Krisha Mitra Das
Ethical Vegan Yogini
Three out of four of my main role models are people who served the poor—especially those who are starving (George Muller, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day); for a good reason, I have felt drawn to these people to later realize that this is their commonality.
So during the summer months, I researched ways how I would go to the streets, feeding the poor, until after researching, finding out from a very reliable source (who was once homeless and still champions those who are homeless/poor), that in the Portland area, no one has to starve. There are so many food lines, and even shelters specifically set up to give food only to people; one such service said they will serve people twice a day until everyone in line is fed. So all one has to do is just show up to these places all around town.
I started to think maybe that isn't what I should do; plus these organizations are more equipped at serving them than I am on my own.
So I stopped thinking about that and as time went on, I started thinking about what I thought was something different: simply me showing extra-loving kindness to all around me in a real friend-like way a la Cassie Nightingale (character from the hallmark show, Good Witch), especially in my future new community; I am to do this as dharma: Bhakti Yoga service.
It then dawned on me in that way, I CAN be still serving the poor—not poor people because of lack of food, but poor people who are spiritually poor.
So this would be more than Bhakti Yoga—seeing God and myself in others. Seeing us all as One; it will also be in dharma service of another kind of poverty.
As Mother Teresa said:
“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
Seeing where God has taken me, I strongly sense this is where I am going, and beyond Cassie Nightingale's loving kindness (Hallmark will only go so far…), but to show my spiritual side as well, being an inspiration of love and service in showing how wonderful life can be when one is devoutly committed in their own spiritual life.
So during the summer months, I researched ways how I would go to the streets, feeding the poor, until after researching, finding out from a very reliable source (who was once homeless and still champions those who are homeless/poor), that in the Portland area, no one has to starve. There are so many food lines, and even shelters specifically set up to give food only to people; one such service said they will serve people twice a day until everyone in line is fed. So all one has to do is just show up to these places all around town.
I started to think maybe that isn't what I should do; plus these organizations are more equipped at serving them than I am on my own.
So I stopped thinking about that and as time went on, I started thinking about what I thought was something different: simply me showing extra-loving kindness to all around me in a real friend-like way a la Cassie Nightingale (character from the hallmark show, Good Witch), especially in my future new community; I am to do this as dharma: Bhakti Yoga service.
It then dawned on me in that way, I CAN be still serving the poor—not poor people because of lack of food, but poor people who are spiritually poor.
So this would be more than Bhakti Yoga—seeing God and myself in others. Seeing us all as One; it will also be in dharma service of another kind of poverty.
As Mother Teresa said:
“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”
Seeing where God has taken me, I strongly sense this is where I am going, and beyond Cassie Nightingale's loving kindness (Hallmark will only go so far…), but to show my spiritual side as well, being an inspiration of love and service in showing how wonderful life can be when one is devoutly committed in their own spiritual life.
