Hands that Serve are Holier than Lips that Pray....Part-2 (last)

[Guest guest]

Now, Prof. Kumar, more about the root and fruit, how sweet it is. Prof. Anil Kumar: When I say the word root, I mean it is the foundation. The fruit cannot exist without the root underneath. It is the root that finds its fulfillment in the fruit. This root will supply all that spirit of humility, respect, reverence needed for fruition in the form of service. Prayer is the foundation that inculcates or supplies the spirit, the required background, reverence and respect which is needed for the service. This is thriveni sangamam [confluence of the sacred three]. In other words, root is karma yoga, fruit is gnana yoga. In between, bhakti yoga. As I work with all humility, I will have the experience that gives the joy, what we call gnana (wisdom). The first

six chapters of the Bhagavad Gita is this: what we call karma shaka, bhakti shaka, gnana shaka. A kind of evolution, transition from the stage of action to devotion and on to wisdom. Finally, sir, one note I would like to share from the learned scholar this morning. What a wonderful statement: “The individual soul is connected to the universal soul only by means of service.” Sai Ram. Humility – the Basis of Service Prof. GV: Thank you, Prof. Kumar. I would like to make a brief comment on what you said for the benefit of all of us, particularly the students. Prof. Anil Kumar said when you go out for service, you should not do so with a feeling of condescension, arrogance or pride or ego or anything like that. There must be reverence, humility, a sense of

responsibility. To underscore this, I would like to recall what happened at the time of the Gujarat earthquake. Bhagavan sent relief supplies to the people in Gujarat along with many people to distribute them and do the needful. Many NGOs from all over the world also sent relief supplies. Mr. Chiranjeevi Rao, though he was past 80, was personally sent by Swami to go all the way to Gujarat. That is the confidence Swami had in Mr. Chiranjeevi Rao. Mr. Rao told me when they arrived there, they saw the non-NGOs throwing the blankets and food from the trucks. The people were saying, “Why do you do this? Don’t treat us like beggars. We are well-to-do people, we lost our house, don’t treat us like beggars!” In contrast, our people served those in distress with great humility. I have a beautiful photograph of a sevadal combing the hair of a boy sitting in a chair.

Where would you see this? I thought he was giving him a haircut. He was actually combing his hair. Respect, humility, reverence, they are core to service. That is a wonderful point you brought. Prof. Ramamurthy: In Buddhism, one said that if you want to lead others to salvation, you have to experience it first. Otherwise it will be the blind leading the blind. Another group of Bodhisattvas said, “Service will take you along that path, so the higher priority is to provide service at all costs.” Again we must remember that while service will take us along the direction we deserve, the attitude becomes most important. Sanjay Sahani is deeply devoted to Bhagavan Baba

and when he renders service, love and affection flow through him. When an opportunity for service was given to him, he said, “This is the ultimate.” He can have a counterpart elsewhere, of comparable age, and position. Given the opportunity to provide a service of similar type, he might give it with an air of condescension, a sense of arrogance. It is essential that before we do service, ego is removed from your heart. There are many institutions where individuals are found of various types. One is interested in his name being embossed as having been charitable, having made such and such contribution. Attitude is very important. Prayer should not come from the lips; it should come from the heart. Service also has to flow from feelings arising from the heart. Therefore a sense of devotion becomes essential. Prayer is for the unmanifested. Service is for the manifested God. Service gives you a direct response. When you render service, you find out whether the person is happy or not. A smile is the reward you get for service. Service provided with the right attitude is service to God. That is what I would like to say. Chitta Shuddhi – Purifying Your Heart Prof. GV: What the Professor is saying now is closely related to what our learned speaker said as Kshara and Akshara. Now we enter into round 3. I have a general question to all members of the panel: We say we are interested in doing service. We are interested in motivating our students into doing service, not only here but in the future as well. Let us remember we didn’t invent service. Today there are hundreds of organizations performing service, we cannot discount it, they have good intentions, they are doing it with noble motives. Under the

circumstances, is there any distinguishing feature between the services rendered by others and the service that we want our students and ourselves to do? If there is a difference, please tell us what it is. Sri Sanjay Sahani: The fundamental difference between the service rendered by Sai students or Sai Organizations and the service rendered by others is the spiritual attitude. You may be familiar with the story of the stonecutters. A question was posed to one stonecutter, “Why are you cutting stones?” He said “I am earning my livelihood.” The same question was posed to another. He said, “I am cutting stones; I want to be the best

stonecutter around.” He wanted professional excellence. When the third person was asked, he said, “I am building a church for my God.” See, that is a spiritual attitude. Why is spiritual attitude important in service? When you do service, let us not labor under the illusion that there will not be difficulties, there will not be hardships, and there will not be obstacles. There will be difficulties. If you do not have a spiritual attitude it is very easy to lose one’s moorings, to lose interest, or to meander into pride and power. In this context, I am reminded of a dialogue from Dr. Fanibunda, a dentist from Bombay and ardent devotee of Bhagavan. He posed this question to Bhagavan: “Swami, what is the role of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organization in Your mission?” To his utter amazement, Bhagavan said, “Nothing.” It was so startling!

