Satsang by Swami Sivananda SaraswatiNever mind whether realization comes or not. Make every effort to improve yourself, to render yourself perfect for the service of others. Look upon all beings as God. If your concept of God includes the idea that He is all-pervading, then why can't you see Him in all creatures? What makes you hesitate in translating your belief into action? You will have to give up such notions that He is available only behind locked doors and closed eyes. First feel His presence in everyone and everything as you serve. Then see whether or not He shines of His own accord in the chambers of your heart.
When the heart is not yet free of impurities and the lower nature rid of its dross, how can spiritual experience come to you? First root out egoism, anger, hatred and greed by sincere selfless service. Even if you manage to do a little good to ten human beings, if you succeed in destroying one negative trait completely and develop fully a single positive virtue, feel certain that your life has not been lived in vain. Even this, ten people in a million hardly ever achieve. What if you do not have samadhi and self- realization? Apply yourself heart and soul to seva.
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The mind is so framed that it cannot think of any kind of work without remuneration or reward. This is due to restlessness. Human nature is always like this. When discrimination dawns, when the mind is filled with more sattwa or purity, this nature changes slowly. The spirit of selflessness slowly creeps in.
Restlessness creates selfishness and attachment. A selfish person does not have a large heart. He has no ideal. He is petty-minded and full of greed. He will weigh the work and money in a balance. He cannot do a little extra work. He is actuated by the hope of reward. Selfless service is unknown to him. He has no idea of God. He cannot imagine an expanded selfless life. He dwells in a narrow, circumscribed circle or groove. His love extends to his own body, his wife and children - that is all. Generosity is unknown to him.
Do you expect anything from your small child if you do something for him? Work for others in a similar manner without expecting anything. It may give you a little pain in the beginning if you have never worked in this line of selfless service. But after you have tasted the bliss of selfless service, you can never leave it. The whole world is yourself. The whole world is God for one who is not selfish. It is world only for one who is selfish.
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Compassion for another's suffering is oneness with others. Put yourself in another's place. To ease another's headache is to forget your own. To mitigate another's grief is to alleviate or dispel your own. Let your heart melt at the suffering of others. Open your heart.
Share what you have with others - physical, mental and spiritual. This is real yajna. You will expand and feel the oneness of life. Sacrifice your own needs and comforts for the sake of others. If you have a hard heart, try to do little acts of kindness. Give a cup of milk to a poor, sick person. Give a blanket during winter. Supply some fuel. Get some extra vegetables from the market. Feed a hungry person once a month. Bring water for the aged.
Feel for others' suffering. Remember your own defects, frailties and weaknesses. Be slow in your criticism of others and generous towards those who do wrong actions. Help animals and people who are in distress. Wipe their tears.
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As you sow, so you reap. Good deeds give you happiness. Bad deeds give you pain. You are the master of your destiny. You sow an action and reap a habit. You sow a habit and reap a character. You sow your character and reap destiny. Destiny is your own making. Understand the law of cause and effect.
A householder has duties towards society, his neighbours, friends, relations and family. Serve religious and social institutions for some hours daily with the spirit of selfless service. This will purify the heart and mind. Treat your neighbours as your own self. Share what you have - material, mental and spiritual - with others. Give one-tenth of your income in charity, whatever that income may be.
The doctor who attends his patients with atmabhava, without selfish motive for money, will have a roaring practice. He can give free medicines to the poor. This is a wonderful field for seva. Through this he can purify his heart and evolve quickly. Doctors can impart knowledge of health to the public and teach first aid to all. A doctor's heart should melt at the suffering of his patients. A doctor should always bear in mind that the knowledge of healing he has acquired is not solely for mercenary gain, but to enable him to play a worthy part in society. Therefore, apart from his 'practice', the doctor should ever watch and see where there is suffering and where his aid is needed.
