Voluntarism and the Importance of Seva and Social Justice in Hindu Faith

The first day of the new year is nearly upon us. Before I decide what I want to achieve in 2013, I must  begin by assessing how the past year’s initiatives went. I must admit that this year  part of the unique” A Year of Service” programme was great. It was heart warming to see that the members of different faith communities and people of no faith to come together to volunteer and help improve local neighbourhoods. United by faith and driven by faith - whichever faith that may be, day in, day out, people  are giving their time, their energy, their hearts and  souls to make communities better and surveys show people of religious observance are more likely to become volunteers.

The topic of voluntarism in Hindu faith I would like to discuss in this blog.

On the surface, emphasis in the Hindu and Dharmic  traditions appears to be primarily on inner self realization. We are encouraged to engage in community service as a transformation practice,sadhana, without personal recognition or publicity. Our underlying Vedic philosophy,  is Service to Man is Service to God. It is an inside out approach to living. Our definition of seva is: "Service which is given without consideration of anything in return, at the right place and time to one that is qualified, with the feeling that it is one's duty, is regarded as the nature of goodness." -- Bhagavad Gita 17.20

It is no wonder then that in the UK, where community service is institutionalized as a well disciplined field, many wonder, where is Dharmic seva? Do Hindus serve the needy? Where is community service through their faith based institutions? What theology guides the Hindus to serve?

My  research shows seva is done in many ways by the Hindu in UK, but seems to be "hidden" and under-reported. To bridge this gap and increase existing ongoing seva activities, some  UK Hindu charities, with the blessing and support of spiritual leaders have launched a strategic initiative to bring seva to greater prominence.  The  aim is to encourage all Dharmic institutions and people all Hindu sampradayas (congregations) to bring seva to the  forefront through  FestivalSeva which invokes the spiritual values of our manyfestivals that are celebrated throughout the year in every part of the world where Hindus live.

Growing up in a Hindu family, religion was always a part our life in the sense that there were always rituals to learn about, ceremonies that were taking place. For many years, however, the main lesson that I took from my religion was one of dedication and detachment -- intertwining the concepts of dharma and karma -- to work hard, to do your best at everything you do, but to remain unattached to the results of those actions, because those are far beyond our control.

 I have  noticed in  Christianity  through the Poverty Initiative and its Poverty scholars programs bring together community leaders from a coalition of organizations around the country, I have seen how easily its leaders have interpreted Jesus' message of social justice, bringing the words and lessons of the Bible to life, as a way to understand how to relate to poverty, homelessness, hunger and old age and what we can and should do about it.

  I am now trying to  understand  how Hinduism relates to and understands poverty and social issues  It has been difficult to find an explicitly similar "apples to apples" comparison but Hindu theology  for me, provides a powerful source for a united front in this struggle for social justice. In this theology, our duty, our dharma, is to do what is right for all, which, in my line of work means addressing the structural causes of injustice (adharma) that are contrary to the good of all. We live in global society that is systemically denying human dignity at a rampant scale -- for at least 1.4 billion people around the world, including thousands of people in the UK – suffer from unemployment, underemployment, homelessness, hunger, malnutrition, and other dimensions of human vulnerability and insecurity. Because of our one-ness, even those of us who are not hungry suffer the injustice of a system that perpetuates hunger.

 I hope to learn from  UK and world Hindu organisations and umbrella groups and also hope that, from these teachers and organizations, their leadership, members and work -- that may or may not be explicitly theological, but still embodies a living Hindu theology -- I will further my own understanding of Hinduism and how to actualize its potential to realize social justice."

I think, now is also the time to for the young British of Hindu faith  to be more fully engaged to serve by developing institutional capacity.  Program  such as A year of service projected by Department for communities  and Local Government, can increase building of sustainable infrastructures. 

In the end some statistical information, currently  are approximately 415 registered Hindu charities with combine income of around £42 million, which in my opinion, if we can streamline and bring uniformity in Hindu faith could go many times more because inherently Hindu believe in seva and daan.

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