THE NATURAL ART OF SERVICE
Service is performed by everything that is natural. Observe a flower, how well it serves us in its beauty and its fragrance. Observe the rain, how well it serves us by providing the water for things to grow. Observe the sun, how beautifully it serves us by providing heat and light. So, service is a way to express our real nature, and our real nature is nothing but an offering, and this very offering is the real basis of service
People fail to serve because they are not true to themselves. They have lost the art of service because of karmic or samskaric values, wrong thinking, and wrong action. Service has no mechanics. If you apply mechanisms to service, it becomes drudgery, not service, because you have mechanised it. Service ceases to be service, for it is an art and all offering is an art. This very offering can only be properly performed if it is used as an offering.
We know that when we offer or pay homage to anything, it is done without any selfish motive; in other words, there is no sense of return. When we work for a boss, there is a sense of return. That is a necessity. We have to make a living, pay rent, buy food, and clothe ourselves. That is business. I give you so much, you give me so much in return. But if service is allowed to flow, even while working for the boss, a person can be of service only when he goes the extra mile. Work stops at five o’clock, and most people watch the clock. In fact, many people go to work not to work but to watch the clock. As soon as it strikes five, off they go. We can also take into account the fifteen minutes they spend in the cloakroom, and that is supposed to be service, stealing the boss’s time. So, when a man works for the boss and does just that little extra, he is doing service. The other is doing business. I give you so much, you give me so much back, and many people do not deserve the wage they earn, and that becomes thievery.
As in every aspect of life, if things are done as an offering from deep within ourselves, with all sincerity and all love, and for the sake of doing them, that is service. Service is far different from servitude. When we talk of servitude, it is a form of bondage, where we are bound down by certain rules and regulations. But service, as I said, is an art, and art is freedom. So, when we serve in the spirit of an offering, it is a freedom that is expressed from deep within ourselves. Service does not bind; it frees a person. That kind of freedom has its own rewards. It requires no payment; it has its own reward in the self-satisfaction that is gained, in the whole re-patterning, re-moulding, re-styling of our lives. There is the great benefit. And this re-patterning, re-moulding, re-styling can only lead to greater happiness.
THE INNER JOY OF SERVING
You find other kinds of service where a person joins an organisation, for example, the school feeding scheme – I do not know if you have it here, where poor children are fed – or the Cripple Care Association, the Deaf and Dumb Society, Blind Society, whatever. I have known many people because I have been associated with various organisations. These people come there and do work. They really work hard, but the motivation is nothing but ego expression, not self-expression. There again you find a difference. An ego expression is to pander to oneself, making oneself feel important, that I am in a position to command. That is very binding.
What are you commanding? Everything you do, when ego-activated, never produces satisfaction. It never produces that inner sense of joy. So, when, because of the ego, you go and do some work in the charity bazaar, have a stall on the street corner and sell things for a certain charity, and you feel, “Ah, I have done something,” you feel elated. Is that elation genuine or not? There is a wonderful test for it. You come back and the organisers say, “You have done such a wonderful job,” a pat on the back, and you feel so elated. Then you will find someone who comes and finds fault and says, “Oh, you could have done this in a different way or you could have done this much better.” Instead of being elated, you become deflated. Why? Because the motivation was ego and boosting the ego. That kind of service might have a certain value, but it does not have a genuine, lasting value. If the very same service was done as an offering, then praise or blame will not affect you at all. Whether it is praise or blame, you are not affected, because once you find the inner joy of serving, you become like the lotus flower growing amidst all the mud, yet untouched, remaining forever pure, because your very offering is joy and joy is the essence of purity.
THE FLOWERING OF SELFLESS SERVICE
These are minor incidents we encounter in daily life. True service is always an offering without motive. The one who truly knows how to serve is a Karma Yogi. He works for the sake of work, not wondering or anticipating the result. That is the Karma Yogi. As he goes on this path, he will find that he can perform the maximum amount of work with the minimum effort. There will be mental and physical effort in the work, but because of the stillness that is created in him, the effort becomes effortless. That is the secret of work. That is why some people, very few in this world, can work twenty-two hours a day and never feel tired. Two hours of sleep are enough because the body requires it. They are subjected to a body that requires some rest.
