YOU Can Make the World a Better Place

15. Jan, 2015: We think that how can one person make the world a better place. We wait for others to join us. However, I have a strong belief that one person can have big impact on this world. ONE single person can make this world a better place. You don’t need to wait for anyone else. You can make it alone. Show the world that kindness have more power than cruelty. Show the world that love has more power than hatred. Show the world that this world doesn’t lack kindness, it’s full of kindness. These are nice thoughts you may think, but HOW is it possible to do this?

I will give you an example. In my normal routine I take buses, and I have met all kind of bus-drivers. Some just doing their job to earn money, other smiling to the passengers and greeting the passengers while earning money. One of them always greets each passenger as the person enters the bus, no matter if he gets any respond or not. Then, before driving, he ALWAYS takes the microphone saying that he wishes everyone a good journey, a good day/evening, and hope that everyone is doing good. He does this always, even if the bus is noisy, and perhaps only one or two of the passengers will listen to his good-wishes. Whenever I see him, my face radiates with happiness. I look forward to seeing him greeting everyone and giving everyone his good wishes. Whenever I was on the bus he was driving, I always thought that I wanted to take a picture of him and share his kind nature with the world, but I never dared to ask. I mean who asks any unknown person if you can take a picture of him to share with the world? I thought that would look very weird and abnormal, no one does that. But this Monday, when I was sitting on the bus he was driving, I couldn’t resist. I asked if he had one minute when all of the other passengers had gone out (my station was the last stop). He said yes, and asked “What do you want to ask?” I told him that he was one of my everyday heroes and he inspired me, and I wanted to take a picture of him and share to the world why he is inspiring me . I said that only if he wished, there was no compulsion. He said that this is fantastic, and agreed upon me taking a picture of him and wished me a good day.

This bus-driver could be like many other bus-drivers AND like many of us who are working only to make money. He could do his job, without bothering of the passengers, take the salary and be good. By caring of his passengers, does this bus-driver get anything? Many people don’t answer his greetings, many people ignore them, and some people even laugh at him and think he is crazy. His salary won’t increase by doing this. He just makes some of his passengers happy, he shares love, that’s what he gets. He makes some of his passengers think that “hey, I appreciate this man”, “this is a good quality” or (like me) ”i want to take a picture of him”. This person doesn’t only do his job, he adds some selfless service to it, some sewa to it.

I started this blog-post by saying that YOU can make this world a better place. In my opinion this bus-driver is making this world a better place. How? Let me take my example. This person made me happy and grateful that Monday, as he always does. My happiness and state of mind affected the people I spent my evening with, my family and a friend I called. Now their state of mind will turn into a happy-mode. If they interact with someone else this evening, their happiness will affect others. That means that this bus-driver selfless act has affected so many people, even people who he has never seen in his whole life. Isn’t he making this world a better place?

Now think what you can do. You may be working and earning money, or you may be simply studying or doing other things. How can you make this world a better place? How can you cause this chain-reaction? When your mum or dad asks you to clean up, instead of complaining, give them a big smile and thank them for giving you the chance to do this service. When you go to your office, use some minutes to ask your colleagues how they are doing and greet them good morning. When you are leaving, wish them a good evening. When you are taking a walk, and meeting unknown people on the way, smile to them. By simple acts like these, you will cause the same chain-reaction as the bus-driver, and YOU will make this world a better place, because you will have no idea how many people you have affected by making one person happy.

If you feel this is difficult, you can think of your ideal-good-person. In every situation think: what would my ideal-good-person do? When I remember to, I think what would Guru Gobind Singh Ji do in this situation? And trust me, that helps, if your ego in the form of emotions or thoughts hasn’t interfered and taken full power of your decisions.

Whenever you wake up in the morning, think that you can make this world a better place. Before going to asleep, reflect upon your day – did your day went into minus or plus? Did you make the world a worse place to live in (the day went into minus), or a better one (the day went into plus)? Let’s do this together. We can make this world a better place.