The Ideal of Service

My Lord, I would rather be a disciple than a Preceptor.
I would rather be a humble servant than a Master.

I care not whether I possess worldly knowledge,
so long as I am blessed with spiritual knowledge.

I would not hanker after the material things of life
if you confer upon me peace and contentment.

I care not whether I have a conveyance so long
as I have the gift of a pair of strong and sturdy legs.

If you give me good appetite,
I care not whether my meal is sumptuous.

Give me the power to enjoy good sleep
even if my bed be not comfortable.

I do not care for the worldly applause,
but I esteem your approbation more
than anything in the world.

The prayer above appears at the beginning of the first volume of the diary of Rai Sahib Munshi Ram, published by RSSB in English as With the Three Masters.

Rai Sahib had served from 1942 to 1956 as Secretary to three successive Masters. He had been an important man in the legal profession, having been District and Sessions Judge for the Punjab before his retirement to the Dera. He was in a position to enjoy status and respect and all the accompanying benefits. But this endearing prayer holds our attention because of its insistence on a very different set of values. He is overflowing with gratitude for the opportunity to be a lowly servant – without ‘worldly knowledge’, without ‘the material things of life’, without ‘worldly applause’ but with the protection and favour of a true Master.

This simple philosophy is almost a blueprint for a sevadar’s life.

Becoming Sevadars
When a group of sevadars were together recently someone asked, “How does one become a full-time sevadar?” It would be easy to get side-tracked by possible answers involving a number of actions, perhaps winding up various external responsibilities, putting one’s finances in order, being approved by the Dera and so on. But that would be forgetting that, most importantly, seva is the Master’s gift. And secondly, that this gift is there for all of us, all the time. Maybe the answer should be, “In the same way as one meditates – by just doing it.”

Because here’s the thing: seva is not reserved for those with time or money or no commitments. Everybody can be a “full-time” sevadar -why not? We are all full-time sevadars if everything that we do, we do as if it were for our Master. It may be going to work for the wage that supports us; it may be caring for our family. Becoming a sevadar is something that happens through the heart, by putting a set of values into place and sticking to them. It is not primarily brought about through external circumstances.

It’s true that there is a difference between actions which have the physical purpose of looking after ourselves and our family, and actions which have the purpose of serving the Master and his sangat. These latter are what we usually call seva. But ultimately seva is identified by that golden thread of inner intention and dedication.

So, a sevadar given a particular position, perhaps to help look after a property, will have his letter of appointment in his pocket, but the real story of how he got there began long ago when he became a sevadar in spirit – and that is always full-time.

Living the Life
When we want to know more about physical seva and what it entails, we can’t do better than to look at Rai Sahib’s prayer, so deceptively simple on the surface but offering such deep meaning. Having been a member of the judiciary, Rai Sahib had known what it was to be a ‘preceptor’ or someone who gives precepts or orders. Yet he preferred to turn his back on this privilege in favour of the position of a humble servant who must follow whatever orders are given to him.

We do not need to have been a judge to know what it is to be a preceptor. Most of us are able to be little kings or queens of a tiny domain of one kind or another, even if it is no more than our own backyard or our iPod. Do we really understand what it means to be a servant without such autonomy? There is the story of the king and the slave – the king asked his favourite slave:

“What would you like to eat?”
“O king – whatever you give me.”
“What will you wear?” “Whatever you choose.”
“Where will you live?”
“Wherever you put me.”
“Then what is it that you desire?”
“My Lord, ‘slave’ and ‘desire’ – how can these two ever go together?”

Even our ‘worldly knowledge’, something Rai Sahib is ready to relinquish, feeds a sense of pride in our autonomy. Don’t we love indulging in knowing better than anyone else, even if (or perhaps especially when) we are powerless to put such knowledge into action? Can we give that indulgence up? Can we swallow our pride and accept decisions in which we haven’t been asked to share? Can we carry out orders with a positive and loving spirit? If we hold on to our ‘spiritual knowledge’, i.e. our understanding of Sant Mat and the opportunity to do simran, we’ll be able to answer yes to those questions and we’ll be on the way to performing our physical seva well.

Practical Choices
Then there are the material things of life which Rai Sahib prays not to ‘hanker after’. Contentment with simple things is a practical necessity if our energy is to be directed towards the service of the Master, because we’re not necessarily going to have the resources to spare for the accumulation of material things. Does our ‘conveyance’ i.e. ‘the kind of car’ we drive matter to us? How necessary to us are life’s luxuries? Do we live to eat or eat to live ? Can we put up with occasional discomfort and still keep our balance?

Lastly, and most important of all, whose approval do we seek? All of us have some reference point in life, whether it be another person or a social ‘norm’, and we tend to mould our actions with an eye to how we think we’ll measure up against this yardstick. That’s often why we want material things in the first place – to reinforce our sense of self in the eyes of the world.

If the Master and his teachings become our point of reference, choices become simpler and outward things fall into second place. Making this shift doesn’t imply that we don’t consult the wishes of our family. Recognizing our responsibility for others’ welfare is not the same as seeking ‘worldly applause’. But with the energy that comes from the Master’s grace we can often do both. We can keep our family happy and still have time to serve his sangat.

An Old Magic
The world has become more complicated, more sophisticated, than the world in which Rai Sahib lived. The sangat has grown to a size which he might have found unimaginable. Seemingly miraculously, but in reality because of the compassion, foresight and hard work of the present Master, this has not separated the ordinary satsangi from the Master but brought new opportunities for service. In those seva opportunities the relationship between Master and sevadar still has its old simplicity, its old magic. The gratitude of sevadars cannot be expressed better than in the tender last line of Rai Sahib’s prayer, when the writer says to his Master:

I do not care for the worldly applause,
but I esteem your approbation more
than anything in the world.

The resounding of the primal Sound was heard:
  catching which, I ascended like a spider on its thread….
To pass through the sunn region,
  I took the support of the sat Shabd,
  reaching the court of the Guru.
Absorbed and lost in the love of the true Master,
  I became entirely oblivious of the world.
I found the real, essential Sound
  where the splendour of the nameless being prevails –
He who is beyond all name and form.
_{Soami Ji Maharaj, as quoted in A Treasury of Mystic Terms}