Lets, together make a difference
I SERVE, THEREFORE I EXIST!
Rev. Dr.Valson Thampu, Principal
The educated become, Tolstoy lamented more than a century ago, parasites on the society. In saying so, his focus was on the aversion to service that modern education breeds in people. The mark of an enlightened person, according to Jesus of Nazareth, is the readiness to serve rather than the clamour to be served. One’s attitude to service proves who one is. Shirkers of work, it does not have to be argued, cannot be authentic human beings. They cannot be men and women of dignity or integrity.
Shakespeare’s King Lear held a view contrary to that of Jesus. He was a king after all. He got used to sensing his self-image and personal worth in terms of the size of his entourage. Life schooled him the hard way. Shorn of the artificial props of office and exposed to the merciless buffetings of the elemental forces on the heath, he learned to kneel down and pray for the poor of the earth, the “miserable wretches” that “bide the pelting of the pitiless storm.” This marks a paradigm-shift in his personality. He is reborn as a human being. A king who does not pray for his people, it seems, will prey on them. Sounds quite contemporary, doesn’t it?
Tolstoy’s Vasili Andrevitch in Master and Man too undergoes a similar transformation. He begins to cope with the crisis that overtakes him by trying to save his life at the expense of his servant, Nikita. He discovers, soon enough, that this is contrary to the logic of life. In that pitiless night when the lives of the two hang perilously above annihilation, he learns that he can vindicate his humanity only by saving the life of his servant, even if this involves risking his own life. In the process, the Vasili, the ‘master,’ is reborn as Vasili, the ‘man’. The insight is unambiguous: the freedom to serve is, or should be, the insignia of our humanity. The ‘master’ is a contrived social myth. ‘Man’ is the core reality. And, service is the nursery of our humanity. It is not hyperbolic to say, “I serve, therefore I exist.” The Vasili of the latter phase puts us in touch with what is good and noble within ourselves.
This intuits why service yields happiness. The core Apollonian dictum is, “Know Thyself”. How can we know who we are unless we function in terms of what is good and authentic in us? We are not, nor are we meant to be, parasites. If so, how can we know ourselves, so long as we live like parasites? Work is the lamp that illumines our true being. It is through work offered in verity and humility –the spirit of service, that is- that we discover ourselves progressively. That spirit of service is at peril of being corrupted through selfishness.
Service has to be, perforce, selfless. Service is the bridge between the self and the Other. The “Other” has two dimensions: God and neighbour. From a spiritual perspective, work is offered, first and foremost, to God. Work is the medium of our gratitude and faithfulness to God. It is a fatal and widespread mistake to assume that God can be bribed with money! God is not to be bribed, but to be sought in humility and honoured with our life. Service is the means for this. In the very nature of things, the light that God is, is obscured by the darkness of selfishness. Selfishness involves the distortion of the self. It is the expression of self without the light of the divine. That is to say, it is the self at its lowest and meanest. The self, delinked from its Creator, becomes denatured and predatory. Selfishness is not the expression, but the caricature of the self. Paradoxically, selflessness is the authentic expression of the self. Work is the means for accessing the true self by transcending selfishness. In such a state, the doer experiences the joy and privilege of serving. Service them becomes an end in itself. Only in such a state can we know that “it is more blessed to serve than to be served”. Service that does not yield joy is not service.
Service, wrote Gandhiji in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, can have no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it. When it is done for show or for fear of public opinion, it stunts the man and crushes his spirit. Service which is rendered without joy helps neither the server nor the served. But all others pleasures and possessions pale into nothingness before service which is rendered in a spirit of joy.
The founders of our College deemed the spirit of service basic to being human. Inculcation of this spirit through education was, for them, the shaping goal of education. This was the ‘spiritual’ aspect of their vision of education. It is not an accident, therefore, that we have unique customs like the Rudra Dinner, instituted by C. F. Andrews. On the 12th of February each year Junior and Senior members serve the non-teaching staff. This institution is, perhaps, peculiar to our College. We make sure that we respect and appreciate those who serve the College in any capacity whatsoever and treat them, irrespective of rank or station, with courtesy and appreciation. We derive joy from serving them. Rudra Dinner is, for us, a celebration of the spirit of service. It is the SSL that, year after year, organize this event with passion and conviction.
I remember, in this context, an incident from the early ‘70s that the Revd. William Shaw Rajpal, the 9th Principal of the College, shared with me. A young man from an immensely rich family was admitted to the College. He used to alight at the gate from a posh car and walk into the campus accompanied by two liveried servants, one of them carrying his bag. The Principal thought this to be a vane display of affluence and a mockery of the value system that under-girded the College. He summoned the father of the student and suggested that the student in question be withdrawn from the College. He made it clear that no display of class difference or social vanity was acceptable to St. Stephen’s. The student concerned had to be like every other student. He had to be healthy and strong enough to carry his own bag! If he could not be, he could migrate to another institution. It does not have to be stated that the liveried servants vanished upon the instant!
