— Attributed to the Dalai Lama; no primary source identified
About this quote
हिन्दी में
इस जीवन में हमारा सबसे बड़ा उद्देश्य दूसरों की मदद करना है। और अगर मदद न कर सको, तो कम से कम किसी को चोट मत पहुँचाओ।
What it means
This is a two-tier ethic compressed into two sentences, and the second tier is the useful one. The first sets a maximum — helping others as the point of a life. The second quietly concedes that the maximum is often out of reach, then sets a floor that never is.
That concession is what makes the line worth keeping. Most statements of purpose collapse the moment you are tired, out of resources, or facing a problem you cannot solve; this one hands you a second instruction for exactly that situation. The fallback is stated as a minimum and not as an equivalent — at least marks it as the lower bar, not as permission to settle there.
What it teaches you
When you genuinely cannot help — no expertise, no standing, no capacity — the line says the obligation has not ended, only changed shape. In practice that rules out the specific things people do when they feel useless: forwarding the problem with a comment attached, repeating the story to others, offering advice you know is worthless in order to look engaged, withdrawing in a way that costs the other person something. Doing none of those is the floor, and it is available on any day.
अर्थ और सीख
दो वाक्य, दो अलग स्तर — ऊँचा लक्ष्य दूसरों की मदद करना, और जब वह संभव न हो तब की न्यूनतम शर्त: किसी को चोट न पहुँचाना। दूसरा वाक्य ही इस पंक्ति को रोज़मर्रा में काम लायक बनाता है, क्योंकि मदद हमेशा हमारे बस में नहीं होती, पर नुक़सान न पहुँचाना हमेशा होता है। सीख यह कि जब आप किसी की समस्या हल न कर सकें, तब भी ज़िम्मेदारी ख़त्म नहीं होती — बस उसका रूप बदल जाता है।
