Colour of Kindness and Black Lotus

Hana Wahraku, Ben Koku Na Haru 

translates into “A single flower blooms, and throughout the world it is spring”. This beautiful quote from Swamiji’s blog “Mind Full to Mindful” has made a beautiful impact on me. As long as I can remember, kindness has played a crucial role in my life and I believe kindness is a powerful catalyst in self-transformation. As per the quote, a single and simple act of kindness can help the creation to bloom multifold, thus emitting the fragrance of hope, faith and joy in hearts!

To begin with, I am an avid and active user of the wonderful Black Lotus app with a streak of about 560+ days. I thank Black Lotus because it has given me ample opportunity to serve the creation and impact lives around me. As of today (9th September 2020), I am humbled to have made an impact on 3k lives. 

The statistics of the Black Lotus community is overwhelming and superb with 704K lives impacted! (As of today – 9th September 2020). Download the app now (if you have not downloaded already).

Indeed, Black Lotus is the world’s best meditation app. Hear it all from the Master and Founder Om Swami, here. It has a beautiful RARE Framework. What is RARE?

RARE stands for Reflect (Meditate), Act (Kindness), Reinforce (Read) and Evaluate (Measure).

I want to talk about kindness and the enormous impact it has on my life and others around me. A while ago, I published a RAK story on how I practice kindness on the app. I thank Swamiji, Black Lotus and the entire team for their wonderful initiative to publish and share stories of kindness and love. These stories are etched in our hearts and indeed pave the way to pay forward kindness and compassion.

Daily acts of kindness

The social media and the world around us are filled with negativity most of the time. It is really difficult to filter out the noise and find the inner sanctuary of peace and kindness in our hearts.

Hence, I have made it a habit to share good thoughts, quotes and inspiring pieces of articles on my social media platforms. I believe that one step of goodness will bring forth a ripple effect in the consciousness of others around us too. By doing so, I choose to see the good in everything and try to bring positivity despite the saddening and troubling news around us.

Other than this, whenever possible, I try to donate money to organizations randomly. One important aspect of kindness in my purview is the power to choose our thoughts and emotions carefully so as to react carefully and mindfully to things and people around us. Sometimes, I try my best to not to react to unpleasant things and behave in a way that befits me and the ones around me.

Life gives us a choice to sometimes go out of the way and perform a random act of kindness. On that note, I remember an incident which is very close to my heart.

There is an adorable stray dog which lives around our society. A while ago, I got a call from a friend who told me that the dog was injured and I should help as soon as possible. I went to check up on the dog and it was fine. But I figured that there was another unfamiliar stray which was injured very badly. Although I was relieved that the stray I knew was fine, the fact that the unfamiliar dog was injured too made me realise that compassion means we have to care about each and everyone around us. I thought what Swamiji would have done in my situation and decided to help the unfamiliar dog immediately. With my limited resources and immense faith, facing advertises (since I wasn’t trained professionally to handle injured animals), I was able to get the injured dog treated with my friends and good samaritans.

Feeding and caring for strays is something I do on a daily basis.

Weekly or bi-weekly acts of kindness

Black Lotus has over 150 ideas of kindness! One of the most heart-warming and simple acts of kindness that has a special place in my heart is ‘gifting a book’. Also, I try to be helpful to someone in need and help them by making them feel motivated if they feel low and underconfident. Swamiji insists that making a person feel valued and needed is one of the great services to mankind. In synchronisation of this divine statement from our Beloved Lord, I hope and try my best to be there for someone when they are troubled.

Monthly acts of kindness

I try my best to donate 10-20 percentage of my income to institutions that care for destitute people, elder citizens and provide free education to unaffordable children.

Half-yearly/Yearly acts of Kindness

As a practice, I try to volunteer my time, resources and talents to be with children of such institutes which provide shelter, education and care for them. I share good values, thoughts and teachings with them and try to entertain them.

Through this post, I hope to give the message that kindness can be practised and cultivated in an organized way just like any other habit. Hence, through Black Lotus and blessings of Beloved Om Swamiji, I see beautiful colours of kindness to serve and care for the creation around me. Though I am nowhere perfect in the path, I’d like to improve myself and be kinder.

PS – Once again, this is only a humble post to inspire you all to share your acts of kindness too. Though I am just a tiny speck in the grand scheme of things, I hope to inspire and be more humble.

I also would like to thank Sanjana Om for encouraging me to write, edit and share my post with you all here.