"A Dog's Life"

[Guest guest]

Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

"A Dog's Life"

 

Many of us feel employment constricting. Few are blessed with bosses

who are understanding and give full play to the subordinate's initiative,

recognising merit and rewarding it in time. Most of the time, service is a

grind, with inadequate rewards and in many cases, involves sacrificing one's

independence of thought, word and deed. Enlightened employers, who treat their

workers with the regard they deserve and as partners in a common endeavour, are

indeed rare. The run-of-the-mill boss, especially in countries where labour laws

are lax, treats the workforce as little better than slaves. The dignity and

independence that characterise self-employment, be it selling pencils in the

street or being a professional (doctor, engineer, etc.), are woefully lacking

when one is in somebody else's employ. So much so, Manu compares service to a

dog's life, and wants us to avoid at all cost ("SEvA shva vritthi: tasmAt tAm

parivarjayEt").

 

Just as the dog is made to wear a collar to indicate ownership by a superior

being and is held on a tight leash to make it tow the line of the master, those

in service too are hemmed in by rules and regulations framed by their employers

governing their conduct and lives, denying them all freedom of action, thus

being reduced to mere "His Master's Voice". However exalted be the person you

serve, your status remains the same, that of a servitor: simply because a person

is the personal valet to the President, he is not accorded any protocol

privileges.

 

While defining Liberation or Moksha, Shastras tell us that it represents freedom

from the unending and vicious cycle of births and deaths, ascent to Sri

Vaikuntam and the partaking of eternal bliss in the service of the Lord. It is

the last part of the definition that is puzzling, the bit about service to the

Lord. It is understandable that one should pay obeisance to the Supreme Being,

out of adoration: but why serve Him? Isn't service of any sort a lowly

occupation, irrespective of the stature of the entity you serve? And what sort

of liberation is it, if it entails another spell of servitude?

 

One has had one's fill of serving others in the world of mortals-"pirarrkE

uzhaitthu Ezhai AnEn" laments Sri Thirumangai Mannan, recalling the countless

aeons spent in serving others without doing anything for one's own upliftment.

At least in the mundane birth, the period of service is limited to the life

term, while we are told that the service to the Lord is eternal, involving

unending servitude.

 

Is it correct to call this state of eternal bondage "Liberation"? Is it not

leaping from the frying pan of limited service to earthly masters, into the fire

of eternal servitude to a Divine Master? What the Upanishad says of the

liberated soul, "Sa SvarAt bhavati" (He becomes his own master) doesn't go well

with the concept of kainkaryam.

 

However, notwithstanding all this, Sri Nammazhwar prefers to be a constant

slave to the Lord-

 

"ozhivil kAlam ellAm udanAi manni

vazhuvilA adimai seyya vENdum nAm"

 

Sri Ramanuja prays to the Lord to accept him as an eternal servant-"nitya

kinkaratAm prArtthayE"

 

Sri Alavandar yearns for the day when he would be pleasing the Lord through the

performance of all sorts of intimate errands-

 

"kadAham iykAntika nitya kinkara:

praharshaishyAmi sanAta jeevita:?"

 

Sri Kulasekhara Azhwar prays to the Lord of Seven Hills to accept his services

in some form or the other, at least to hold the Lord's golden spittoon-

 

"VEnkata kOn umizhum pon vattil piditthu udanE pugapperuvEn AvEnE"

 

ILaya PerumAL is so greedy in this matter that he wants to monopolise all types

of service to Sri Rama at all times-

 

"aham sarvam karishyAmi jAgrata: svapatascha tE".

 

And even the inhabitants of Sri Vaikuntam are in constant competition among

themselves for appropriating to themselves the maximum amount of intimate

service to the Lord. Take for instance Sri Adisesha, who performs multiple roles

as the Lord's footwear, umbrella, throne and bed-

 

"ChendrAl kudayAm irundAl singAdanamAm

nindrAl maravadiyAm-neeL kadaluL

endrum punayAm maNiviLakkAm poom pattAm

pulgum aNayAm ThirumArku aravu"

 

What makes all these worthies hanker after what is clearly a "Dog's Life"

according to no less a person than Manu?

 

The answer to this and other such questions lies in what we consider as

demeaning service. It is true that service of any sort, to one's employers and

to others, which one is forced to perform out of a compulsion to earn one's

living or out of fear of retribution or for achieving some material end, is

indeed demeaning. We never perform such service with a free heart and would any

day refrain from such servitude, given the option. It is the absence of

alternatives that engages us in such service, which lacks the element of

voluntariness.

