Social Service as a Career.

“Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.” – Buddha

  

The Social Service as my mind conceives is an act of ours, directed towards the wellbeing and betterment of those living in poor condition in the society. The work fully dedicated by heart and soul towards improving the lives of indigent and needy ones are not only a service towards humanity to be praised but also a virtuous deed of enlightening nature. Such act may include helping the poor, the needy, and the crippled and handicapped people living in our society. Man is a social animal and born for a society. So while enjoying the glimmer of sunshine ourselves, we cannot leave behind our fellow mates into darkness. As said by Mahatma Gandhi, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” we have to avoid the selfish acts of benefitting ourselves but try to discover our inner self by dedicating a service to others

source: google images

A man devoting his life in cleaning a public place may not receive due recognition from the remaining society. As such social services are field of work with fewer financial rewards, high stress and low job security besides the work being difficult and challenging. Such nature of social works leaves many of us least bothered about the problems our society face. We are rather careless of how others live. We dump our household garbage at our neighbour's door and such act of irresponsibility is seen in many other cases, which is unfortunate.

   Career as defined in the Oxford dictionary is an occupation that a person undertakes for substantial period of their life. Since our elementary grades, we are asked many a times, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" and the answer, which we give for such question is generally an ambitious one. Many of us might have dreamt of becoming a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer etc.., and none would ever dreamt of becoming a social worker. So from such an attitude it is clear that we are simply looking for a brighter side of entitlements, prestige, respect, easy work, rewards and promotions rather than just thinking about our society. Such a self-centred attitude of ours not only hinders our dedicated service to the society but also inflict a sense of negativity towards those who are suffering and those who are helping the unfortunate ones.

   Now we have to ask ourselves what is a career in the first place? Is career only about holding a superior position in the hierarchical system of bureaucracy? Or it is something to be done out of our passion and interest for the benefit of others?  Now if we broaden our mind and think deeper, social service are the best career ever in our life. There is a need for us to know our duties and responsibilities for our nation. When many of our fellow citizens are deprived of basic needs of clean drinking water, elementary education, primary health care etc.., why every one of us who are fortunate enough having availed such facilities go beyond the expectations of our society of minorities and aim for becoming a selfish officer of first class. Its better we grasp the opportunity of helping the poor and needy ones by adopting social service as our career when we are potential and energetic. 

source: google images

   If we can serve the society to our hearts content, then this is the biggest achievement of our life. This is the best way we make our life meaningful and worth living. The acts of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation is the greatest epitome of humankind with such a soul, fully dedicated towards the service of society. Its only under his leadership and selflessness that India got her independence from the British rule. Now we can sense the light of social service as a career. We should believe in ourselves and work hard towards upliftment of minorities. By doing so, one is not only respected in the society where we live but is remembered throughout the world for all the times to come. This is what we called enlightenment of soul.

   One such peculiar example is mother Teresa. She was a catholic nun of Albanian origin but after her settlement and obtaining the citizenship in India, she completely devoted her life towards helping the poor, sick and the homeless in the slums of Kolkata. She established "The Missionaries of Charity", with the primary task to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after. Such an influence of hers spread across the globe like the wind.  Many Active and Contemplative branches of Sisters and Brothers were established in many countries to provide effective help to the poorest of the poor and to undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. Such humble deeds of Mother Teresa was supported by many International agencies so devoting our life to social service does not mean we are one person fighting for a cause. Many others will definitely follow us. Such social service rendered by mother Teresa as her career with utmost love and care not only made her famous but she also won numerous awards including the Noble Peace Prize in 1979.

   With such eminent figures in front of our eye, we should develop the spirit and charisma of taking social service as our career.  With such humble deeds, we develop within ourselves the love and generosity to other sentient beings and we strive for the happiness of others. It is when our society becomes peaceful and happy, that we feel contended and happy so unlike the happiness through money and power obtained by being a corrupt bureaucrat in present scenario, it is all the better to seek a career with pure heart and soul. As said by mother Teresa “Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work” .  There is no other means through which we can serve our society, nation and the world at large than by being a devoted social servant.

   Therefore, social service is no doubt the best service we give. It is the social service that one do, which makes him/her remembered as nobility. Social service can be a means of achieving emotional integration in the country. Therefore we have to act humane and inculcate the habit of using the common sense in using the public facilities judiciously, keeping the public places clean, educating the people about the basic needs of life, making farmers understand the importance of natural resources, et al. The well-being of the society means well being of its members and we are one of the members. Social service is a virtue, a good quality and a socially useful activity so it’s never too late to take up Social Service as our Career.


P.S I wrote this article in wake of the Essay Competition organized in the University. I wasn't expecting any award for its recognition as the only motive of mine was participation, but some how it was appreciated by the editorial board.