Because the service is an offering, inner stability is created. With that stability, the whole world around the person may be in turmoil, yet you remain untouched. As one proceeds on this path of serving for the sake of serving, one will often find that things become difficult. Sometimes the cross is hard to bear, but it has its own rewards. When we serve for the sake of serving, when it is motiveless, when it is ego-less, then the service has value and is evolutionary. It is never stagnant. It is like our flower. If the flower stops growing, it dies. The life of the flower consists in its flowering, for that flowering is life and life is never stagnant. It forever flows and flows and flows. That comes because it is serving without motive.
WHEN LIFE BECOMES AN OFFERING
If we examine the word motive, it can be interpreted in different ways. Is there an altruistic motive, or is there a self-motive? Self-motive is ego-building, whereas an altruistic motive is ego-diminishing. Our teachers want to teach people and help them on their paths so that their lives may become happy and joyous, and they may move nearer and nearer along the path towards Divinity. If that is done not for oneself but for others, then, although a motive is involved, it becomes motiveless. It is a motiveless motive because the self is not there. I am not a Prep Teacher or a full Counsellor because I want to be looked up to. I am a humble servant, more humble than the humblest. To me, the street-sweeper or the lavatory-cleaner is also an expression of Divinity, and I serve not the street-sweeper or the lavatory-cleaner, but Divinity. Be he saint or sinner, that is not my business. My business has to do with the Divine. That is why, every day when we meet each other, we say “Namaste,” “I salute the Divinity that is within you.”
If we remember that we are forever bowing to the Divinity in another, then service assumes its truest form and becomes the offering. How beautiful, how beautiful to be able to offer oneself, and this applies in every facet of life. Husband and wife, if they could only learn to offer themselves to each other, what a wonderful life it could be. You have been hard on me, the wife might think. That is your business. You have been hard. What must I be? Soft. Yes, I must be soft. But if I fight back, he is going to become even harder. And vice versa. So, in that sense, you too are offering yourself to your beloved, and for that moment he could be totally wrong, but you know within yourself that he loves me. He does. And even if he has made a mistake today and might be in a bad mood, tonight it will be fine. Perhaps when we go to bed. Perhaps when we are together, it will blow over. Therefore, I always advocate, if you have twin beds, throw them away! Buy a double bed. Yes, yes. The closeness, that is what I am talking about, not other things that some people might be thinking about. If we remember that we are forever bowing to the Divinity in another, then service assumes its truest form and becomes the offering. How beautiful, how beautiful to be able to offer oneself, and this applies in every facet of life. Husband and wife, if they could only learn to offer themselves to each other, what a wonderful life it could be. You have been hard on me, the wife might think. That is your business. You have been hard. What must I be? Soft. Yes, I must be soft. But if I fight back, he is going to become even harder. And vice versa. So, in that sense, you too are offering yourself to your beloved, and for that moment he could be totally wrong, but you know within yourself that he loves me. He does. And even if he has made a mistake today and might be in a bad mood, tonight it will be fine. Perhaps when we go to bed. Perhaps when we are together, it will blow over. Therefore, I always advocate, if you have twin beds, throw them away! Buy a double bed. Yes, yes. The closeness, that is what I am talking about, not other things that some people might be thinking about.
The idea is to develop ever-greater closeness, and as that closeness deepens, life becomes an offering. Because if he is her and she is him, that itself is the flowering of married life. The petals of the flower do not exist apart from the stem. It is all part and parcel of the one construction, the one picture that constitutes life. That is an offering, so natural, so spontaneous. That is done by just being ourselves, by being our natural selves and not the artificial facade that we create around ourselves.
THE DIVINE PURPOSE OF FREE WILL
If people can only learn to be themselves and stop projecting an image of who they wish to be, a lot of people live in an image they are not, so living becomes wishful. I had a little note from someone who said that, instead of the wishbone, I pray it could be my backbone. Very beautiful, very beautiful. That backbone is courage! That I am responsible for myself. I am responsible for my actions because that backbone keeps me up and steady. I want to be myself. And that is what meditation and spiritual practices are all about, so that life could become an offering, an offering to Divinity. What are we here for? We are glorifying the expression of Divinity. The expression of Divinity is nothing but glory, and we misuse it; we misuse that privilege by the free will that has been given to us.
