Ability to Serve is a Quality
A quality which is Fading in today’s world!
The Vedas give us the wonderful concept of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — The World is One Family”. In this one family of creation, we must do all we can to help others — to the best of our ability, to the best of our capacity. We are all born with the spirit of caring and sharing. But somewhere along the way, as we grow older, we lose this wonderful spirit.
Many of us tend to believe that a little that we can do, counts for nothing, against the vast canvas of the world’s misery and suffering. But just as little drops of water together make the mighty ocean, so too, little act of kindness and compassion can and will make a difference.
In childhood, we are told that heaven and hell are places that we will go to after death. Indeed, we continue to believe that even as adults. But the Saints and Sages tell us that heaven and hell are states of unconsciousness, conditions of the mind. Even while we live on this earth, we can live in hell or heaven of our own making.
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was duty(dharma). I acted, and beheld, duty was joy!” — Rabindranath Tagore
Service is a spiritual discipline. It helps us to expand our vision beyond our narrow, restricted world. Service makes us evolve spiritually, helps us realize in deeds of daily life, and it awakens the divine within us. Let us brief through some practices one must follow while serving others.
Four Principles of Serving
⭐ Serve Silently People work for various motives — some to acquire name and fame; some for obtaining power and position in society; some build temples for recognition; some erect monuments that they may be remembered after death. Do not serve for show or publicity. “Let the right hand not know what your left hand gives away”.
Nowadays, we serve with cries and clamor. We seem to have confounded service with show and noise. Many do a little act of service, and spend a sleepless night, only to get up anxiously in the morning and scan the newspaper eagerly to see it their little act of service has been reported in the press! It is only the man who serves silently is truly blessed.
⭐ Serve Humbly Serve with humility and this is not an easy task. Many of us are apt to imagine that the act of giving — of our time, money, effort, or resources is an act of superiority. We feel that we are conferring a great favor on those whom we seek to serve. I think it should be another way round we should be grateful to those who allow being of service to them. We have received countless blessings from God. We receive so many favors from the marvelous universe we live in. We owe a debt of gratitude for these innumerable blessings conferred upon us.
As Joyce Meyer has said, “Pride is the problem, humility is the answer”. Let us strive to serve humbly — let us seek no reward for our service! To be able to serve humbly many of us may have to give up our self-assertive nature. We have developed our personalities and therefore many times it becomes difficult for us to bend. We do not wish to listen to the opinions of others. One thing that will help us to give up this self-assertive nature is to stop finding faults in others. See the good in all. Behold the one in all!
⭐ Serve Lovingly Service should be a labor of love! Love is what the world needs most today. As Franklin Jones has said, “Love does not merely make the world go round — it is what makes the ride worthwhile”. And true love is love-in-action; for love that does not express itself in action, it does not exist at all!
Renouncing all egoism and selfishness, become instruments of the eternal energy that shapes the lives of individuals and nations. When a speck of dust enters the eye, does the hand not rush to soothe the eye? So too, do human beings help one another, even when they are aspects of the One Life Supreme.
⭐ Serve Unconditionally Very often our service comes with selfish motives. Service should not become interference. If you wish to reform the world, begin with yourself. A true server realizes that he/she must mend his own life before he begins to set others right. Many people take to service with an ulterior motive; their service comes with the strings attached. They expect the beneficiaries of their generosities to follow their ideologies, their beliefs, or subscribe to their way of thinking.
There is an amusing statement, which says, “The young people wish to change the world; the old people wish to change the young”. The man of true service does not aim to change the world or reform society with his service. He just tries to — renew, reshape, and reform his soul for the betterment of society.
Final Word: —
Selfless service is a source of deep joy and peace. The massive heart attack is when your heart does not vibrate in sympathy with the unloved and unwanted. If you want to truly be happy you must learn the art of emptying your purse, again and again in service of the indigent ones. We must extend the sphere of doing good to others until it envelops the whole world.
Serve others — for life is too short; so let us be quick to love and prompt to serve. Thank You!😊