Dr. Fanibunda continued, “Swami…nothing?” Swami confirmed, “Yes…nothing.” Dr Fanibunda couldn’t help but ask this question: “Swami, then why is there such a huge organization setup?” Swami explained, “It is only for your chitta shuddhi – purifying your heart.” If we keep this in mind, we will never lose our moorings when we take up service activities, we will always remain on track on reaching the goal. This is the important and distinguishing feature. Prof. GV: This is a very important factor. Someone asked Baba: “Swami, no matter how much we do, the problems of the world still remain.” Swami replied, “You are not serving in order to solve the problems, you are serving in order to make an offering to God and to improve yourself.” That is the sum and substance of what Sanjay said. We are not the NGOs, doing service with

an attempt to provide relief and support and trying to solve a problem. We are not involved in problem solving. We do try to offer relief, and we have a higher spiritual objective. I now request Prof. Anil Kumar, who has a distinguished track record in Andhra Pradesh in doing tremendous service. Drawing from your own experience, why don’t you tell us something unique about Sai seva? Prof. Kumar: Kindly remember these points. Point 1: You should have strong desire, intense desire to do service. That is called karma jignasa. You should know that this karma [service] is your dharma [duty]. Service is a duty. It is not an obligation; it is not anything remunerative, not for any selfish interest. The next one is dharma jignasa. You should have the feeling that service is your duty. Karma jignasa, interested in the field of service. Dharma jignasa,

accept it as a part of your duty and then it takes you to Brahman the divine, Brahma jignasa. Karma jignasa takes you to dharma jignasa. From dharma jignasa, the finale happens to be Brahma jignasa. Point 2: We should know the modus operandi. How do we go about service, how do we do it? It is the marma [secret]. So karma, dharma, marma, Brahma, are the four steps. Marma means the technical aspects of the service. Like one cannot serve fruits to a diabetic patient. “I am serving you; I cannot give you mango fruits.” You are doing disservice. I cannot carry a packet of Pulla Reddy Sweets to a diabetic patient. I am not supposed to do it. Doing Narayan seva, a sevadal volunteer was carrying a basket of sweets. He went on shouting “Laddu, laddu” [sweet]. He did not give a single laddu to a

single person. There is no marma, there is no secret. He doesn’t know the procedural aspect of it, that is the next point. This karma, the service, what is its aim, what is its purpose? For chitta shuddhi – the purity of the heart. Service elsewhere is for statistics, for data, for publicity, propaganda, advertisement, for enrolling more and more people, or for recognition. But here, karma is absolutely spiritual, for your own purification. Chitta shuddhi, the purity. Because this chitta shuddi gives you gnana shuddhi at the final stage. That is the third point. Service is an Opportunity The next point is this: we begin our service with a prayer as Sanjay said

in the beginning. Grama seva started with a prayer at every center of its activity. To quote Bhagavan here, “Thasmai namaha karmane.” – “I bow down to my own actions.” Service is not a duty, service is an opportunity. Service is a blessing, service is a benediction. Service to fellowmen is service unto myself. Thank you, sir. Prof. GV: Prof. Ramamurthy, do you have anything to add? Prof. Ramamurthy: When you talk of serving with a sense of duty, there is a limitation about it, there is an obligation to do the service. Service is beyond that. Service is done absolutely freely, voluntarily, unconditionally. Swami has also explained that desire for the result of action or expecting a return when you provide service amounts to rajoguna. Because there is no faida [result], let us desist from taking the action that is tamoguna. Engaging in

seva without looking at the outcome, totally in a detached sense, is satvaguna. This distinction will also have to be combined. Prof. GV: Thank you, Prof. Ramamurthy. I recall one thing that emerged from Prof. Anil Kumar, that service must be rendered as a duty, service must be seen as a dharma. Before I go to a related point about dharma, which is important, I would like to briefly narrate a story you may have heard. Mother Theresa in Calcutta was saving a dying man from a gutter. A tourist was passing by and said, “Jeez, I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars. How come you’re doing it?” Mother Theresa smiled and said, “I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars either.” The tourist said, “What? You

won’t do it for a million dollars?” Mother Theresa smiled and said, “No, I won’t do it for two million dollars.” “But you are doing it!” “It is different. I am doing it for God,” she said. This conveys the point that Prof. Anil Kumar made. We see service as a duty. And when we do the duty, we are not doing it for someone else; we are doing it for God. (Loving in Sai)Ram ChuganiKobe, Japanrgcjp