Dedication
bahut janam bichhure the maadhau,
For numerous lifetimes
eh janam tumhaare lekhe.
have I remained separated
from you, O Lord –
This life I dedicate to you.
Ravidas73
Ahead sevadar once spoke fondly about an eighty-five-year-old man who regularly did seva at their site. He would greet everyone with a smile and ask without words: What can I do? He didn’t know English, the local language. He didn’t have any technical skills. Yet, for some reason, everyone was happy when he came. If he was asked to sweep or dig he would gladly do it. If he was asked to scrape the tile adhesive off a large expanse of concrete flooring, and the task was demonstrated for him, he would smile, nod, and get to work. And he would keep at it continuously.
By afternoon, one was likely to find him working alone in a corner. Some would have left, some would have found more interesting work, and some would be talking about mysticism. He was practising it. At the end of the day he would place the scraper on the tool table, clean up, give a touching smile filled with gratitude, and leave quietly. This simple man embodies the ideal of dedicated seva.
Once, after the New Delhi satsang programme in 1965, Hazur Maharaj Ji was supposed to give initiation at the Pusa Road centre. He had a very bad cough and cold and could hardly talk. The secretary of the centre urged him many times to postpone the initiation programme. Maharaj Ji simply replied, “This seva is for Hazur (Great Master) and one should not give any slackness to the mind,” and he continued with his programme of initiation. A sevadar who observed this exchange recounted that he was wonderstruck by the master’s answer. Watching Maharaj Ji do his seva with such dedication, in spite of the fact that he was weak and could barely speak, made a lasting impression on his mind. The sevadar said that after that incident he was inspired to do his own seva with complete dedication, never giving into any mental slackness.
In a letter to a friend, Hazur once wrote:
I do not want to fail in my duty, nor do I want to be short in the expectations of my beloved master. I have given to the people all I have. What I could not give, I just did not have.74
There are similar stories from the lives of every master – stories of unflinching sacrifice and service to the sangat. When we witness their single-minded dedication we feel inspired to serve in the same way.
Often we find that sevadars need just a word that something needs to be done and they go out and do it. Hazur once related an anecdote from the days when the Beas hospital was under construction:
When the ground for the hospital was acquired, I was told that there were too many trees on the site and that they were very difficult to remove. So I went to the site and I just asked them to remove a few.
Then I went to Sikanderpur. On my return, I found that about a hundred tractors and trailers had been brought in by the sangat (from their farms), and there were about a thousand satsangis digging up the trees by the roots and loading them onto trailers, taking the wood to the langar…. That is seva.75
In Legacy of Love, a head sevadar recounts his memories of the tireless seva done by sevadars during the construction of the hospital:
The dedication of the sevadars to seva, their desire to accomplish the maximum in the minimum possible time, is unbelievable. During the time we were still digging the foundations the sevadars approached the master and said, “Maharaj Ji, please ask the engineers to put lights on the spot where we are digging.” When asked why they needed the lights, they submitted, “Hazur, we are hardly able to do much during the day’s work and so much still has to be done. We want to work for a few hours during the night also.” And when the master declined their request with a loving smile, their faces reflected their disappointment….
They will not stop for rest, they take the minimum time off for lunch, and I wonder if they ever feel tired. One day, seeing an old sevadar well over sixty working without a stop, I went up to him and said, “My good friend, please take a few minutes’ rest – I’ve seen you working for the last few hours without a break, not even to gain your breath. You must be feeling tired.”
“Tired?” he repeated in a hurt voice. “I’m not tired. If you could give me seva for the next twelve hours, I would be grateful and happy to do it.” And turning away, he was again engrossed in his task.76
During an evening meeting with foreigners, a woman told Baba Ji that she had observed sevadars often staying up late, working in difficult conditions, and experiencing discomfort. She asked if the master would agree that a certain degree of discomfort was an intrinsic part of seva. The master replied that no, it was not. He said he didn’t think the sevadars would agree either. They would say, “What discomfort?” And he added that if anyone should try to remove that seva and its discomforts from them, they would refuse. He gave the example of the sevadars who cooked chapatis in the langar in the month of June. They stayed up until late at night, working long hours in intensely hot conditions. But, he said, when he went for a round of the Dera at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. they were all sitting in meditation. He didn’t think they recognized the discomfort.
