purity than laymen do. The society watches us all the time. If we do not stand to their perceptions, we lose. "I don’t think this is wrong. I will do what I like". We don’t have this freedom. I would like to remind that our lives are not personal, at least for this year.

We are not independent. We are part of an organization. Fight for your views till the decision is made. But once the decision is made, respect it. I have seen chairpersons of organizations presenting a decision before public, which was against their personal views. They had opposed it in committee discussions. But once the decision was made, they endorsed it and advocated it as if it was their own view. The complete surrender of individual opinions to a common decision is a difficult sacrifice. But it is a sine qua non for a Seva-worker. When we leave our normal life, we think that was a great sacrifice. But this surrender to the organization is a greater one. It dilutes our ego and strengthens the cause.

We went to see Kantikaka's farm. It was desert on our left and green on our right. It was amazing. Many of us said, "wow, awesome, cool"… our usual stuff. Did we go deeper than that? What's the difference between a lay-visitor and a student-of-Seva then? Did you feel how much sweat it took to generate the greenery. Could you see the thousands of drops of sweat and perhaps blood when you saw that green? Could you not see the wounded hands, sweating foreheads, and sun-burnt lives of the labor who created this wonder? The poor creators were standing at a distance from you, when you were amusing yourselves watching the monstrous bulls. You took pictures with the bulls, you had no time to talk to those laborers. No time to ask them how they created this wonderful green in the desert. No respect for their sweat, their blood. Are we dead?

Anger or frustration is actually a loss of balance. So the first thing we must do is to restore the balance of our mind. Instead of doing that, we blow out at others. It hurts us more than others. When anger controls your mind, you are drunk: and it is better not to drive, because anger is the driver, not you. Let the frustration, anger calm down and then express it with complete control on your mind.

I am certainly not in favor of suppressing the anger or frustration. That is suicidal. People often do not express anger trying to control it and then it piles up in their minds to reach an exploding point. Express the anger for sure, but only when the pressure oozes out.

There are many small things like what you wear, how you eat, how you behave. The community watches all such things. If they find your behavior acceptable in their social pattern, then their doors are open to you. Our target should be to bring a deeper change in the community; and for this greater goal, we must compromise on superficial things like dress codes and food-habits.

For instance, you can wear a trendy T-shirt and then argue that it's your individual right to wear anything you like. Your host community will not argue back. They will simply close their doors/minds to you. You are dead-stopped. You will remain an alien and will have no right to lead reform. Be the change and results will take care of themselves.

Meaning: "Talk truth. Talk sweet. Bitter truth? don’t speak. Sweet untruth NEVER speak."

I have seen this to be a dictum that serves us best. Being a karyakarta, we are not proponents of truth, we are servants of truth. We have a perception of truth, which we often think to be absolute truth. It need not be so. Hence, when you assert truth, be sweet in your words. Many people are arrogantly proud that they always speak truth. This arrogance though with the power of truth does not help us. Arrogance and harshness are bigger foes, be alert and control them. And if you don’t assert, what will happen to truth? Do not worry. My teacher quoted a saying in Gita: Truth cannot be hidden, and Untruth can not survive.

Seva is a Vrata (Mt Abu Retreat (29^th March 2003)

Do not dilute

This is end of the seventh month of your fellowship year. At this stage, the thoughts of going back home and ‘what next?’ start creeping in your mind. This diminishes your involvement in the project. You have to guard yourselves against this. Keep your focus on your project and do not let your devotion dilute. You have already achieved lot of things. I still remember the journal-sharing session in Ludiya retreat where Krishnan broke down to tears. He controlled his tears for some time, but when he said ‘I don’t want to let the kids down’ he could not stop his tears from rolling down. He cried for the kids, not for himself. That’s the degree of involvement he has achieved.

Empathy: it is already there
For some time, Anjali kept asking about ‘empathy’. She was worried how she could empathize with her community when she was from a different background. I remember her dipping her hands in a bucket of cow-dung and working with women for a whole day. That’s a step to empathy. I will tell you one of my experiences. We were a group of seven friends and we did the work of pulling a stone-loaded handcart for one week. We learnt and partially lived the life of a handcart pulling labor. This was seven years back. Amit told me of an incident recently. He was going on his scooter and saw two men pulling a fully loaded handcart up on a bridge. They were struggling hard pushing the cart inch by inch. Without thinking much, Amit got off his scooter and got his shoulder to the wheel. He pushed the cart with them till they reached the top point of the bridge. After that Amit realized that many people were standing around watching him. He was wearing his trendy hat, goggles and gloves, and it most unlikely that such kind of person would get off his bike and help two laborers. Amit did not have to think for doing this. It was already there deep inside him. All of you, whatever you do for a day or a week or a year, will remain somewhere inside you for your whole life.

