Swamiji, You teach us meditation. What is the point of meditation when the rest of the world is suffering? Instead of meditating, we can do some service.

A small story:

There was once a king who was known to be compassionate. He used to go around his kingdom unannounced to see how his subjects were.

One day, he saw a small boy catching a pigeon. The boy held the pigeon tightly in his hands as it tried to flutter desperately. The king asked the boy, ‘Don’t you see the bird is afraid and struggling? Why don’t you free it?’

The boy did not know he was speaking to the king. He said, ‘Sir, I have caught this pigeon after a long wait. How can I give it up?’ The king thought briefly and then asked the boy if he would sell the pigeon. The boy readily agreed. The king handed the boy a gold coin in exchange for the bird.

By then a crowd had gathered around the king. They watched as the king took the pigeon and waved his hands upward releasing the bird. The king was very happy to free the bird and at the same time to see the crowd praising him.

The king asked if anybody else had any captive birds. A few people came forward. The king asked them to get their birds and he gave them all a gold coin each in exchange. Then he proudly released the birds.

After a few days, the king’s advisor, a wise sage, paid a visit to the palace. He asked the king to come with him in disguise to visit the kingdom. The king in disguise went with the sage to a forest. To his utter surprise, he saw several villagers busy setting up traps to catch the birds. Many birds were even losing their lives because of the crude traps. The people were now deliberately catching birds to get a gold coin in exchange for the bird from the king!

The sage asked the king, ‘Why do the birds have to pay such a heavy price for you to show your so-called compassion?’

Only acts of service coming from pure consciousness can be truly effective.

If we can genuinely feel the suffering of the rest of humanity and if we work out of compassion to remove their suffering, then it is very good. But we must first have the understanding of this extended consciousness to feel this compassion. Not only that, the greatest service that you can do to humanity is to become a divine human being yourself! Meditation is the first step for that!

source: Living Enlightenment