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Manual Workers: Assets for the Society

(At the Dedication Ceremony of the Social Security Aid
and State Government Ashram and Handicapped
Awards, Town Hall, Gandhinagar. June 20, 2006)

You must have noticed that it is impossible to accomplish
any work without the help of the lowliest classes of the
society. In India, we believe in worshipping hard work.
Therefore, the lowliest of the lowly is eventually at the
foundation of the society. The life stories of all the great people
make one thing clear that they all had been accompanied, helped
and supported by the lower classes.

We are awed by the success story of Lord Rama. We worship
Him, but we have never given a single thought to how He
succeeded. Yes, we all know that He accomplished His task with
the help of monkeys. If it wasn’t for the monkeys, it would have
been very difficult for Him to get Sitaji back. The monkeys
played an important role in making the bridge to Lanka. Despite
being an incarnation of God Himself, Lord Rama could not find
a way out without the help of the lowly monkeys. He held
Shabari in highest regard, so much that His respect for her was
perhaps even more than that for Kaushalya. He was as pleased
to eat Shabari’s tasted fruits as He was to eat Kaushalya’s food.
This was because His approach towards the lowly was way
different than other common people. These incidents are a
source of inspiration for all of us. He could have done without
visiting Shabari, but He did it to teach us, to inspire us. Our
history tells us the same saga. The Dalits, the Harijans and the