Selfless Service as Spiritual Discipline
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba says that although we are engaged in some form of seva, we feel frustrated with the results. But if we serve with unselfish love based on truth, righteousness, and peace, there will be no frustration.
The Vedanta [scriptures] declares that the mind leads man either into the cage of bondage or into the vast open spaces of liberation. If it involves itself in sensual pursuits, it drags man down into the sub-human level. If it engages itself in seeking the higher truths, the deeper realities, the more lasting joys, then it enables man to rise to the level of the Divine. Science deals with matter, jada, things as distinct from the living, the conscious, and the chit [wisdom], having chaitanya [awareness]. Those are the provinces of religion, of spiritual sadhana [effort], and yoga applied to mind control. This is the age of scientific advancement, when equal attention is not being paid to spiritual advancement or religious progress.
The jiva [man] is but the reflection of Deva [God]. Humanity is very proximate to Divinity; but man seldom recognizes this nearness. He allows his mind to lower him into the animal level, from which he struggled up through many births. A diamond may appear as a piece of glass, but only those who do not know its value will use it as a paperweight and keep it on the table in the office. Wise men will keep it inside an iron safe, under lock and key. Man is a diamond, not a piece of glass; he has to shine brilliantly, after going through the process of “cutting” or samskara [purification].
Samskara transforms man into God; manava into Madhava. We have a watch on our wrist that costs Rupees [Indian currency] 500 or 600 or even 1000. The steel out of which the entire watch was made may cost only four annas [pennies], but the samskara it underwent, by means of human skill and intelligence, raised its value and usefulness. Man, too, can transform himself into a priceless instrument for God-realization through the proper use of his mind and intelligence. By the forceful alchemy of the mind, he can attain jnana (wisdom) and see the truth that satisfies and illuminates.
We feel that the people of our country will be happy if we only provide them with food, clothing, and housing. We feel that they are suffering because they have not got these things in an adequate measure. That is an illusion, for contentment and happiness are attributes of the mind. The mind must be trained to achieve peace and acquire joy. Without such a mind man is helpless even under the most affluent circumstances. A person may be strong and charming, but when he has lost his eyesight, he loses joy. There are many countries on the very peak of material civilization and are very proud of the heights that they have reached. But, have they acquired mental peace? Have they got rid of fear or hate, greed or pride?
Of course, there must be a certain degree of comfort for man, physical and mental. But, gaining the things that give comfort should not be the aim of living; once that path is selected, wants multiply and satisfaction becomes fleeting. The capacity to distinguish between right and wrong will be dulled; egoism will become sharp and strong. Thirst will increase with each quaff; hunger will gnaw more and more with each morsel of the food of material possessions. That is their real nature.
Ask yourselves the basic question: Is there something that can be called sukha [happiness]? Can it be attained by the accumulation of material things? No, happiness can be got and retained only through atmajnana, the knowledge of the Self through the atma, which is the source and spring of ananda (bliss). We delude ourselves when we argue that happiness can be derived from things outside ourselves.
Life as a human is the chance given to every-one to achieve one glorious end—realizing the atma and its universality. Man queries everyone about their name and whereabouts, but does not know an iota of his own identity. Who are you, really? You are not the body or the senses or the intellect or the mind, for you speak as if you own them and are different from them when you say, ‘my body’, ‘my senses’, ‘my intellect’, ‘my mind’. He who is the master of all these is the `I’, the `I’ that makes everyone else feel the same.
With every breath, man inhales the consciousness that is the universal eternal principle pervading and persisting in the entire creation. That is why he is repeating silently, Soham, with each inhalation and exhalation. During deep sleep, two ideas (duality) disappear. The idea of “that” and the idea of “this” go, leaving only the sense of `I’; so and ham fade out leaving only Om in the sound Soham. That is the seed sound, the pranava, which is the prana [life]. Merge in that Om, the primal universal sound, and you lose your separateness, your misery, and your pain.
