Let your life be a radiance of purity, love, sacrifice and selfless service. – Swami Sivananda
Empathically think of others. Walk in their shoes.
A selfish human can have no peace.
On the other hand, if you are selfless, if you serve others without motive, you will feel great peace… at once.
Motiveless, selfless service yields pure Joy. Make others happy. You will begin to delight in their happiness. This is something which is open to everyone to experience. Serve others in a small way… or in a big way, as is given to you but without any thought of reward or recognition.
This is service for the sake of service. Service at every turn. Whenever opportunity offers itself.
Almost twenty years ago, late in the evening, in a big city, out on my evening walk, I was stopped by a girl in a quiet comer, in an imploding tone: “Bhai Saheb, Dar Lagtha Hai.” In a moment, I sensed the situation. In that lonely place, she was being pursued by a Tongawala. In her fright, the girl had lost all sense of direction and was searching for her house. I reassured her and in a little while we discovered that the house she wanted to reach was well within a furlong of where we stood. I escorted her to her place and went my way. A trifling good turn that supported the fullness and joy that I felt that day lingers fresh in my memory even now. There are many ways in which one can help others at little or no cost. Only a pure heart is required.
What is the object of Seva or service?
Why do you serve the poor and the needy and the suffering humanity at large?
Why do you serve society and the country?
By doing service you purify your heart.
The sense of separateness from each other will dissolve. Egoism, hatred, jealousy, the idea of superiority and all the kindred negative qualities will vanish.
Humility, pure love, sympathy, empathy, tolerance and mercy will develop. Selfishness will be eradicated. You will get a broad and liberal outlook on life. You will begin to feel oneness and unity with all living beings. Eventually you will obtain knowledge of the Self.
You will realize “One in All” and “All in One”. You will feel unbounded Joy. What is society after all? It is nothing but a collection of individuals. This World is nothing but a manifestation of God. Service of humanity is, in fact, nothing short of service of God. Service is worship. But one should serve with Bhava. Then you can have quick Realization and purification of the heart.
The sense of separateness from one another is a colossal fetter. This sense of separateness is an illusion created by ignorance or Maya. Kill this sense of separateness through Brahma Bhavana, by developing Advaitic unity of consciousness and by means of selfless service.
Develop keen enthusiasm for selfless service. Be kind to all. Love all. Serve all. Be tolerant and generous towards all. Serve the Lord in all. That is the way to reach the goal.
Develop boundless love for all beings. This is the first and foremost qualification for an aspirant. The astral body of one who has this boundless love will shine with magnificent brilliance and lustre. There will be a glow of ineffable splendour. An aspirant who ignores their own pleasures, comforts and tries to help others is really an advanced student in the path of spirituality. This aspirant carries the key to unlock the realms of spiritual bliss.
You must be able to think quickly and act promptly with unerring precision and profound concentration in times of emergencies. You must take care to see that you are not rash and impetuous. You must be cool and collected.
Many aspirants of the present day prefer to do some pleasant work – some writing, some collection of flowers for Puja, arranging books in the library, some typewriting, some kind of supervision and management work, etc. They dislike works such as drawing water and hewing wood, cleaning dirty utensils, washing clothes, sweeping, cooking, cleaning bedpans and nursing the sick. They consider these works as menial. They have not tried to understand the real spirit of Karma Yoga and Vedanta. Yet, they are Babus. They need rigorous discipline and training. I will put these Babu aspirants to carry the motion buckets of the sick for a year, wash plates for another year and sweep the room and wash the clothes of the sick the third year. Then alone they will become real aspirants. Then alone they will be ready for the commencement of meditation.
If one lives with their Guru, they must be prepared to do any work willingly. If you create interest in work, which the mind revolts against, you later like to do any kind of work. By so doing, you will undoubtedly develop your willpower.
Balance of mind brings about real lasting happiness to a disciplined aspirant. Balance of mind is not a commodity which can be purchased at the market. It is indeed a rare gift which can only be attained by protracted selfless service with Atma Bhava, equal vision, controlled Indriyas and self restraint.