The sevadar from the hospital construction recounts having the same experience:
In all these months, never have I seen the sevadars complaining about the hardships of life at the construction site, made all the more difficult by the inclemencies of the weather. During the last sixteen months they have faced rain and storm, hail and frost, and the hot summer winds. They have lived in tents, under freshly laid damp roofs, under awnings, on the rough floors of the unfinished corridors. They have often been drenched by icy showers in winter and baked by the blazing sun and the hot winds in the tropical summer. But nothing can shake them from their rock-like dedication to seva.77
Where does this rock-like dedication for seva come from? Perhaps it is the Lord’s grace. Or it could be the example the master sets of tireless enthusiasm for his own seva. Or maybe our love for the master fuels our love for seva. Hazur used to say: “Jo bahut pyaar karta hai voh bahut kaam karta hai,” meaning: The one who loves a lot works a lot.
The hospital sevadar also concludes that only love could fuel such boundless zeal for seva:
Curious passers-by at the site sometimes wonder at the power that makes the sevadars move with such energy and speed. At times I too feel amazed, only to remember the next moment that the sevadars derive energy from their devotion for the master – inspired by his omnipresent grace and love….
Does a mother feel tired or complain when she keeps a day-and-night vigil over her sick child? Does a lover grudge to do the bidding of the beloved, however hard it may be? I have heard old satsangis say that if a disciple does seva with a spirit of surrender, if his approach is that of love and devotion, and he has only one desire in his heart – the desire to please his master – he will not feel tired. And is the master not serving his disciples with the same spirit of love: never stopping, never complaining, ever vigilant, accepting all the toil and hardships of the arduous task of looking after his flock of sheep with unflinching concern, with an ever-loving kind smile?78
We see examples of such zeal in the worldly sphere as well. Musicians, artists, surgeons, entrepreneurs, and so many others who put in endless hours of work pursuing their passion don’t tire easily because they love what they do. It is when there is no love that the task feels like a chore.
When we read stories of such untiring seva, we may feel that we are lacking in comparison. But we need never feel disheartened. All efforts are equally appreciated by the master and we are all learning as we travel on our journey of seva. Besides, physical seva is not the only way to express our love. If we are unable to do physical seva, the same attitude of dedication can be applied to seva of the mind and to our meditation seva, and that will serve us completely. It is the attitude of giving that matters.
There is an interesting story about giving wholeheartedly. Once a wealthy man tossed a penny at a rabbi, who was collecting money to help the needy. The rabbi quietly picked up the penny and thanked him. The rabbi’s assistant asked, “How can you be so kind to such an arrogant person?”
He answered, “That man has never given even a penny in charity before now. I must encourage him, even if he only gives a little. Over time he may learn to be more generous and charitable.”
And so it happened. Each time the man gave a little bit more. And each time he was praised and thanked.
On his fourth visit, the wealthy man burst into tears, and to everyone’s surprise he gave a large sum of money. The rabbi was about to thank him but the man shook his head and said, “You deserve my praise and thanks because you kept believing in me. You have taught me how to be generous and helpful to others.”
While this is a story about serving with one’s wealth, it applies equally to seva with body, mind, and soul. Even when we give very little of ourselves, the master accepts our offering without judgement; his love is unconditional. Slowly we learn how to give wholeheartedly.
aisi sevak seva karai.
jis ka jee’o tis aagai dharai.Such is the service
which the Lord’s servant performs,
That he dedicates his soul to the Lord,
to whom it belongs.
Guru Nanak Dev79
One aspect of dedicated seva is the ability to persevere in the face of challenges. At one seva site, a dozen sevadars started work to build a satsang hall. Most of the sevadars had never done any construction work. By 10:00 a.m. the temperature hit 43 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit). Everyone was sweating and straining in the attempt to build the first small metal-framed wall.
