Gandhi never held any official position in government, he had no wealth, the commanded no armies -- but he could mobilize millions. People were willing to serve with him and for him because his life was devoted to serving them.
Many of us have come to believe that leadership is the attainment of power. But as long as power dominates our thinking about leadership, we cannot move toward a higher standard of leadership. We must place service at the core; for even though power will always be associated with leadership, it has only one legitimate use: service.
The importance of service to leadership has a long history. Ancient monarchs acknowledged that they were in the service of their country and their people -- even if their actions were not consistent with this. Modern coronation ceremonies and inaugurations of heads of state all involve the acknowledgement of service to God, country, and the people. Politicians define their role in terms of public service. And service has always been at the core of leadership in the spiritual arena, symbolized at the highest level by Christ washing the feet of His disciples.
Service exists in the context of a relationship. In politics, it is between elected officials and their constituents, in academia between teachers and their students, in religion between priests and their congregations, and in interpersonal relationships between loved ones. In business it is between companies and their customers, shareholders, management and their employees.
The ideal of selfless service -- you see everybody as yourself and expect no reward. But if you wait until you can serve without any selfish motive, you may wait forever. Gandhi insisted that the best way to attain the ideal was to start on the journey: "If we all refuse to serve, until we attain perfection, there will be no service. The fact is that perfection is attained through service."
--Keshavan Nair, in A Higher Standard of Leadership
On Aug 20, 2009 Pancho wrote :
My family calls me Pancho and I love you all...
I'm writing this post from the Kindness Temple. This place has so much love, that at the very least, I want to express my gratitude in this form: sharing the aliveness growing in me thanks to all these Wednesdays of unconditional love.
1. Hermano Sri.
2. Definition of Greatness and the Drum Major Instinct.
3. Invaluable Heritage
1. Hermano Sri.
Last night, brother Sri (a young and inspirng Doctor/Poet: Sriram Shamasunder) was the guest speaker at Wednesdays and he shared some truly remarkable stories from his five months of service in one of the poorest regions on the planet. It is hard to describe with words the images he showed us about the extreme poverty in Burundi and equally hard is to describe the shining eyes and beautiful smiles of the healed children. [I hope I can post soon one of the poems he wrote there, specially the one he read yesterday]. This man is the embodiment of service, a citizen of the World bringing the best of him to bring our lives into harmony with divine purpose. El hermano Sri is a leader who serves, a servant leader like many other servant leaders who are striving for the soul of live...
2. Definition of Greatness and the Drum Major Instinct.
Another servant leader was Martin Luther King Jr. He said:
"We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. ... And the great issue of life is to harness the drum major instinct. It is a good instinct if you don't distort it and pervert it. Don't give it up. Keep feeling the need for being important. Keep feeling the need for being first. But I want you to be the first in love. I want you to be the first in moral excellence. I want you to be the first in generosity."
"The definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant."
I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.
I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry.
And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked.
I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison.
I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
For me, it is clear how Gandhi, King and Shamasunder connect betweeneach other through service. This quote from Martin Luther King Jr will disipate any doubts:
"If we are to have peace on Earth…we must develop a World perspective."
The inspiring service of hermano Sri, his committed life and his World perspective, altogether is an example of how a citizen of the World can planetize the Movement of the Ahimsa Revolution one heart at a time.
All these extraordinary human beings have left (and are leaving!) the best heritage we can have: to find the reason why we are on this planet, to find the meaning of life through service.
May all become compassionate courageous and wise.
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