Why Do We Serve?
santon ki seva jo karoge,
aatm-roop apna jaanoge.To discover your own essence –
this is why you serve a master.
Bahinabai54
Baba Ji tells us in his satsangs that when we do anything in life we should know why we do it; otherwise it becomes a meaningless ritual. For our seva to have meaning, we begin with a deep reflection on the reasons for doing it. Why does the master look for more and more opportunities to give us seva? And why do we give up precious time from our busy lives to do it?
Why does the master give us seva?
Sometimes seva feels almost contrived. The master appears to create
jobs for us to do when there is no apparent need for them. For example,
when the satsang hall in the Dera was being constructed in the 1930s, a
well-known contractor and devoted disciple from Delhi requested of the
Great Master that he be given the seva of constructing the whole
building. Great Master replied:
No, I want every satsangi, even the poorest of the poor, to be given an opportunity to offer something in seva, even if it is only a rupee or half a rupee. I would also like every satsangi, rich and poor, young and old, to participate in the construction, even if they carry only a handful of sand or a few bricks. Their smallest effort is precious to me, every drop of perspiration shed by them is valuable. This is seva of love and devotion.55
The same was true in Hazur’s time. Once Hazur was overseeing some construction seva. A disciple who was with him at the time remarked that now there were bulldozers and sophisticated machines that could bring down a mountain in no time. He told Hazur to just give him the order and he would get those machines to the Dera. Hazur replied that he was aware of such equipment, but he asked, “If we get bulldozers, then how can we engage in seva?” At another time Hazur remarked that he could have most of the kitchen work at the Dera reduced by purchasing mechanical aids, but having it done by hand meant that people were able to do more seva.
Clearly something is going on here. Is this not the exact opposite of how things work in the world, where the efficiency with which a task is done is paramount? Based on these examples, it is clear that the tangible end product – the shed, the building, etc. – is not the thing that matters most to the master. There is something in the doing of it, in the close involvement of every disciple, that he cares about more.
Every satsangi should do some seva.
Maharaj Charan Singh56
At our level, we can only speculate on the reasons why the mystics lay so much stress on seva. Saints have referred to seva as a soap, a powerful cleanser with which they purify us and make us fit to return to the Lord. Jami, a fifteenth-century Sufi mystic, relates a story about the cleansing effect of seva. A young man became the student of a sheikh and was given the job of cleaning toilets. His mother, a wealthy physician, asked the sheikh to give her son some other job and sent the sheikh twelve slaves to clean the outhouses. The sheikh replied, “You are a physician. If your son had an inflammation of the gall bladder, should I give the medicine to a slave instead of giving it to him?”57
By serving the master we really serve ourselves, because by so doing each and every part of our body is purified.
Maharaj Sawan Singh58
We cannot comprehend what the master accomplishes, spiritually, through seva. But even at our present level of understanding, some of the reasons why the master provides seva for us are apparent.
To begin with, despite the scale of the sangat, he has kept alive this dynamic relationship between living master and disciple, and one of the ways he has done it is through seva. Through the establishment of centres around the world, almost every disciple now has the opportunity to do seva and discover a tangible relationship with the master of our time.
The relationship of a master with a disciple is just a personal relationship of the individual. It does not come through society; it does not come through groups; it does not come through organizations. It is a personal contact of a disciple with a master, and nobody comes in the way at all.
Maharaj Charan Singh59
This relationship is built not only through personal interactions with the master, because not everyone gets an opportunity to meet with him when they do seva. Baba Ji often tells us that to develop any relationship we have to give it two things: our time and our attention. When we do seva, we take the time and attention we would ordinarily have given to the world and we give it to the master instead. So even when he is not physically with us, seva connects us with him, reminds us of him, and keeps us in his spiritual presence. This connection deepens our relationship with him.
If you are feeling him, if you are thinking about him, if your attention is towards him, you are always with him.
Maharaj Charan Singh60
Soon after a new property was bought overseas for the purpose of holding satsang, sevadars began to build the first structure on it, a simple barn. The foundation had been built and work on the walls had started. Suddenly, early one morning, the master walked in. He looked at the work that had been done and said he would be back in the afternoon to meet with the sevadars. The sevadars worked hard all morning, and by afternoon the walls of the barn were up. They put a tarp up for the roof and set out some chairs. As promised, the master came back and sat with them. No microphone, no speakers, just the master and his sevadars. What a wonderful afternoon that must have been! Seva gives the master the opportunity to get off the stage and walk among us, to get off the pedestal we like to put him on – to simply be at our level. He talks to us, he jokes with us, he challenges us, and he pushes us to our limits. Through such interactions, we build a relationship with him, we learn from him, and our love for him grows.
The master once commented that a particular construction project for a satsang centre was not really needed, because the sangat could continue to rent a hall. He then explained that they were going ahead with the project anyway because it would provide an opportunity for seva and give the sangat a place where they felt they belonged. He said that seva is there so that we can learn to work with one another. Buildings in themselves have no spiritual value, he said; they simply provide us with opportunities to listen to satsang and work together in love and harmony.
