A Helping Hand

 

Photo Credit:Familes|LovetoKnow

A Helping Hand

Helping others has been ingrained in me since my childhood. As I grew up, I saw the example of my grandparents and then my mother (father passed away when I was a child) helping those in need in whatever way they could. We were not economically too well off, but we were rich at heart. In the kitchen we always had extra food cooked for any surprise visitor, plus food for the maids and cooks who came for daily work. My mother was a great cook and people called her ‘Annapoorna’ (Goddess of food and cooking) and tea and food was always available at very short notice.

With the passage of time as our economic condition improved providing financial assistance, clothes etc was a kind of norm at home and this sense got conditioned in all our brother’s psyche. Helping selflessly kind of became second nature. I’ll narrate a couple of incidents in my life, which in hindsight, I feel were the stepping stones to turn towards spirituality.

A friend and I had gone to attend his relative’s wedding in Belgaum. My friend was not treated with respect by the family, so he said let’s go for a walk and eat lunch outside rather than at the wedding. While we were walking down the street from the corner of my eye, I noticed something and instinctively looked back. I saw a young cow’s neck entangled in a nylon rope which was tied to a pole. In trying to free itself it had fallen in a nearby ditch and was literally choking itself on the rope. I ran back tried to free the cow from the rope, but it was too tight. I went to a nearby vegetable vendor and asked for a knife pointing to the cow and its predicament. He gave me the knife and I cut the cow free, it bounced up and looked at me with those doleful kind eyes and went on its way. That look in the cow’s eye is imprinted in my mind.

The second incident was while running early in the morning, I passed a person who was sitting on the footpath. I don’t know why, but I looked back and saw that he did not have feet and he was trying to get up and sit in his wheelchair. I ran back, helped him up on his crutches and then he sat on his wheelchair without assistance. Once I saw he did not need any further help, I continued running. A car passed by and someone shouted at me, “That was God-like, thank you.” Or something to that effect.

We are not all at the same level. With the proper understanding, you will not have any difficulty in liking everyone. If you dislike someone, it’s your mistake because you lack understanding. That person might be a terrible sinner who made a lot of mistakes, but your dislike is also a mistake. So, if you cannot help the person, at least don’t dislike him or her. You have probably done the same thing before but have just forgotten about it. People grow by making mistakes. That’s why we should never hesitate to give more chances to people. Give a helping hand rather than a condemning one.