Service as a Way of Life

Features and Activities

Key Features:


LOGO The ideology of Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal finds expression through their multifarious activities. These activities cover different areas of human need and social welfare such as education, health, rural development, self-employment, women's welfare, inter-faith understanding, moral life, spiritual guidance, and relief to victims of calamities. All these activities are conducted as service, service to GOD in man. In the Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal service is not restricted to a particular type of activity conducted at a particular time, but is a way of life. And there is no time limit or age limit for this type of service by the sevok/dikshatri. The sevok/dikshatri continue to engage themselves in various service activities until they are incapacitated by illness or extreme old age.

Service as a way of life followed in Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal has certain distinctive features. Some of these features are mentioned below:

Liberty & Equality:
These two great ideals of democracy, about which humanity has been dreaming and talking for centuries, are becoming a social reality, in a silent and unobtrusive way. ‘Liberty is the first condition of growth.’ Freedom from religious bigotry, intolerance, hatred and superstitions, freedom from religious, social and racial prejudices, in a word, freedom of thought and belief — this is a central fact in the Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal’s activities aim at the welfare of all people without any distinctions of caste, creed or race. The rich and the poor, the Brahmin and the Harijan, Hindus, Muslims, Christians — all are treated as children of the same Divine parents. These institutions follow Sri Nityannanda mahaprabhu’s view that social equality is to be brought about, not by a process of ‘levelling down’, but by ‘levelling up’, that is, not by pulling down those who are already up but by raising up those who are down.

Excellence, Efficiency & Teamwork:
These three qualities are generally associated with business enterprises, but they are the governing principles in all activities undertaken by Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal. Since all work is done as worship, and only the best things are offered to the Lord, the members of Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal try to do their allotted work in the best way possible. Care is taken to avoid waste or loss of any kind. Other than the minimum necessary for the maintenance of the institutions and their inmates, all the resources are used for the welfare of society.

Truthfulness, Honesty & Transparency:
Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal scrupulously follow all statutory and contingent rules and conditions with regard to receiving and spending funds, which come mostly through public donations and government grants. Their accounts are regularly audited and made available to the public. Transparency in financial matters is a hallmark of the Ashram.

Social commitment:
In a democratic country which follows the principle of ‘Welfare State’, any kind of social service necessarily involves interaction with the Government. However, being a spiritual organization, which aims at the spiritual regeneration of humanity, Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal maintain their position.

Activities:
The main activities conducted by Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal are given below.

Relief and Rehabilitation Work:
when Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal was founded, it has conducted extensive relief operations for the victims of natural disasters such as cyclone, flood, earthquake and fire almost every year and man-made calamities such as riots.

Medical Service:
The Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal has conducted medical camp every year, which serve mostly in rural and tribal areas and are meant primarily for the poor. Lakhs of patients were treated in these medical centres and patients are operated on for cataract free of cost.

Work in Rural Areas:
For rural people, the Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal look after which farmers are taught improved methods of cultivation and also provided with agricultural inputs and financial help. Projects such as wasteland development, holding farmers' fairs, soil testing, planting of fruit and forest trees, etc. are undertaken. Drinking water is provided by digging borewells and tube wells.

Welfare Work:
The Sri Sri Nityananda Janmasthan Sevamandal and its branches provide medical aid to poor patients and monetary help to aged and destitute men and women. This was in addition to the huge sums spent by our organization for the benefit of poor peoples to distribute cloths in winter and other materials of their daily life all over the year.

Work for Women:
The organization serve women through the maternity sections of their hospitals, an old-age home for women, schools of nursing, self-help groups and vocational training centres for rural women and widows.

Spreading Religion and Culture:
This is accomplished through a large number of libraries, lectures, discourses and seminars, audio-visual units, exhibitions, museums, retreats, and publishing books, journals, etc. The organization publish 3 journals in different languages. Books on Vedanta, the message of Sri Nityananda Mahaprabhu, spirituality and country religions in almost all the major languages of India and in some of the important languages of other countries are published from the 2 publication centres.

Spiritual Service:
Every branch of our organization maintains a shrine dedicated to Sri Nityananda Mahaprabhu where ritualistic worship is offered to Him every day. At dusk arati is done along with congregational singing of vesper hymns and bhajans in which devotees participate. On festival days and on the birthdays of Sri Nityananda Mahaprabhu, special spiritual programmes are arranged in which lakhs of people participate. The birthday of Lord Krishna, are observed in all our brances. Another form of spiritual service is talks and advice on spiritual topics given by heads of branches to devotees, and the retreats and bhakta-sammelans organized at the branches for the benefit of devotees. The most important form of spiritual service, however, is diksha or spiritual initiation given by the President, Secretary and a few selected seniors of Sri Sri Nityananda Sevamandal order to sincere spiritual seekers.