I recently started volunteering during the overnight shift at the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter (HSHS), and this week I had one of the most perspective-changing experiences of my life so far. One of the guests in the shelter showed me just how much I was unconsciously biased in ways that I had never realized. In the process, she showed me what it means to truly be a Karma Yogi.
For as long as I can remember, my main goal in life has been to help those less fortunate than myself – but speaking with Jennifer (as I will call her from now on) made me see how wrong this approach to life is. My goal should be to help others, not to help those less fortunate than myself – because that second phrase, that small addition to my goal, makes it clear that I consider myself to be in a higher position than other people. Karma Yoga asks us to serve others because it is good to serve them (or because we see God in all, for those that believe in God) — it does not tell us to serve others because they may be in a position to need our help. In fact, I guess I had completely forgotten how Swami Vivekananda, towards the end of Karma Yoga, reminds us that we really do nothing to help the world in the long run, because it will always return to its natural state of increasing entropy (sorry for the dorky PS1 comparison! 
) after we are gone. As he says, through service, “we help ourselves, not the world.”
Jennifer called me out for making that inherent assumption that others needed our help — and she did more than that, because she later pointed out that as college students, we weren’t really completely prepared to deal with the issues which come up at the shelter. For example, a few of the guests at the shelter have done hard time in prison — are we trained to deal with potential problems that may arise with people who might be predisposed towards violence? If someone was being sexually harassed in the shelter, are we trained enough to know how to respond effectively? And more than that, she blamed us (or PBHA, depending on how you see it), by pointing out that by allowing us to work in HSHS, PBHA is essentially saying that the guests are expendable. In other words, it is okay for us to practice on them, and to learn how to deal with certain situations based on what we see in the shelter.
This shows another interesting aspect of Karma Yoga, that I hadn’t really ever thought about — I had always assumed that as someone interested in pursuing the path of Karma Yoga, I should try to help all people, in all situations. I had never considered that I might be completely unqualified to help others in certain situations. This issue has come up for me many times in college so far — if a friend is really drunk and I want to help, but I can’t since I have almost no experience with alcohol; if someone I know is struggling with weight issues and I want to help, but I can’t because I love food too much to even be able to put myself in their shoes and give worthwhile advice; if there are homeless people struggling on a day-by-day basis and I want to help, but I can’t do anything besides serve food because I’m not qualified to deal with certain situations they might encounter. In that sense, it is important to realize that we can’t help everyone — and in fact, maybe we shouldn’t try to help everyone. Perhaps it is our dharma, in some instances, to remain on the sidelines and only help if we can.
Realizing that there are limitations to what I can realistically help people with was a really eye-opening insight for me. Of course, this doesn’t mean that I will stop volunteering in the shelter, but it does mean that I will go back with a very different attitude – I go to the shelter to help people, not to help homeless people. And I will try to be aware of the situations that can arise, and seek proper training so I can deal with them in the future.
It seems as though college is very much about these eye-opening experiences, these instances where we realize that there is a lot more to the world than we originally thought.
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6 Comments
Nice post! This one made me think about service situations differently.
This is so true! I never thought about service this way before and this has definitely changed the way I will view relationships when it comes to helping people/service in the future! thank you sonali!!
“I had never considered that I might be completely unqualified to help others in certain situations.”
That brings up a related question. What happens if I try to help in a situation where I’m not qualified to do so, and I make things worse? Am I to blame for doing something I’m not qualified to do? Or should I be praised for giving my best effort? The so-called “Good Samaritan” laws most places in the US have favor the latter approach.
That is such a tough question to answer– and its one I haven’t completely come to terms with yet, since I’m still struggling to accept that I can’t be qualified to help everyone…Personally though, I can’t live with myself knowing that I’ve made something worse– so I guess I would try not to be overzealous in helping people with stuff I don’t know much about…But I’d try my best to find someone who could help them as they deserve. In Karma Yoga, Swami Vivekananda says: “Seek not, avoid not.” And I think that phrase is perfect for this situation– we shouldn’t be seeking opportunities to help others, especially if we can’t REALLY help; rather, maybe we should wait for opportunities to come to us, and when they do, work to our full potential to help.
I agree that it is important to recognize how, in certain situations, well-intentioned individuals can do more damage than good. But at the same time this doesn’t entail that we wait passively for opportunities. It essential we seek out our cause. If we discover a cause we are passionate about, something we are willing to sacrifice our own well-being to advance, then we shouldn’t stop ourselves from helping just because we are not trained to help. Doing this would be a travesty of justice – it would be robbing the world of a valuable service. Rather than give up on service we may not be prepared for we should seek preparation, seek training and seek to become the most effective volunteers in our area.
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