| Between You and Us
Dear Readers,
There is a saying “Give a man a fish and you satisfy
his hunger for a day. Teach him how to fish and you satisfy
his hunger for life.” The cover story of this issue
‘God’s own children’ is about the above
saying. It is a story on the Sathya
Sai Deenajanoddharana programme for destitute children,
started by Swami.
Many times we come across people not so privileged as us
and we are compassionate enough to throw a dime at them or
give them some food. We then go ahead not bothering to think
what will happen to them the next day. In effect, the value
of our ‘help’ is just that dime or loaf of bread.
But suppose we stay back and have a few words with them,
ask where they stay and what forces them to beg. May be we
will find a way to change their life. If it is a child may
be we can help him/her join a local charity school or if it
is an adult, may be we can ask some friend of ours in a high
position to consider giving him/her a small job. Yes, it is
always not possible to do this for everyone we come across.
But may be a few people in a lifetime? It is also difficult
to do this for someone we absolutely do not know. But we can
always take our time and get to know his/her background and
see what we can do. As individuals we may not be able to do
much (there are exceptions like, for example, Mother Theresa!)
but if four or five of us get together, things become much
easier.
The idea is not just to help them for a day, but for a lifetime.
This is not to say that temporary relief is not worth it.
But can we think of going beyond it, in our own capacity?
Can we make our ‘help’ worth more than a dime?
The Deenajanoddharana
programme launched by Swami, where destitute children
have been given a new meaning in their Life, has taught them
‘how to fish’ instead of just giving them ‘fish’.
Several others have taken inspiration from it and started
similar projects, though on a smaller scale.
Can you teach someone ‘to fish’?
Jai Sai Ram
SGH TEAM
* If you are already involved in such a service,
why don’t you send us your story? The address is h2h@radiosai.org
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