“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was
service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” – Rabindranath Tagore
I did not hear this statement in
an intellectual discourse; neither friend nor teacher directed these words to
my attention, nor did any priest. In fact, I heard it first when the
auto-rickshaw driver taking me from Malviya Nagar to GK II looked at me in his
tiny rear-view mirror and recited the lines word-by-word in English amid all
the cacophony of a weekday morning Ring-road traffic snarl. I just listened to
him with awe.
The context had been that
morning’s weather, which was particularly pleasant after the harsh heat of the
previous few days. I remarked casually what a godsend the weather was since the
heat is actually worse for people who have to work out throughout the sun like
the labourers and yes, the taxi and auto drivers. My driver looked at me in the
mirror and smiled saying how work, when perceived in that exalted attitude ceases to be merely a physical/ mental
activity which is capable of causing discomfort or stress. He explained his
personal views that work done in the service of others stripped of avarice and
ritualism, is actually an honest offering to God and therefore, escapes all the
accompanying encumbrances which work sometimes amounts to. It was then that he
spoke of how Tagore had so clearly synthesised the essence of work, which is
service.
The auto driver had graduated in
Arts from a university in UP and came down to Delhi looking for work, and has
now been driving his auto for nearly 21 years. All his children are graduates (a son
is even pursuing his PhD degree) and he confessed with an easy humility that
having not amassed any monies, his only wealth is the upbringing he has been
able to provide his children, and furnishing them the foundation upon which
they can aspire for greatness. In the presence of such plain-speak and humility,
I felt humbled too. As I got down, I thanked him for his inspiring thoughts,
and silently thanked Tagore too for the clear truths which he has left behind
for all of us.