Mystics tell us that we are dyed in the colour of the company we keep. If we keep the company of people who do things that are destructive to themselves and others, we will eventually be influenced to do the same. If, instead, we keep the company of spiritually minded people, we will start thinking like them. In seva we interact with disciples who have the same goals and priorities we have and who love the master as we do. We enjoy the company of our fellow travellers on the path, Hazur says, because we are supporting each other in our common goal:
We always like their company because our object is the same, the pivot is the same, the platform on which we stand is the same. We strengthen each other’s faith, each other’s love, each other’s devotion for the Lord, and our association helps each other to meditate.61
Seva is one of the many tools the master uses to turn our attention within. If outer seva weaves in and out throughout our day, then, as we go about our chores and errands, it distracts our mind from petty worries, helps us keep our problems in perspective, and keeps the spiritual path front and centre in our life. This makes it easier to turn the mind within during meditation. A sevadar once explained that through seva, the master frees us from a life of self-absorption and delivers us into a life of divine absorption. He absorbs our time, our attention, our thoughts, our efforts, our sweat, our breaths, and soon we find we are no longer pouring our lives into the world. We are pouring our lives into God. Little by little, he bends our mind Godward.
We live our daily lives in the realm of action. Meditation lives in the realm of stillness. Physical seva acts as a bridge – as a way to prepare the mind for the stillness of meditation. The beauty of physical seva is that much of it takes place in the same context as many of our worldly activities – painting, cooking, cleaning, planting, planning, budgeting, spending, deciding, cooperating, compromising – which creates a natural overlap between our spiritual and worldly lives. This enables the master to start working with us right where we are, so that he can slowly lead us to where he wants us to be. In seva, outwardly the master has us perform familiar worldly activities, while inwardly he is teaching us humanity, morality, humility, selflessness, and constant remembrance of the Lord. Through seva he takes our outward tendencies and actions and spiritualizes them. This is the miracle of the mystics. While engaging us in the most mundane tasks, they teach us the deepest spiritual values and connect us with the highest reality.
The real miracle of the mystics is that our whole outlook on life has changed, from downward and outward to inward and upward…. Our concept of life, the whole purpose of our life has changed.
Maharaj Charan Singh62
If the practice of meditation makes us better human beings, the practice of physical seva is the field where that humanity is tested. In seva we come across people we find difficult and circumstances we find challenging, and we are given opportunities to grow. We may feel that the practice of meditation fills us with love, but if we retire into solitude and don’t engage with the world, how will we know whether that love is true or just an emotion? Out in the world, that love is tested. Out in the world, as we engage in service, we have an opportunity to practise that love in the form of compassion, kindness, and caring.
Why do we do seva?
Since seva is not compulsory, why do we do it? When we look back at
our lives we may find that our reasons for coming to seva initially,
then staying with it over the years, have changed and evolved as we have
matured.
Can we remember the first day we signed up for seva? Our initial reasons were so simple. Perhaps another sevadar asked if we could help with something, and without thinking too much about it we said, “Yes.” After a couple of times we began to enjoy ourselves and came back for more.
Perhaps we watched some sevadars doing their work and we felt an urge to be a part of it. Maybe we had read in the books that mystics strongly advocate seva, and we believed they would not recommend something unless it had a spiritual benefit. Or maybe we simply felt a strong desire to serve the master in whatever way possible in his service to the sangat.
Our initial reasons for coming to seva may not have been completely selfless. We may have come to seva to socialize or to look for marriage prospects. Or perhaps we hoped it could be a substitute for meditation, as meditation felt like too much work.
We may even have come to seva with a mistaken notion that seva was a utopia, a place where we would find peace and harmony, a place with no conflict. But if we came into seva wearing rose-coloured glasses, we probably discovered very quickly that we had unrealistic expectations. Just like any other place where two or more people gather together and interact, the seva world has its challenges.
No matter what our reasons for coming to seva – no matter how simplistic, wrong-minded, genuine, or self-centred – the master welcomes us without judgement. His love is so magnetic, so generous, it slowly draws us in.
Over time our love for the master deepens. We may now come to seva because we want to give back. The desire to be of help to the master is a huge motivation for seva. The master has such an important mission! We see how single-mindedly he devotes his life to his own seva – fulfilling his master’s will. We see how much needs to get done, so we want to reach out and help. As one sevadar puts it: Seva is a great opportunity to put muscle and mind to work for the master – to share his load, to share his burden, to serve him through serving his disciples. Over the years we give more and more of ourselves because we feel needed.
As our love deepens, our reasons for doing seva deepen. We come to seva because it keeps us in his presence. Signing up for seva doesn’t necessarily mean that we will see any more of the physical master than others will, but when we do seva we feel the fragrance of his subtle presence. We begin to see that every step we take in seva is a step towards him; every moment we spend in seva is time spent with him. Just the desire to be enveloped by his presence becomes a motivation to do seva.