They took measurements and built the frame, but then realized it was in the wrong location by a few inches, so they tore it down. They built it again using another measuring technique, then tore it down again. The next time they used a surveying tool, but again they misjudged the plan and the frame was in the wrong location. They tore it down again. They couldn’t decide how to proceed. The different team leaders had different ideas. Over and over they built that wall and tore it down again. Nothing was getting done, and it was the first wall of the whole project! However, they persevered and a few months later, the entire complex had been built. By the end of it, those inexperienced but loving sevadars had built a hall better than most commercial buildings.
aagai peechhai sangi rahai,
aap uthaaye bhaar.He is always with me,
and he himself carries my burden.
Dadu Dayal80
We find that when we persevere, there will be a breakthrough. A sevadar recalls that when land was purchased for a large centre, their first seva was to stabilize a hillside. Sevadars worked all day to plant thousands of tree saplings. At the end of the day they used little cups to water each sapling. It was a very hot day and they worked from sunrise to sunset. At the end of the day they looked up at the hillside and were very pleased with what they’d accomplished. But that night it rained. It was probably the hardest rain in the history of that region and it washed every single sapling away. The sevadars woke up in the morning to find all the saplings drowned at the bottom of the hill in one big puddle. Undeterred, they cheerfully spent the next day replanting the saplings all over again.
These are examples of perseverance in the face of physical challenges, but we often face emotional challenges in seva as well. There may be times when our fellow sevadars test our patience. There may be times when we feel hurt. There may be times when we just want to give up. It takes dedication and perseverance not to give up, not to lose patience, not to walk away when the going gets tough.
If one has given his heart away, he has virtually given everything. His body, his life, and everything else is dedicated to the object of his love.
Maharaj Sawan Singh81
One aspect of dedicated service is a ‘can-do’ attitude. The story of how a satsang programme was organized in Agra showcases this mindset.
In May 2011, a small team of sevadars in Delhi was told of Baba Ji’s decision to hold a full-scale satsang in Agra, the birthplace of Soami Ji Maharaj, on January 25 and 26, 2012. The team could have hesitated and stated the obvious: there was no way such a feat could be accomplished because the proposed event was less than nine months away. It would draw anywhere from 200,000 to 400,000 disciples – it was impossible to know exactly how many. There was also no venue in Agra large enough to accommodate so many people, and there were far too few sevadars in Agra to manage such a large event. But this team of sevadars had a belief that nothing was impossible. If the master wanted it done, they would find a way to do it.
The first task was to locate a venue that was over 300 acres in size. After many visits to the area, a suitable location was found just outside Agra. The problem was that only 120 acres of this land belonged to a local builder. The rest of it would have to be leased from numerous local farmers whose farms adjoined the builder’s land. Some of the farmers had already sown mustard crops, for which they would need to be compensated. And all of them were resistant to the idea of leasing their land because of the prevailing fear of land-grabbing. But after much convincing they finally agreed and the work of drawing up the plans began.
Extremely detailed drawings needed to be made of all the farms because once the land was levelled for satsang, all the boundaries between them would disappear. Yet, after the programme finished, each farmer would have to be given back his small, irregularly shaped piece of land, not an inch more, not an inch less.
Once the drawings were complete, sevadars began the massive task of preparing the land. The farms not only had different shapes, they were also at different levels, with a difference of twelve feet between the lowest and highest field. The farms that did not have crops were filled with rocks, boulders, shrubs, and trees. About 320 acres of uneven, irregular land had to be cleared and levelled.
Graders, compactors, tractors, and dump trucks were brought in. Between 750 and 1,000 sevadars worked the land daily. Full of enthusiasm, sevadars poured in from neighbouring states in buses chartered at their own expense, and they worked in shifts of four to ten days. Since the land was in a remote location with no facilities in place, temporary lighting, sanitation, water, medical, food, and accommodation facilities needed to be set up for these sevadars. The team leaders said that at no point did the enthusiasm of the sevadars wane, and not once did they complain that the temporary arrangements made for them were inadequate.