The businessman who is dishonest in his business dealings and cheats others will be miserable in this world despite his wealth and possessions. The goal of life is not glittering prosperity in business. It is a foolish person's idea of happiness. Understand the law of cause and effect. Spend one-tenth of your income in charity. Do it regularly. Merely giving a few coins occasionally when you are in distress is not praiseworthy. Help social and religious institutions. Open Ayurvedic dispensaries, hospitals and free primary schools. Dig wells in the villages. Let your profit be well utilized in charitable purposes. If you really understand the law of cause and effect, you will not dare to do any wrong deed. In deceiving others you deceive yourself. In helping others, you help yourself.
A legal practitioner must take up cases from poor people freely. He must work for the public good also without fees. This will be his seva. This will purify his heart. Prakriti has given you legal knowledge and you should utilize this knowledge in protecting her poor, helpless children. An industrialist must look after the welfare of his workers, as their labour goes to build up his prosperity. Know that God has given you industrial acumen, genius for organization and money-power to promote the welfare of the human community. Utilize your special talents and wealth for the common good first and then increase your prosperity. Become a helper for the progress and welfare of the human race. Thus derive true happiness and peace in addition to material profit!
True charity is the disposition to think favourably of others and do them good. Be useful to others without thought of re-compense or reward. Give cheerfully, quickly and without hesitation. Charity begins at home but it should also go abroad. The whole world is your home. You are a citizen of the world. Cultivate a generous feeling for the welfare of the world. Charity is not confined to money. Little acts of kindness are often worth more. Give water to the thirsty, an encouraging word to one in distress. Give a little medicine to a poor, sick person. Remove a thorn or a piece of glass on the road. Charity must be spontaneous and unrestrained. Giving must become habitual.
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Through your seva, other people are benefited. This is more than meditation. I do not believe in exclusive meditation in solitary places. It is wrong to suppose that the divine cannot be attained while living an active life. Only when you are in the field of service will you develop positive qualities and learn to become indifferent to praise and abuse. Only when you are in contact with people will you develop forbearance, adaptability, indifference to praise and censure. Many aspirants become tamasic by shirking work and taking exclusively to japa and meditation for which they are not ready.
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You cannot completely remove all the evils from this world. If evil is eradicated in one place, another evil manifests in another place. Do not bother yourself much about reforming this crooked world. Reform yourself first. Then the whole world can be reformed. How can you help the world when you yourself are weak and ignorant?
One who serves the world really serves himself or herself. One who helps others really helps himself. Generally people are puffed up with pride when they render some help to others, and brag about themselves. When you serve another, think that God has given you an opportunity to improve, correct and mould yourself by seva. Be grateful to the one who gives you the chance to serve.
Do not lose a single opportunity to help others. Serve cheerfully and willingly. Never show a Sunday face or a castor oil face. Never grumble or murmur. Utilize every minute in serving others in the best possible manner. Do not expect anything when you serve someone or when you give a gift. Thank the person for giving you a good opportunity to serve. Serving humanity must not be a mere mechanical act. It must be done with atmabhava, intense feeling for others. Serve and worship the same God manifest in the poor, the sick and the suffering, just as you worship Him in the temple of your heart.
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Selfless service develops prem, universal, divine love. In the beginning, when the heart is contracted through selfishness, you love only your husband or wife, children, a few friends and relatives. As you evolve, you love the people of your own district, then the people of your own state. Later you develop love for the people of your own country. Eventually you begin to love other people of different countries. In the long run you begin to love all. You develop universal love. All the barriers are broken now. The heart is infinitely expanded.
It is very easy to talk of universal love, but it is difficult to put into practice. Petty mindedness of all sorts comes in the way. Old wrong impressions act as stumbling blocks. You can overcome all obstacles through will, patience and perseverance. Feel that the whole world is your body, your own home. Feel that all beings are images of God. Feel that the one power of God works through all hands, sees through all eyes, hears through all ears.
One who is established in cosmic love does not shun society. He loves all. He loves the Self which pervades all creatures. Selfless service springs from him as the breath springs from all living beings. When he finds that someone is suffering, he rushes to relieve them, not because he loves that particular person, but because he has realized that his own Self pervades the other person, because the goodwill that fills his heart naturally flows towards a suffering person and endeavours to remove his affliction. This service he renders naturally - service for the sake of service, love for love's sake. It is a love that does not clamour for reciprocity; it is service that does not look back for appreciation or reward. In this love, in this service, all are equal.
