Imagine being in India during the largest earthquake in over 50 years.      

After college, while most of her friends were beginning their first jobs, Seema Patel bought a one-way ticket to India, motivated only by the urge to give. She wasn't sure what she'd do when she arrived, but it just felt right.  Then, on the morning of January 26, 2001, an earthquake on the magnitude of 7.9 hit Gujarat.  Seema had seen a ten story building crumble to the ground in Ahmedabad, where she was located.    

Her father’s advice to her was not to get on the next plane back home to California. Instead, he told his daughter to find a rickshaw and travel to the Gandhi Ashram.  What would she do there? Seema had no idea.  But after walking through the ashram for 30 minutes and stumbling upon what seemed like a hundred smiling and laughing children, she was completely thrown off and amazed. Outside the ashram everything was shut down and in disarray. Walking past the playing children, she met for the first time three individuals that would change the direction of her life. They were Jayeshbahi, Anarben, and Virenbhai, the three founders of Manav Sadhna.

Here is a summary of their first conversation:

“I just came here to help but I’m not sure what I can do?”
“We were just about to have our first disaster response planning meeting. Would you like to join us?”
“Don’t you want to see my resume? Ask if I have a college degree?”
“What? No, no resume. All you need is your head, heart and hands.” 
And the rest is history.
Seema ended up spending one year at Manav Sadhna.  Following are three key insights that she shared with us based on these experiences in her life.

“Your heart knows today what your mind knows tomorrow.”

To live in the present, you have to follow your heart.  Although the year at Manav Sadhna had a life changing impact on Seema, she explained that it wasn't a journey that she had planned.   Throughout her time in India, by listening to her heart she was guided by the power of the present moment.  “Whatever I experienced over the last 15 years, it's in retrospect that I see the path.”  Seema continued to follow her heart by volunteering on earthquake relief with Manav Sadhna to help rebuild a village named Ludiya in the Kutch district of Gujarat.  She explained that it was the exchanges that she experienced in organizing with community leaders in Kutch that later planted the seeds for her work in the United States with organizing unions.   Later during her year at India, Seema became involved with Ekta, a dance-drama about oneness and unity that was performed by 14 children from Ahmedabad slums.

At each point, Seema explained, she wasn't quite sure what she was doing, and it's only looking back that she sees the path she was on. Her Dada's (grandfather) advice to just trust her intentions helped her keep going.

“One of the most powerful lessons I took from Manav Sadhna is the power of the present.  There is a pressure in American society about always looking to what’s next and there is this invisible happy line. "Once I get this I'll be happy.”  I have learned that there is no deeper happiness or joy than being in the moment and being present.  After I got back from India, I really tried to take things one step at a time. I had felt compelled by the community organizing in Ludiya and so when I returned here, I became a union organizer.  That is what I felt most compelled to do at that time, and that has led to all these different things.  I always tell young people, “Assess your personal skill set and ask what is the greatest way in which you could put that skills set towards the service of others?  If you can do that, you have found the greatest service.”
 
"When your intentions are pure and come from the heart, the rest of the path will be laid out for you."

Her Dada's wise words came at exactly the right time for Seema, when she was at a key juncture in her work with Manav Sadhana - helping to bring Ekta to the United States on a three month tour - and feeling a bit lost.  Seema returned to the United States with the 14 kids from Ekta and a team of volunteers.  They spent three months touring the United States in an RV and watched them perform everywhere from small towns in middle America to San Francisco and New York.  Again, nothing had really been planned for this trip. Venues were booked, the event was advertised, and funds were raised all along the way as they drove from one end of the country to the other.  Coming from India, a lot of money was required to expense the tour and at one point Seema remembers breaking down.  She worried that they wouldn’t be able to fundraise all the money that was needed and that she might let town the team and the kids from Ekta.  But her dada said, “Don’t worry.  If you want to do something good for someone else and your intention is pure, everything else will naturally fall into place.”  And it did. 

Seema and the Ekta team helped to put on 25 shows in those three months. These shows were exchanges between the children and the audience that were transformative.  Sitting in the audience of the
New Jersey performance was an individual named Nimesh (aka Nimo) Patel.  Nimo later went on to volunteer with Manav Sadhna and is now the Project Director of Ekatva, a continuation of the Ekta journey.  Ekatva will be touring the United States and the UK this May and June. 

“My life is my message: Spirituality must be grounded in Seva”

As a staunch Gandhian, Seema’s dada quietly dedicated his life to seva, and this dedication became his message in life, always guiding him in the right direction.  He is now 90 years old but to this day he serves others; his spirituality is grounded in selfless service.  Seema constantly saw this while growing up with him and found his example an inspiration on her own journey.   

“So being grounded in seva was never something that was deliberately taught by my dada, it was how he was.  In my dada’s shadow, and with my parents’ immense, undying support, I learned to serve.” 

Seema added, "My Dada laid a lot of the groundwork for Ekta.  He was 77 years old and driving an RV full of children during the three month tour.  My husband Seth is exactly the same way.  He lives this life of giving that is so rare; but when you observe him and are around him, you are completely encompassed by that energy. It's who he is and how he is and I strive to be like that.  This is what has guided my activism and my work.  My spirituality and my work are intertwine; my work has always been another manifestation of seva.  There is no other way that it could be."