They started work in the blazing summer and continued through a humid monsoon. It was a bitterly cold December when they finally finished the task of clearing and levelling the land. Almost eight months had elapsed. The satsang programme was the following month and there was still nothing but a levelled site.
Then it began to rain. The rain was so heavy it created a huge problem of waterlogging. Disheartened and shivering with cold in the bitter winter, sevadars wondered how they would ever finish the massive task that still lay ahead. Huge pumps were brought in to pump water out of the potholes and ditches. Finally the rain stopped, the land dried, and the work of preparing the venue for satsang began.
A massive open-sided tent was erected that could accommodate as many as 400,000 people if necessary; 800 shower stalls and 2,200 toilets were built; a langar shed and four canteens went up; accommodation facilities were prepared for up to 160,000 people; diesel generators were set up to provide electricity for the entire venue; twenty-four septic tanks and two large water tanks were installed. Ten huge parking lots were demarcated and surfaced for heavy vehicles, buses, cars, and two-wheelers.
Four days before the event, over 22,000 sevadars arrived at the venue to prepare for the arrival of the sangat. Along with them, over 200 trucks poured in from centres in neighbouring states carrying tent equipment, projectors, TV sets, sound equipment, speakers, utensils, and food supplies. Traffic sevadars were stationed along all the national highways leading from major cities to Agra. Signboards were placed on the highways. Sevadars were deployed at all the toll booths. Highway patrol seva teams on bikes and SUVs were mobilized to ensure smooth and speedy movement of traffic. Temporary accommodations and kitchens were set up for the traffic sevadars at their posts along the highways.
Miraculously, everything was ready on time. And then the sangat began to come! Many of them came by train; 650 shuttle buses were deployed to ferry them between the train stations and the venue. Over 2,000 buses and 9,000 cars brought the sangat from neighbouring states. More than 10,000 two- and three-wheeled vehicles brought some of the local sangat. All cars and buses were labelled and colour-coded to help the sangat find their vehicles in the large parking lots after satsang had finished. Traffic sevadars stood on the roads for hours amidst the noise, dust, and fumes, guiding the sangat into and out of the venue. They worked closely with the local police, who were amazed by the massive mobilization. None of these sevadars got the opportunity to see the master or hear the satsangs.
A total of 250,000 people attended the satsang programme on the first day and 300,000 on the second. Usher sevadars greeted them with welcoming smiles, guided them to their seats, and answered their questions. The free langar served food to 168,000 people, and the canteens and langar functioned round the clock to serve the sangat. Cleaning sevadars, too, worked non-stop keeping the toilets and the entire venue clean.
Then when the programme finished, sevadars had the massive task of dismantling everything and clearing up the venue. The builder and local farmers got their land back in the same shape and size as before. Those who had given uneven land full of rocks and brambles were filled with gratitude because they got it back leveled, cleared, and ready to farm.
Hazur Maharaj Ji had given satsang in Agra in 1978. This was only the second time that a Beas master was giving satsang in the place we all associate with the beginnings of Radha Soami Satsang. For the sangat it was a moving, momentous occasion.
What started it all? The master set an almost insurmountable challenge, and the sevadars who were given the job didn’t say, “That’s impossible!” Instead, they said, “It will be done.” And they didn’t just accomplish a task of breathtaking scale; they did it with dedication, perseverance, and love.
Yet when these sevadars were asked about their amazing attitude, they replied with comments such as: “There is no such thing as back-breaking seva; it is simply seva. There is no such thing as easy or difficult seva; it is simply seva. There is no such thing as can-do or can’t-do in seva; a sevadar does not give himself that kind of importance. It is the Lord who does the seva through his sevadars. Seva is a gift from the Lord, and it is only through the Lord’s grace that we sevadars can perform our seva.”
Sevadars like these inspire us to see beyond ‘duty’ and ‘effort,’ because they find so much joy in seva. Seva is our labour of love. When we dedicate ourselves to a life of service, it gives us a goal beyond our small self; it gives purpose and meaning to our life. Over time we realize that seva is one place where work is truly worship – when we care about what we are doing and do it with dedication and love, that service is nothing less than worship.