It is a matter of pride for all of us that the SSL has been one of the most active societies in the College. Over the years, the activities of SSL have got diversified. Its volunteers remain selfless and steadfast workers. The activities of SSL continue to exemplify the ethos of our College in a special way. This has been the case this year too.
Even so, it seems to me that SSL needs to engage with the challenge of popularizing the spirit of service in St. Stephen’s College more consciously and creatively. The members and volunteers of the Society exemplifying selfless service is indeed a happy and commendable thing. But that is not enough, especially at the present time. SSL has to awaken the spirit of service in every Stephanian. We do not want to contribute ‘parasites’ to the nation. Our country, awesome in its potential, is crippled for want of the spirit of service. Even as the joy in serving with integrity declines, the mercenary attitude to work –which is the seed of corruption- ascends and takes hold of our attitude to life and work. That is the nightmare we are living at the present time.
Education must be a corrective intervention in social engineering, rather than a mirror that merely reflects the distortions of the given society. St. Stephen’s College is meant to be such an intervention. The SSL, and the spirit of service it embodies, is the grammar of the life we share. The College takes pride in serving the nation, which cannot done if we limit ourselves to training young people for degrees. This task involves, necessarily, imbuing the elite of the nation, additionally, with the spirit of service.
SSL and the Spirit of Service
Dr. Renish Geevarghese Abraham, President & Staff Adviser
I am contented and delighted when, as President and Staff Adviser, I look back and analyse the role that the Social Service League of St. Stephen’s College played in the overall life of the institution since the academic year 2013-14 when I assumed office. The SSL reflects the quintessential ‘Christian’ character of the College. It may not be music to the ears of many when I associate the Society with the word ‘Christian.’ I am not referring to the idea of ‘Christian’ in terms of its religious significance. I am using it as a generic term to refer to whatever values it stands for. It is primarily a mode of life which is motivated by love for humanity inspired by a sense of service and vice versa. In other words, the idea of ‘Christian’ is nothing but a way of life that revolves around the twin poles of love and self-less service. If we explore the history of the College, it will be evident that the Founding Fathers of St. Stephen’s College were committed first and foremost to the meaning and purpose of education which entailed a sense of service to humanity.
The motto of the SSL is “service above the self,” the ideal of which is pronounced in the Sermon on the Mount, the last commandment, and above all, is embodied in the character of Christ himself. The question is how to practice this in one’s life. Ours is an educational institution which is considered, the best in India primarily because of its social and political commitment. The greatest role that education plays in one’s life is to enable one to discover the essence of humanity. I am happy that a group of our junior members have experienced the “joy of sharing” by working with various activities and projects of the SSL. The last three years were remarkable in the history of the SSL because we had a lot new initiatives like Primary Education Programme (under which our volunteers rendered 45 days of intense educational service to the students of a government school near Malka Gunj in 2013-14, and in a basti near GTB Nagar in 2014-15 and 2015-16), I PLANT INDIA, (under which a group of volunteers went to a village in Haryana to plant 100 fruit trees in 2014-15), and Parivartan seminars and talks on various socio-political issues of our time, all of which offered the possibility of the SSL reaching out to the masses.
My vision in the coming years is to extend the services of the SSL, to the maximum possible extent, to the needy outside rather than merely confining its activities within the institution. Let us all work together for the same. I also invite all interested junior members to be part of this oldest society in the college. I hope that our light will shine before others and they will know the glory of the Almighty and enjoy the fruits of service-oriented education. I wish the Society all success in the future. Ad Dei Gloriam!
Social Service : My views
Dr. Chinkhanlun Guite
Matthew 7:12 says, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets”.
In the world that we live in, all of us want to be treated with respect and received help when we needed them. Unfortunately, the majority of us forgets that the person next to you feels the same way as you do. In turn, we forgot to help and respect the people around us. There could be a lot of reasons why majority of us are the way we are now, but I believe that respectful nature and helpfulness characters are like muscles which needs years of practice to develop them. These are characteristics which cannot be developed overnight. A proper platform in which people with conscious determination can exercise their muscles is required. I believe that The Social Service League Society (SSL) in our college give such platform to the young generations to develop their muscles in the field of social work and giving back to the society without asking anything in return. Looking at the dedication and commitments given by the students, I am extremely proud to be apart of it. And It is my prayer to The Almighty God that this candle should burn as long as the human race exist. Ad Dei Gloria.