I wonder if it was not really a mistake to be awarded free will. You will ask, why was man given free will? Because it is by that free will that all the problems in life start. All the problems in life are because we have free will, and if we use it in a good manner, there are no problems, and if we use it in a wrong way, problems arise. The old boy upstairs must have had some plan in this! There must have been some plan in this free will business. Yes. Yes. Yes. If there was no free will, there would have been no evolution. If there was no evolution, there would have been no expression. If there was no expression, there would have been no manifestation, and even Divinity, the un-manifest, cannot exist without that which is manifested. The relative and the Absolute are part and parcel of each other. So, this free will came about on its own, as fragrance emanates from a flower. Free will was not created; free will is an emanation or a projection of Divine will, and through the process this emanation or manifestation has gone through, it has gathered all this dust and dirt around it, whereby Divine will is covered. To work according to Divine will is to live a natural life, and because of free will, we have made a natural life into an unnatural life. That is the impediment to our understanding the meaning of service.
SERVICE HAS MANY FACETS
Service does not mean martyrdom. Martyrdom is a form of imbalance. It mostly stems from a certain fanaticism, where you have a purpose conjured up by your mind and you become a martyr. That is not service, that is not offering. Great saints have done this for an entirely different reason, namely that by me sacrificing my life, so many thousands of others can benefit. For them, the sacrifice of life, that martyrdom, had an altruistic purpose and therefore was an offering. But in daily life, some people try to become martyrs, self-suffering martyrs, which is not necessary at all. Many people become martyrs to express an inferiority complex in the form of a superiority complex. There is a quarrel at home, and the wife says, “I am going on a fast. I am not going to eat until you fix things up.” Motivated martyrdom, that kind of martyrdom, is blackmail. But rather, an appeal from the heart in offering, “I do not agree with you, but if you think it is right, go ahead.” And then the man will start thinking, “You know, there is something here.” So, you kill with kindness, you convert with love, not martyrdom.
You see what service means. It has so many facets, so many facets to that beautiful, sparkling diamond, and yet each facet contains the brilliance of all the others. It is like a hologram. I have been told a bit about holography, where each bit of the plate contains the entire picture. So even if the entire negative is destroyed and you have only a little bit left, that little bit will contain the entire picture within itself. Likewise, in this service, in this offering, the entirety of all goodness, of all virtue, is contained. That is offering, that is service.
THE BEST WAY TO SERVE THE GURU IS LIVING THE GURU’S TEACHINGS
Why do you want to serve a guru? Because the guru is going to lead you to salvation, so you must serve him? He cannot lead you to salvation, and if you find any guru claiming that, forget him, discard him. He is not necessary. But if the guru says, “I can show you the path, but you are going to walk it yourself. I am not going to carry you on my back; I cannot,” then you can listen. And the proper service to the guru is not the little expressions you do for anyone, any friend. For any friend, any visitor who comes to your home, you will see that their laundry is done, their tea is made, and that all the comforts are there. Things like that. You do that for any guest who comes to your home, especially one you love very much, as they love their guru very much, and that is very, very much appreciated.
Not the service alone, not the actions, but the love that motivates them, that creates them, and that is appreciated. The love is seen shining. That is a very, very small part of the service to the guru. The real service to the guru is to show him that you are progressing. Show him that. You do not need to show it literally; it can be seen. Sometimes you meet someone, like one of the chelas, and they say, “Oh, I have been doing this, and I have been doing that, and my brother or my sister or my brother has been doing that.” Is that serving your guru or just satisfying your own ego? Rather, you know, “Guruji, this has been done or that has been done.” The guru knows who has done it and who has not done it; he knows. It is not necessary to say, “Oh, I did this and I did that.” It is not necessary.
That is service, that is offering, that is not wanting recognition. That is the true offering. Even without wanting to be recognised, the true guru already recognises. The very action speaks so much louder than words. You see how simple it is. The very actions performed by the true chela speak louder than words, and the guru does not need reminding that I did this for that one and I did that for that one. It is not necessary. It is just known. So, there is selflessness involved, and when that selflessness is present and the ego is diminished, or the ego is used in a totally different perspective, then that is the greatest service to the guru.
