Hands That Serve are Holier

Trees bear fruits; rivers carry water; cows yield milk, not for their own sake but for the sake of others. Equally the body is given to man for helping others.

We witness today humanity being racked by innumerable troubles and worries. No administration or authority can solve these problems. God alone can save mankind. Men have to develop faith in the Self. Thereby they should acquire the grace of the Divine. Humanity as a whole is in need of God’s grace. To receive this everyone has to fill his or her heart with love, render service to his fellowmen and thus redeem his life.

“The Quest for Truth”
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 29

Before embarking on a service project, one must introspect and examine his equipment for the sadhana (spiritual discipline); whether his heart is full of selfless love, humility, and compassion; whether his head is full of intelligent understanding and knowledge of the problem and its solution; whether his hands are eager to offer the healing touch; whether he can gladly spare and share time, energy, and skill to help others in dire need.

These qualities can sprout and grow only when the reality of unity is implanted in the consciousness. All men, all living beings, are cells in the body of God. Their origin, continued existence, and progress are all in God, by God, for God. The individual is a unit in this unity. There are no other aliens. When one is ill, all suffer. When one is happy, all are partners of that happiness. Faith in this truth is the fundamental equipment the sevak  (servant) must acquire.

In order to deserve the sacred name, seva (service) the activity must be freed from all attachment to the self and based on firm faith in the divine resident in every being. Seva has to be considered as worshipping the form that God has assumed to give the sevak the chance of worship. When a hungry nara (man) is served a hearty meal, what is being done is Narayana seva for, nara is only “a form and a name” projected by maya (human ignorance) on Narayana (God).

Remember that the body, with its senses-mind-brain complex has been awarded to you to be used for helping the helpless. Seva is the highest of the paths of devotion, which wins the grace of God. It promotes mental purity, diminishes egoism, and enables one to experience, through sympathetic understanding, the unity of mankind.

“Equipment for Service”
Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 19