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To offer the needed things and services to the poor is arcanā. To treat them respectfully and humbly is vandanā. To remember their miseries in order to mitigate them is smaraņa. To serve them through our activities is pādasevanā. To listen to their tales of woe carefully and sympathetically is śravana. To Praise the virtues of the poor is kīrtana. To serve the poor like a servant is dāsyabhāva. To serve the poor like a friend is sakhyabhāva, and to identify ourselves with them is the worship called ātmabhāva. Like this, to serve the poor is to serve God in the abovementioned nine ways referred to as navadhā bhakti.
One who serves the poor like their own brother is called *Dinabandhu' or brother of the poor. One who raises the level of the downtrodden is called 'Patitapāvana'. One who is kind towards the poor is called “Dinadayāla' and one who mitigates their miseries is called 'Duḥkhahāri'. Dinadayāla, Dinabandhu, Duḥkhahāri and Patitapāvana are the God's name and synonyms for the term 'Prabhu' or the Lord. Therefore, one who serves the poor and the needy becomes like the God Himself, because he acquires the virtues of the Lord. All the incarnations of God in this world have been to serve the needy and the arena of their service was not limited to the humans only but extended to the animals and even to all the living beings. Sri Krsna was a servant of the cows, Jesus Christ was shepherd and Mohammad Sāhib kept the goats. All these great personalities are counted amongst incarnations or representatives of the God.
Bhagvān Mahāvīra and Gautama Buddha ensured the public weal through service and became greatly venerable. It is those who serve that become eligible for greatness, honour and veneration. Actually, the servants are the incarnations of God. In a servant as the feeling to serve becomes nobler, his flawlessness increases. Flawlessness and purity are the attributes of the Lord. Thus, service is a means to attain Godhood.
Only those gentle souls can serve whose hearts move at the sight of others' misery. Therefore, the servant gives up his own comforts and pleasure and adopts others' miseries. Once the others' misery
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Positive Non-Violence
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