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Selfless service is the best spiritual practice for all aspirants. It is no use sitting in a closed room and meditating for hours at a time. How long can you meditate? Say, for half an hour or an hour at the most. Then your mind will begin to wander, thoughts will crop up, you will begin to imagine so many useless things and start building castles in the air. You will not be able to control your thoughts or concentrate on your object of meditation. Why? Because of your negative samskaras or impressions, because you have no serenity and the mind is always ruffled by worldly thoughts, and because you have not purified the mind by selfless service. You can purge your negative samskaras only through intense seva. Then peace and serenity will come to you and you will have good meditation.
Many aspirants complain they are not able to do sufficient japa and meditation because they are always engaged in seva. It is' impossible for a neophyte to meditate twenty-four hours a day. The mind wants something to engage with. That is why seva is essential in the beginning. The mind wants variety. Engage it in benevolent work for the good of others. Seva alone will bestow everything upon you. Through service alone you can have realization. Side by side also carryon your japa, meditation and other preliminary sadhanas.
Seva is a beautiful blend of all sadhanas, very practical and suitable for the most modem mind. You may say that such selfless service is not needed for the advanced class. But how many are they? Indeed, very few. It is only very highly evolved souls who can absorb themselves in meditation day and night. But what about the general class? This sadhana of synthesis alone is best suited to them.
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Seva should be practised till the end of one's life. It is an 'ever-ready-polish' to keep the mind clean and pure, to keep the body ever active and healthy. Never say, "I have transcended selfless service. There is no necessity for me to do seva now." Tamas is ever ready to invade the body and mind. Seva keeps all yogis ever dynamic and alert. It relaxes the mind for meditation, inspires, gives a change and induces vigorous meditation. Work acts as an appetizer for meditation and wisdom.
Through the practice of seva alone, you can develop all the positive qualities such as tolerance, mercy, kindness, love, patience and self-restraint which are necessary for the practice of bhakti and jnana yoga. How can a cave-dweller in seclusion practice tolerance, mercy and cosmic love? The practice of seva generates, waters and nourishes the positive qualities. Without seva they will dwindle and fade away. Seva acts as a brush to keep the mind-mirror ever clean.
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It is extremely difficult to perform real seva. Many people ascend the public platform in the garb of selfless workers, but they only serve themselves. You have to prepare the mind for seva. The mind always expects something. When you smile, you expect a smile in return from your friend. When you raise your hand in greeting, you expect a greeting from other people. Even when you give-someone a cup of water, you expect gratitude. When such is the case, how can you perform seva?
Think that your hands are the hands of God. In the beginning some of your actions may be selfish and some may be unselfish. In the long run you can do all actions in an unselfish manner. Every act can be spiritualized when the motives become pure. Work is meditation.
Have a large and loving heart with atmabhava. Then you will be happy and peaceful. Identify yourself with all. Feel that you are one with the whole universe. It is far better, out of love, to leave the ecstasy and serve the needy. It is better to serve the sick and feed the hungry than to see visions. For me, the highest goal is the glory of service at the feet of the Lord.
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Selfless service is the yoga most suited to Kali yuga, the present age. Seva leaves no loopholes for maya or ignorance to enter you. It fills every part of you with godliness. Do not be discouraged by setbacks. Know the causes and avoid them in the future. Strengthen yourself carefully. Stick to your sadhana.
I am always ready to help you. My sympathies are ever with you. I will radiate joy, peace and .thought currents of love towards you. I will inspire you, but I cannot do the work for you. You yourself will have to do the work. The struggle and exertion must come from your side. A hungry person will have to eat for himself, a thirsty person will have to drink for himself. You will have to place each step yourself on the spiritual ladder. Remember this point always.
May you all attain purity of heart through constant selfless service. May you radiate joy, peace and bliss everywhere. May you rejoice in the welfare of all beings. May your minds be fixed in God while your hands are in the service of humanity. May you all understand the principles and techniques of seva. May all your actions become offerings unto the Lord. May you all attain moksha through the practice of selfless service in this very birth.
