DOES ASKING, "HOW CAN I HELP" BRING PEACE OF MIND?

For some reason I find myself asking this question more and more, "how can I help?"

It is probably a basic human desire to want to lend a hand or extend a hand to another human. I don’t want to sound anything like a saint or even a selfless soul, because I am not. I am probably one of the most selfish people I know. So, in a strange way, at least for me, this desire to do something for another fellow human soul, is truly—like most of my desires—another selfish one. But maybe that’s how it works… It is one of the secrets to why Alcoholics Anonymous works so well for so many—it is the Twelfth Step, "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs."

In the simplest terms, in order to keep it we must give it away. I do not honestly know why, but I am beginning to feel it is MY JOB to share whatever it is I have learned. Actually, for me, it is not so much "what I have learned" (which may not be very much) that I feel I need to share, it is more "THE PROCESS of discovery." The sharing fulfills another selfish desire to feel connected. By talking about the path I am on, I begin to feel that we are all in this together. And what more comforting feeling can there be than the feeling of being in the boat with the rest of humanity?

It seems to me, that giving what we have is both a most selfish and natural desire.

I remember someone asking Maharishi why he bothered to leave the bliss of the Himalayas and come out into the "mud" (as the saints call it) of the ignorant world. He answered that once one has gained some knowledge, the only thing to do with it is to give it away. And surprisingly, what I am learning is that it is when we GIVE that we lose ourselves—and start to GAIN peace of mind.

In one of the last notes left behind by Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 he expressed the following:

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."