Humility – the Basis of Service

[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 Chugani

Kobe, Japan

rgcjp