Nothing is wasted
Many times we think that our efforts are being wasted or that my work will die as soon as I leave. Let me assure you that nothing like this happens. No seed is ever wasted. Some seeds take more time to become a plant. And what right do we have to demand that the seed must grow into a plant while we are still here? Have you heard of that Chinese Bamboo… you sow a seed and after 72 years the plant will be born. Who knows what kind of seeds we have. The seeds will grow. Believe it. And we are so small that we cannot make a plant ourselves, ours is to sow seeds, so do that. Results will take care of themselves.

Seva is a Vrata

At this time, our greatest challenge is to sustain our motivation. All our moments of dedication, empathy, devotion, overflow of emotions… everything is transitory. Spirituality alone can sustain it. It does not require religious belief to be spiritual. I don’t ever pray to God, I am not at all a religious person, but my three years in Ekal Vidyalaya changed me so much that earlier I used to say, “I don’t believe in God”, now I say “I don’t pray”. Seeing those dirty half-clad children and serving them with the same amount of faith and respect as you might have for God is the key for Seva. It is the attitude of Spiritual service, not the outward rituals of meditation and yoga that matter. The rituals may help you attain it, but they are means – not the end.

I would rather define Seva as a Vrata. I don’t know the English word for a Vrata so let me give examples. What Shezeen does in the month of Ramazan is a Vrata. What Anjali does on Thursdays is a Vrata. But Vrata is not only fasting. Those three monks, who prostrated across a whole continent, were performing a vrata. A woman, who takes 108 rounds of a Banyan tree, is performing a vrata. A man, who carries pots of water 21 times a day to the mountain temple, is performing a vrata. Every Vrata includes two things: self-restriction and suffering.

Self-restriction

Seva is a vrata, for there is self-restriction and suffering in Seva. There is no Seva without this and this precisely is the spiritual foundation of Seva.

Self-restriction of body leads to the same of mind and brains. Ask Shezeen what happens in her mind when she fasts for Roza. Apparently your body is fasting, but actually your mind is struggling. You gain a control of your mind, by restrictions on your body. It is easy to bypass restrictions imposed by others. Say, Manav Sadhana does not allow its volunteers to watch movies, but you can still go and watch a movie and nobody will know. Our organization does not allow consumption of alcohol; you can still consume it. You can cheat the whole world, but not yourself. Seva demands self-restriction. I would suggest that you deliberately impose some physical and mental and intellectual restrictions on yourself. (Intellectual restriction for example, is that you need not express your opinions when they are not asked for. Be ready to compromise on all issues that are not vital to your goals.)

No Seva without Suffering

The other part of vrata is suffering. Last week, I got a letter from Bhagwan. (You guys have met him in your tribal trek. You applauded his amazing voice.) He is an ekal vidyalaya karyakarta. He wrote me a letter because he did not meet me when I visited his village last month. He had promised to be there, but he wasn’t. So he wrote: “You know I have problems in my separated family. There is not enough money in my house, and my wife cannot go out to work as labor, because she has to look after the three children. She often quarrels with me. This time, I did not get my Ekal honorarium in time and so I did not have money to travel for ekal work. On the day when you came, I had gone to a road-widening project to work as a labor for couple of days, earning just enough to travel. I apologize that I wasn’t there when you came.” Mark this, Bhagwan is a guy who trains teachers and guides 90 schools. He is a karyakarta of high caliber, and he does manual labor to earn money for his Ekal work! This is suffering. Suffering for Seva is a vrata. Compare this to what we call suffering. Some body not listening to you, is that suffering? Your opinions are not respected, is that suffering? Your ego is hurt, is that suffering? You have cockroaches in your house, is that suffering? Your tap does not have running water, is that suffering? We have nothing to complain about. Look at people like Bhagwan; they inspire us to suffer. There is no Seva without suffering.

Never quit

In Indian army, they say ‘a commando never quits’. We are all kind of commandos assigned to different missions. Bear all the brunt, have the courage of a Seva-vrati and suffer… Never quit.