By developing virtues such as adaptability, a broad and generous tolerance and a high degree of endurance, serenity, calmness, control of temper and by removing anxieties, worries, fear and depression by spiritual Sadhana and meditation develops serenity and balance of mind. It is serenity and balance of mind that can give real, eternal happiness to the aspirant. The wealth of the three worlds is nothing when compared to the bliss enjoyed by that great soul who has serenity and a balanced mind.
Now, tell me honestly, where is bliss? Is it in a wealthy king with an unbalanced and unbridled mind, living in a palace, or in a poor saint with a magnificent calm and balanced mind and living in a grass hut on the banks of the sacred Ganga?
If you want to serve another person truly, you should try to assist them in all respects. You should not do anything that pleases you only. You should do such actions as can bring them immense happiness. This will constitute real service. But generally under the camouflage of serving others, people try to please themselves only. This is a serious mistake.
A real Sevak rejoices in suffering. A real Sevak takes on the most responsible, difficult and the most arduous and uninteresting of works and kills their own little self just to please others. A real Sevak willingly undergoes pain and suffering in order to serve others.
Jnana and Bhakti must be the rock bottom basis of Karma Yoga. Jnana can be combined with Karma Yoga or Bhakti Yoga can be combined with Karma Yoga in the beginning with much advantage. The Jnana-Karma Yogi thinks and feels that they are serving their own Atman and realizes Advaitic consciousness. The Bhakti Karma Yogi thinks and feels that they are serving God by serving all. The Bhakti Karma Yogi serves their own Ishtam, realizes God consciousness and has Darshan.
Remember, it is the mental attitude or Bhava that does immense good.
A Karma Yogi who does all work in the form of worship of God in the beginning, who surrenders their body, mind, soul and all their actions as flowers or offerings at the Lotus Feet of the Lord, who is ever absorbed in the Lord by constant thought of God, loses themselves in God Consciousness by total Self Surrender. That Karma Yogi is absorbed in God. That Karma Yogi will become one with the Cosmic Will – the last and advanced stage. That Karma Yogi realizes that whatever is going on in the World is but the Lila of the Lord. That Karma Yogi realizes the truth of the utterances in the Brahma Sutras: Lokavattu Lila Kaivalyam. That Karma Yogi feels that they are one with the Lord and that they are a partner in God’s Lila. That Karma Yogi lives for God only. That Karma Yogi’s thoughts and actions are now of God. The veil has dropped. The sense of separateness has been totally annihilated. That Karma Yogi now enjoys the Divine Aishvarya.
A doctor who works in the hospital should think that all patients are manifestations of God. He should think that the patient’s body is the moving temple of God and that the hospital is a big temple or Brindavan or Ayodhya. That doctor should think: “I am doing all my actions to please God and not to please my superiors.“ The doctor should never dream: “I have done such meritorious acts. I will get an exalted place in Svarga, etc. I will be born in the next birth as a rich man.” The doctor should think that God is the inner ruler (Antaryamin), that God alone governs all the body’s organs and that God is the “wire-puller” of the body. The doctor should think that God works to carry out the Divine Will in the grand scheme of things. The doctor should consecrate all their actions at God’s Feet. The doctor should then say Om Tat Sat Krishnarpanamastu or Om Tat Sat Brahmarpanamastu at the end of every procedure and at night when retiring to bed. This is Jnanagni or the Fire of Wisdom or the Fire of Devotion that destroys the fruits of all actions, brings about Chitta Suddhi, knowledge of the Self and final emancipation. By means of constant practice of this nature the doctor will slowly get mental non-attachment towards work.
When preforming any duty, we should also entertain the above mental attitude. In this manner all actions can be spiritualized. All actions will become worship of God.
A person can realize God in whatever situation they may be placed in life, if only they work with this right mental attitude.
May the great Lord, the Flute Bearer of Vrindavan, the lover of Radha, the joy of Devaki, grant us right belief, Suddha Prem, right mental attitude and inner spiritual strength to do selfless service in the World, and to realize God even while remaining in the World, by doing Nishkamya Karma Yoga with Narayana Bhava, by remembering God at all times and by offering all actions, body, mind and the soul at God’s Lotus Feet! May the blessings of Siva and Hari be upon us all!