That is the ultimate stage of man, his anta [end], Vedanta; the final stage of man, his jnana. Man starts as a brahmachari, a student of the brahmic, the atmic path; he enters the grihasta stage, the stage of apprenticeship in the joys and pleasures of the world; then he promotes himself into the vanaprastha stage, of detachment and discrimination; that leads him on to the sanyasa stage, of intense spiritual exercise. This ends in the consummation of samyoga or merging in the Absolute, like the river merging in the sea, losing in the process its taste, its form, and its name. He who knows Brahma becomes Brahma; the river that enters the sea becomes the sea.
You are all engaged in seva of one type or other, and I know that you are frustrated with the result; you are not happy at the service you do nor are the recipients happy when they receive the help. But try to develop prema, or unselfish love, based on sathya, dharma, and shanti. Try to fill every act of service with that prema, try to see every act of service that you receive with the eye of prema, then there will be no frustration. The person who serves is the person served; you serve yourself when you serve another. You serve another because his suffering causes you anguish, and by relieving it you want to save yourself from that anguish. Unless you have that anguish, your service will be hollow and insincere.
Frustration is caused also by wrong diagnosis of the causes of suffering. A patient may be beating his head because he is having excruciating pain in the stomach; however, his pain will not be diminished if you apply some ointment on the head, imagining that his trouble is centered on the head that he was seen beating. Delay does not matter; discover the real root of the trouble and then apply the remedy. The real remedy for all troubles is a proper sense of values—first things first. Married couples think they will be happy when they get a child; but that is but the beginning of a series of worries. They worry about his health, his habits, his schooling, his friends, his mate, his marriage, his prospects, and so on, in an endless chain. The mind multiplies the roots of worry, anxiety, and grief.
We say `peace of mind’, but unless the mind is eliminated, there can be no peace. The mind is but a pattern of desires, a mixture of wishes, resolutions, plans, ambitions, attempts, and attachments. A young man of 20 with his two feet walks about free, wherever he likes. He marries and becomes a quadruped; his walk is rendered slow; it is circumscribed. He gets a child and he becomes six-legged. The more the legs the slower the movement, the nearer the ground the greater the attachment to things earthly.
You can develop detachment by dwelling on the great heritage of man; then you will not engage yourself in low deeds and thoughts. In the Indian texts man is called manu-ja, he who is born of Manu, the great exponent of dharma-shastra [treatise on right living]. So dharma is his heritage; he has no right to deny dharma or act contrary to it. Contemplate on that dharma, on sathya and prema, which are the foundations of that dharma, and then all your acts will be in consonance with real Bharatiya [Indian] culture. See yourself in all and all in yourself. That alone entitles you to be a sevak [servant], to serve.
This expansive prema was cultivated in our country under the leadership of its sages and seers; so many sadhakas [spiritual aspirants] were able to succeed in seeing God’s viraat swarupa [cosmic form] everywhere. For some years now, this prema has become abridged and narrowed by egoism and greed. We have become so hard-hearted that we are not affected at the sight of suffering and want. People have learnt the wrong attitude of separating themselves from others, so this land of annapoorna [abundance] has to go about from door to door, in foreign capitals, asking for food for the people.
Try to offer people your prema; they will respond with lasting gratitude. Give them clothes and houses—they are apt to lose them. Give them education, they may or may not use it for their good. But give them prema and they will imbibe it gratefully and fill their hearts with it and be happy as never before. You can grow in prema by building the mansion of your life on the four pillars of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata, and the Bhagavadgita [sacred texts].
If you are not able to read these great books and assimilate them, do not worry. Books are only guideposts with road signs. They do not indicate the ups and downs met while traversing the roads indicated. That can be known only by actual experience. If you are not able to understand the big texts, I would advise you to simply contemplate on the wonder and beauty of God’s handiwork, from the tiny worm to the most distant star, from the circulation of blood in one’s own body to the movement of planets and solar systems. Meditate on the God who fills the universe and transcends it; then that glory will fill you and you can never more be small-minded or mean. Your acts and words will echo the glory of God. Seva that comes from such experience will certainly bear fruit.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, December 1967