 

However, there is quite a different type of service, which we perform quite of

our own volition, with no element of compulsion. Our parents, who bring us into

this world and endure all sorts of inconveniences to bring us up, are entitled

to some sort of reciprocation, though none can be found that can adequately

recompense them for all their sacrifice. Thus when we serve our parents, we do

it gladly, without any expectation of a quid pro quo, happy at the opportunity

to be of help to those who are responsible for what we are today. The same

applies to service to one's teachers and Acharyas, who transform us from being

mere fireflies living for the cosmic moment into eternal beings entitled for

endless bliss. One is thus glad to serve one's preceptors with love and respect.

Similarly, when we do something for our children, who are our own flesh and

blood, we never consider it a chore and do it just for the pleasure of seeing

their visages bloom with delight.

 

There is nothing some people wouldn't do for their beloved, be it lovers,

spouses, children or parents-no chore is too demeaning or beneath their dignity.

 

We thus see that service performed voluntarily, to gladden the heart of those

we love or venerate, doesn't evoke in us the feeling of loss of self-respect.

 

If this is the way we feel towards others who are our relatives in this birth,

consider how beholden we should feel towards the Lord, who is our Guardian Angel

in birth after tedious birth, always hovering protectively over us to ensure

that we come to no harm physically or spiritually, and rushing to our aid when

we do harm ourselves by not listening to His homilies, as detailed in the

Shastras. It is He who gives us this precious human body, enabling efforts for

redemption, it is He who sends us Acharyas in an effort to wean us away from the

path of misery and destruction that we insist on treading time and again, and it

is He who has perfected paths like Prapatthi to lead us straight to His own

abode. The love and affection He has for us should be evident from His never

giving up His endeavour to rescue us from the bottomless pit of Samsara, despite

our failing to grasp His proffered hand, loathe to emerge from the ensnaring

pleasures this world has to offer. His infinite mercy in residing with us in the

same body as antaryAmi or inner- dweller, disregarding the filth and refuse

(physical and otherwise) that characterise our innards, is indeed a token of His

constant concern for our welfare.

 

The Lord is thus our all and doubles as doting parent, loving wife, adoring

child, true friend and sincere guide, in all our endeavours throughout our

endless journey through the corridors of Time, unchanging in His affection

irrespective of the ups and downs in our physical and spiritual state. When we

consider the exaltedness of His stature and our own unspeakably low nature, our

eyes fill with tears at Emperuman's endless love and concern.

 

Given all this, is it any surprise that Azhwars and Acharyas covet the life of

service, in any and all forms, to this Supreme Being? When He has done and is

doing so much for us, is it wrong for us to show our appreciation, adoration and

affection in some form or other of service?

 

When you love somebody beyond measure, it is natural for you to long for some

way to demonstrate such affection by doing something concrete. It is natural for

us to wait hand and foot upon the person whom we love or adore with an

overwhelming passion. Thus is born the concept of "Kainkarya", which is derived

from the word "Kinkara", a person who is always at the master's beck and call,

eager to please with whatever type of action the master may require of him.

 

Going a step further, when someone is extremely dear to us and is the object of

our deep affections, we find that those dear to that person become, ipso facto,

precious to us too. If our bosom friend loves someone, we too start cherishing

the friend's friend. What is dear to our beloved becomes dear to us too. Thus,

to a devotee who has great love for the Lord, all that is dear to the Lord

become objects of adoration, veneration and regard. And what can be closer to

the Lord's heart than His devotees?

 

In case this sounds like a Chinese puzzle, in simple terms, all the Lord's

votaries are dear to us, because the Lord is dear to us. And we should yearn as

much for service of such exalted bhAgavatAs, as we do for the Lord's kainkaryam.

In fact, Acharyas go a step further and declare that kainkaryam to the Lord's

devotees is more pleasing to Him than that to Himself. This is the glorious and

distinguishing tenet our Sampradaya has to offer, the concept of "BhAgavata

Kainkaryam", laid down by the Lord Himself in the Gita-

 

"Mama mad bhakta bhaktEshu prIti: abyadhikA bhavEt

tasmAt mad bhakta bhaktAscha poojaneeya visEshata:"

 

In view of all this, don't you feel like exclaiming, "Oh! For a Dog's Life!"?

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana

Yatindra Mahadesikaya nama:

 

Dasan, sadagopan