When To Start Serving? Now Is Good.
ServiceSpace
--Jyoti
2 minute read
Aug 1, 2015

 


I was at a temple when this little girl who was tiny of frame but large in her presence came by walking through the other devotees seated on the ground. She was no more than three years old, if that. Her nose had sandalwood paste and her forehead had a vermilion mark and there was a sacred necklace around her neck, all symbols that are commonly worn by the devotees of ISKCON. In one hand she carried a q-tip with a perfumed oil on it and in the other she carried a gardenia flower. She was offering her service to the devotees by spreading the good scent. She went from one person to the next, offering the flower by holding it close to their nose so they could enjoy it's fragrance and then rubbing the q-tip on their hand just where it meets the wrist (as you see the lady offering her hand in the picture).

This little girl with closed crop hair was such a delight that she touched everyone at a deeper level. For me, she felt like a holy-presence with her pure spirit. Her face was set with the look of determination. With each step she was bravely going from one stranger to the next, making her offerings, and getting further from her comfort zone of being in her mother's lap or around her older sister, who sat amongst the devotees. She had started her service with them, and then by invitation from a welcoming neighbor, stepped it up. She started hesitatingly at first and then gaining confidence, stepped it up further. So inspiring to see her start to serve so young. We can all start now, and follow from those we love to the neighbor who might welcome it and then be brave to step it up to reach the strangers around us.      

  

 

Posted by Jyoti on Aug 1, 2015


2 Past Reflections