Somewhere in this continuum of deepening love comes an important realization:
We need seva but seva doesn’t need us.
Maharaj Charan Singh63
We do seva because we need it. We realize that if we were to step down from our seva, many others would step forward to do it. There is a saying in India: seva karaange te mukdi nahin, na karaange te rukdi nahin, meaning: when we do seva, it may feel like there’s so much to do, there’s no end to it, but if we decide not to do seva, seva doesn’t stop; it carries on without us. Great Master would say that if the Lord wants, he can make even stones do his work. This simply means that the master doesn’t need our help; he can get the work done by anyone. We do seva for ourselves, because we need it. Seva cleans us, softens us, purifies us, and makes us more like the one whom we serve.
Service has many rewards, but the unique one is that a person imbibes the qualities of the person whom he serves.
Maharaj Sawan Singh64
Seva transforms us. The greatest beneficiary of seva is not the sangat and not the master; it is the sevadar. People come to satsang, listen to the shabds and satsang for an hour or so, feel more peaceful and anchored for the week, and go on their way. But the sevadar who has perhaps spent months reading spiritual books to prepare the satsang is transformed by the process. The sevadar who has spent months practising chanting the shabds, deeply exploring the meaning of each word, is also transformed. And the sevadars who have spent many hours laying out the books, cleaning the hall and toilets, cooking the food, trimming the hedges, painting the boundary wall, and guiding cars into the parking lot are also transformed. This transformation may be subtle and barely discernible from day to day, but we know in our heart that it is happening.
As our discipleship matures, we begin to realize the magnitude of what the master is doing for us. We begin to see his hand in everything, not just in our spiritual work but also in our worldly life. As he reveals his care and protection, we feel overwhelmed by a desire to thank him in some way. Seva, then, becomes an expression of our heartfelt gratitude.
Meditation fills us with love for the master, for the Lord, for the whole creation. Years and years of meditation slowly unveil who the master really is. As devotion begins to fill us, it overflows as service – the helpless outpouring of love towards the one who has given us everything.
I cannot love God in words only: my heart has to express it, my hands have to express it, my feet have to express it.
Mother Teresa65
Finally, no matter where we are along the continuum of evolving discipleship, one motivation for doing seva remains constant, and that is the joy of doing seva.
The joy of seva
At one satsang centre there was a shallow waste pit out in the field.
Every day, farm waste – the roots of plants, food leftovers, cut grass,
and animal waste – were dumped into it. Once, on a cold, rainy day, one
of the sevadars accidentally backed a tractor right into the muck pond,
all the way up to the top of the motor. This was a problem.
Sevadars stood around and debated solutions. First they tried to push the tractor out, but it couldn’t be done. Then someone suggested that a ramp might be a good place to start. Ten sevadars came over and a ramp was built. A chain was brought to pull the tractor out, but the question was how to attach it to the axle buried in the muck? One of the sevadars grabbed the chain and waded into the shallow pool of muck. Groping in the slime, he wrestled the chain over the axle, and another tractor pulled the stuck tractor out. The job was done! All the wet sevadars jostled and cheered as the tractor, and their friend, emerged from the muck.
This story makes us smile because we often encounter incidents like this. This is an example of the overt delight of doing seva – the laughter, the fun, the camaraderie that at times occurs in seva.
But beyond this, there is a quiet joy of working with one another on simple tasks in service of the master. When these tasks are done with an attitude of obedience and devotion, there comes a sense of pure joy – of oneness, of timelessness, of unity and harmony – that is rarely found in worldly work.
True joy goes beyond occasional happiness and laughter. It is a way of life. It is that state of stability we experience when there is hope and meaning in our life.
Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
Hellen Keller66
Seva has the ability to bring us into the moment. Sometimes when we are doing seva, we get so absorbed in the task that we forget ourselves. We forget our physical aches and pains, we forget our worries, we forget how tired we are, we forget how important we think we are, and we experience the delight of simply focusing on the task at hand. This soothes and relaxes us, providing a break from the constant chatter of the mind. We reach a state of contentment and clear thinking.
We also find joy in the company of our fellow sevadars and treasure the experiences we’ve had over the years with our many brothers and sisters on the path. If not for our seva, how would we have had the chance to spend time with so many beautiful people in such lofty circumstances and to share so many special moments of love and friendship? Once we taste the sweetness of seva, we keep coming back for more.
Anyone can take from others, but there is no true happiness or peace to be found in taking. As one sevadar put it: There is absolutely no joy in living a self-centred life; but there is so much joy in forgetting oneself, and using this body and mind for something beyond earning money and worldly recognition.
Through selfless service we discover that the joy of giving far exceeds the joy of receiving. Ultimately, this is why we do seva.
There’s more happiness in giving than taking, more happiness in donating than accepting any gift, more happiness in helping somebody than getting help from anybody. The pleasure that you get by helping somebody, making somebody happy in life – nothing can compare with that pleasure.
Maharaj Charan Singh67