When I asked my guru, “Swamiji, on this last trip, tell me one thing. What is the most important thing you have done in your life? You had the opportunity to start your own Ashram, and you had the ability to have thousands of students throughout the world. Why did you not do that? Why? What stopped you?” Do you know what he told me? “I came into this world for one purpose, and I have achieved that purpose. I have achieved that purpose, and when I leave my body, I am the happiest man for having achieved the purpose.” So I asked him what purpose, and he told me, “You find out!” That is a guru, that is a man, a God-man upon earth, because it is not given to everyone to teach perhaps, but it is given to everyone, the meanest creature, to do their dharma selflessly, and that is service.
So, the best way for a chela to serve his guru is to be worthy of the guru’s teachings. That is the best way. Nothing else, nothing else, nothing else, nothing else. And to be worthy of the guru’s teachings is not to keep theorising, although that helps to understand things, but to focus on the practical aspect of life. When the guru asks his chela, “Teach,” this is the way for this age. Teach people how to find themselves, their true selves, for each and every one is a sparkling diamond, covered with dust. Help to blow off this dust, in a very humble, simple, selfless, devoted way, with love, blow off this dust. It is not necessary for it to be there; let the diamond shine in its true splendour. For each one is a diamond, each one is Divine. That is the service of the guru.
Some chelas are very kind. They know that a guru must also eat, sleep, and drink water, and some of them are very, very helpful, which is appreciated. A live guru is better than a dead guru. A guru never accepts anything for nothing, never ever. His nature is to give, always. He gives and he gives and he gives to his utmost ability, always. But to be able to give, his body also needs to be sustained. That happens automatically; it just works. So selflessness and devotion, not necessarily devotion to the guru, but devotion to one’s dharma, automatically develop devotion to the guru.
FROM DOUBTING THOMAS TO SAINT THOMAS
Devotion is never worship. Do remember that. Devotion is an expression of love, selfless love. Devotion is the desire to become one with another. And through the guru-chela relationship that I have experienced, I only talk of experience, this is it. If I love my wife, there is some motive involved, even in its minutest degree. If I love my job, there is still some little motive, something to do with self. But when there is closeness, a relationship between guru and chela, there is no motive, there is no motive. It is a self-desire to find self-realisation. And the one who has trodden the path and knows the way would be the best to approach. And one approaches such a person, as I approached my guru, in total humility. I told him when we first met that “I am nothing but a blank sheet; you write on it.” That is the offering. That is the offering. In other words, to approach a master with whom you feel some connection, where some spark has been sparked off, such a man is approached as I did to Parvitranandaji, with a blank page, in other words, it means an open mind, a totally open mind. And I used to argue with him, oh yes, I used to. If there was any point I disagreed with, I said, “I am sorry, I do not agree with this. Explain it to me more.” Yes. By debate until I understood what he was trying to say. And sometimes it took me many years to understand what he had said. As I gained greater maturity and more knowledge, I understood more.
This is the experience of everyone, where you read, say the Bible or the Gita. If you have read it ten years ago and you read it today, you have a totally different understanding of it, because you have developed more. And the greater your development, the vaster your awareness, the greater you perception, the greater the understanding. So service is an offering, a motiveless offering. That is why in history, in all Scriptures, they went out to do their master’s work. But to do that, there has to be faith and devotion. You have doubting Thomases, but their doubts too disappear and then those doubting Thomases become Saint Thomases. Yes. Yes. Yes.
SERVICE IS A SPONTANEOUS OFFERING TO DIVINITY
It is good to doubt, because doubt springs from your mind. It has nothing to do with the teacher, remember that. And if you overcome your doubt, you are overcoming the discrepancies of your mind. So it is good, because doubt is the springboard for further enquiry. And as you go on enquiring and enquiring and enquiring, you find you have to knock at the door to be opened.
Yes. You have to seek, and we know that. There is a whole tradition behind all these various faiths in the world, and we have been brought up in those traditions and understand them, but we do not practise them. That is our misfortune. So, that is service. Service is a spontaneous offering to Divinity. Everything else takes care of itself.
… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang UK 1978 – 41
